Jewellery Care

Jewellery Care

We've done the work for you.

With over 30 years of Bond Street expertise behind us, Juraster is your touchstone for advice and care.

And every piece comes with Juraster's lifetime Joy Guarantee.

Care

Your jewellery is the finishing detail that makes you look and feel amazing, so please love it back.  Every Juraster piece is a miniature work of art and precision engineering but if you treat it kindly, we guarantee it will last a lifetime. 

Golden rules are:

1. Put jewellery on last, after perfume or body/sun lotion. Let that dry on your skin first, before you add your jewellery.

2. Keep it out of the sea, chlorinated water, swimming pools & hot tubs, hot water, soap & cleaning products.

3. Take it off for activities when it could be damaged e.g. cleaning, lifting or moving heavy items, gardening, sports & DIY.

Remove rings when doing sports or when lifting or moving heavy things or using gym equipment. Rings are very easily knocked or damaged.

Remove your rings and bracelets when cleaning. Chemicals found in household cleaning products will tarnish metal and harm your gems. 

Remove all your jewellery before exercising and washing. Excessive perspiration, perfumed products and toiletries can tarnish or attack the lustre of gems and jewellery.

Avoid wearing your jewellery in mineral baths, spas and swimming pools. Salt water and chlorine may affect the metal finish.

Don't wear pearls, softer gems, organic gems or emeralds in hot soapy water eg showers or baths.

(So that’s your excuse to not do the washing up…)

Cleaning

Gin works on diamonds… if you have no other use for it.

Jewellery picks up a surprising amount of dirt, natural oils, skin residue and make-up.

The best way to clean it away is with an old toothbrush in a plastic bowl of warm soapy water.

Be careful to keep your jewellery away from the drain of a basin in case of any U-bend catastrophes.

Soak it in warm (not hot) soapy water and mild soap eg baby shampoo for around 20 minutes.  Then apply a small amount of the soap to the toothbrush and simply brush thoroughly but gently.  Never use anything abrasive like toothpaste or products containing bleach!

Then use a soft lint free cloth (not tissues or paper towels) to wipe your jewellery dry as the cloth won’t leave any micro-scratches on the surface of your jewellery or a residue of lint or fibres. 

Tissue and paper towels actually scratch the high polish finish of jewellery.

In general, most gemstones are not suitable for ultrasonic cleaning, and you shouldn’t risk putting them in the cleaner unless you are certain that they are durable enough and untreated (for example, diamonds, untreated ruby & sapphire).

Never put pearls in an ultrasonic cleaner as it may partly dissolve them.

Generally, the more brittle the stone, the more likely it is to be damaged in an ultrasonic cleaner.  Emerald, onyx, opal, tanzanite, lapis lazuli, amber, coral and turquoise are all examples of stones that shouldn’t be cleaned with ultrasonic devices. These gemstones can be damaged in the cleaner by the heat or the vibrations. In addition, many of them have been treated using heat or other treatment methods
to enhance their colour or appearance, making them susceptible to damage.

Gemstones with cracks that have been filled with oil or other materials as well as stones whose surface has been coated with a polymer or other substances should also not be cleaned in an ultrasonic either.

This is also true for most synthetic or fake gemstones.

Metals like 950 Platinum, 9ct and 18ct gold and silver are safe. Tarnished silver will not be improved unless it’s professionally polished.  Some other metal alloys are not safely cleaned in an ultrasonic cleaner.

Allow the cleaner to run until the timer goes off to make sure the jewellery is completely clean. Once it’s done, let the jewellery sit for 10 minutes to allow the leftover contaminants to settle.  Then carefully remove, rinse well in a separate bowl using a soft toothbrush and not near a drain in case you flush away a gem by mistake, finish off with a dry lint free cloth.

It’s best to let a professional clean your jewellery.  If you are at all unsure, just ask us.

Pearls are soft organic gems you can wipe clean using a soft lint-free cloth and warm, very mildly soapy water (ie baby shampoo). Wipe them dry using another lint-free cloth.

Never use harsh or abrasive cleaning products on pearls.

Gems

Diamonds can chip or break!

Even though diamonds are the hardest naturally occurring material in nature, be aware that they have 4 planes of weakness called ‘cleavage’. 

This means if you knock a diamond in the right place, it will chip and fall out of the setting.

Always respect your diamonds!

Pearls are very soft. Don't use alcohol or other chemicals on or near them – like perfume, hair spray and body lotion. 

Ensure your perfume, sprays or lotion have dried or been absorbed by your skin and put your pearls on last thing of all, like Coco Chanel.

Best not to wear your pearl earrings or necklaces whilst you’re at the hairdressers.

Pearls love being worn, and their lustre can dull if they are sealed in an airtight poly bag.

If you have a strand of pearls on thread, get them restrung once a year. Check that the thread still looks clean and new. Check the knots are tight so you can’t see thread between the pearl and the
knots, which is a sign the thread fibres are fatiguing and might be at risk of breaking.

Moonstone is a much softer gem than sapphire or diamond. It is around 6-6.5 on the Mohs scale of hardness. It's the mineral sister of labradorite.

It also has 2 planes of weakness called ‘cleavage’. This means if you knock a moonstone in the right place, it will chip and could fall out of the setting.

It doesn't react well to sudden changes in temperature or high heat. Avoid plunging your moonstone into hot soapy water eg showers or baths.

(That’s you excused from washing up…)

To clean moonstone, just use warm soapy water and an old soft toothbrush.

Don't use harsh cleaning products or an ultrasonic cleaning machine.

Labradorite is a much softer gem than sapphire or diamond. It is around 6-6.5 on the Mohs scale of hardness. It's the mineral sister of moonstone.

It also has 2 planes of weakness called ‘cleavage’. This means if you knock a labradorite in the right place, it will chip and could fall out of the setting.

It doesn't react well to sudden changes in temperature or high heat. Avoid plunging your moonstone into hot soapy water eg showers or baths.

(That’s you excused from washing up…)

To clean labradorite, just use warm soapy water and an old soft toothbrush.

Don't use harsh cleaning products or an ultrasonic cleaning machine.

Chrysoprase is a much softer gem than sapphire or diamond. It is around 7-6.5 on the Mohs scale of hardness. It's the vivid apple green type of quartz called agate.

It has been known to fade with prolonged exposure to bright sunlight, so don't keep it on a sunny dressing table.

To clean chrysoprase, just use warm soapy water and an old soft toothbrush.

Don't use harsh cleaning products or an ultrasonic cleaning machine.

Still need help? Send us a note.

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