Thank you for visiting michellevivienne.com The best way to maintain the beauty of your jewelry is to take proper care of it from the beginning. Below are few tips on caring & cleaning your jewelry. Follow these simple steps to help keep your jewelry looking its best year after year. Should you have any questions concerning any of our jewelry, please contact us.
Product Care & Tips
Gold plated jewelry may get dirty, making it appear dull and dingy. You can remove the dull film with a non-abrasive jewelry cleanser, soap and water, rubbing alcohol, or window cleaner like Windex, which contains ammonia. Use a soft cloth to carefully clean the item. After cleaning, rinse with lukewarm water and allow it to dry completely. If you’d like to avoid harsh commercial cleaners and the polishing cloth doesn’t work, wash silver jewelry (without gemstones or pearls) in warm water containing a few drops of gentle dishwashing liquid. Immerse the sterling silver in the water and gently hand wash. Use a cotton swab for tight corners. A soft baby toothbrush can be used for more abrasive cleaning when needed. Thoroughly rinse and completely dry the sterling silver before storing. Never use toothpaste or other abrasives to clean metal or stones! Some websites recommend toothpaste as a cleaner, but this is not an accepted practice by fine jewelers. The abrasives in toothpaste can damage the surface of the metal. Never clean your jewelry in bleach! Doing this will literally breakdown your jewelry. Bleach is an oxidizing agent that will react to the metal, causing it to become very brittle. When caring for your jewelry, never use anything but 100% cotton as a polishing cloth since paper, polyester, and coarse fabrics often contain wood fibers or synthetics. These materials may impart fine scratches in the metal, especially on sterling silver.
Avoid exposing gold filled with harsh chemicals such as chlorine, cosmetics, hair spray, and perfume. You can wash your jewelry periodically with mild dish soap and warm water. Make sure to rinse well and dry completely with a soft cloth before storing. Your Charm necklaces love to shower and swim with you. Just give the gold charm an occasional polishing to keep it nice and shiny. Use a silver polishing cloth to remove oxidation from silver. Tissues and paper towels can cause scratches. We recommend using a Sunshine Cloth. Be sure to use a fresh cloth since the dirt and grit left on the cloth from a previous use can leave scrapes and pits. Use light pressure and allow the cloth to do the work for you. If your arm starts to ache, you’re probably pressing too hard.
Cleaning Your Jewelry:
The best way to prevent tarnishing is to store clean, dry jewelry in a dry airtight container, like a ziplock bag. Don’t store your jewelry in the bathroom (like I do). Humidity will speed up the oxidation process that produces tarnish and then it looks dingy and you won’t wear it. Sad! Store Ribbon Wraps flat as hanging will weight them down and since silk is a 100% natural fiber it will eventually stretch. If you wear your Ribbon Wrap to death, gently hand wash it in warm water with a gentle detergent, rinse and lay flat to dry before polishing the silver with a polishing cloth. If it still looks worn to death, send it back to us and we’ll sort you out.