A diamond engagement ring is one of a ladies most precious prized possessions. It symbolises a couples love and the start of their life journey, called marriage. Like a new car, that people try and keep clean for the first few months, the cleaning of a diamond engagement ring, is something that sometimes get put to the bottom of the to do list. The great thing about your diamond engagement ring is that when it is properly cleaned and cared for it will look like the day you picked it up from the jewellery store. 

3 ways to care for your diamond engagement ring. 

1. Clean it with hot water and dish washing detergent. I generally recommend to add just off boiling hot water and detergent into a coffee cup. Don’t worry – The melting point of gold and diamonds is much higher than 100
degrees, so your diamond engagement ring should be safe. After it has been sitting there for around 3 -5 minutes, use an old toothbrush to dab in and around the settings. A dabbing motion is preferred to scrubbing. Dabbing allows the bristles to find their way in and behind the setting, whereas scrubbing may affect the polish of the metal, causing it to dull.

2. Don’t use hand cream while wearing your rings. One of the biggest causes for diamonds to dull, is the use of hand cream. To understand what hand cream does to your diamond, imagine smearing hand cream over your bathroom mirror. After a day or two, the general everyday dirt would stick to the cream, forming a layer and preventing the light from getting through. As diamonds require light to sparkle, anything that prevents the light from interacting with the stone, will cause the diamond to dull, like this one.

Have it professional cleaned at least once a year – While cleaning your diamonds and jewellery at home will certainly make a marked difference to the performance of your diamond. To achieve the best result, we recommend that you bring it to a qualified jeweller at least once a year for a professional clean. Jewellers will generally have an ultrasonic cleaner. Most professional ultrasonic cleaners cost in excess of $1000. Ultrasonic’s are great for getting into all the really hard to reach places and shaking the dirt out. At the same time your jeweller can check all your settings to make sure that all your diamonds and gemstones are secured. This is a complimentary service that we offer to all our clients, even if the piece is not from us. 

3 Myths about cleaning your diamond engagement ring.

1. Toothpaste – Ideal for cleaning your teeth, not your diamonds. I am sure that the original inventors of toothpaste did not envisage a lady cleaning her diamond engagement ring with it. 

2. Vodka – Great for drinking, but unnecessary to use to waste on cleaning your diamonds. While pure alcohol is sometimes used for cleaning diamonds, i am sure that you can find a much better use for Vodka than cleaning your diamond engagement ring. 

3. Cloudy ammonia – there are a lot of websites advising to use cloudy ammonia when cleaning your diamonds and jewellery. The origin of this most likely came about when jewellers used a polishing compound called rouge. This red polishing paste was notorious for sticking to the gold. The cloudy ammonia was an excellent solution for removing this paste for the metal. These days jewellers use a much more refined compound which is cleaner and dissolves faster in water, making the cloudy ammonia unnecessary. 

3 Items to be careful of, when cleaning your jewellery at home.

1. Emeralds – almost all emeralds have been oiled. Placing them in hot water, causes the oil to come out of the stone, and the hot dirty water to go in. When this happens the usually invisible feathers and inclusions can sometimes become visible. This will have a detrimental effect on the value of the stone. While the process can be reversed, it is not an easy or cheap one.

2. Opals – Opals are known as a hydrated silica. They have a reasonable amount of water in them. Placing opals in any environment which is hot, can cause the opals to crack, making them effectively worthless.

3. Pearls – being the product of a once living organism, pearls are also to be kept away from heat. When pearls are used in jewellery, they are usually always glued in. As the heat from a flame would destroy them. When cleaning pearls, it is recommended to use cold water, with a soft cloth similar to a glasses cleaning cloth. (non abrasive)