Cleaning your Gemstones:

Cleaning your gemstone jewellery doesn’t require any special accessories or appliances. A bowl of water with a few drops of dish detergent will do the trick.Be very careful when using any soaking method to clean jewellery that has soft stones such as amber, lapis lazuli, or turquoise. Extended soaking in any solution may harm the polish of the stone.

All organic gems should only be wiped clean with a soft cloth; pearl, coral, and amber are examples of organic gems.

A home ultrasonic cleaner should be used with extreme caution and only by those who know how and which gems it can be used on. For example it can be used with ruby, sapphire and amethyst, however, it could damage gems such as emerald, turquoise, and pearl.

Maintaining your Gemstones:

When dressing, jewellery should always be the last item to be put on and the first to be removed. This is to avoid jewellery coming into contact with perfume or hairspray. Perfume and suchlike should always be sprayed on before wearing jewellery.

Storing your Gemstones:

Always store your gemstones separately to avoid scratches from harder gems. If possible, store each piece in a separate box. Soft stones like lapis lazuli, malachite, turquoise, amber and opal can easily be scratched by pin stems and the edges of other jewellery. Protect these gemstones by wrapping them in jeweller’s tissue and storing them separately.

Make sure that gemstone jewellery is stored away from direct sunlight because a lot of gemstones, like amethyst, citrine and smoky quartz, can fade in sunlight. Opals also require extra special care. Pearls should also be treated with particular care, since scratches, perfumes and household chemicals can wear away the nacre or cause colour change quite easily. Emerald gemstones should also never be stored near heat.