Knowledge
Silver is an extremely soft metal and it can easily be scratched. We would suggest avoiding standard cleaners, which are often too harsh and might ruin your favorite jewellery piece. Chemicals found in lotions, perfumes and hair products can also discolour your silver. Take your jewellery off when you are washing dishes or when you are having any beauty procedures.
Tarnish prevention
Within time silver jewellery tarnishes. In order to preserve the shine of your jewellery longer, put your silver pieces in an airtight container like a plastic bag. You can also place an anti tarnish strip inside the container.
Storage
Store each piece separately in a cool dry place away from anything that may scratch it.
Cleaning
Gently buff away dirt and any tarnish from your silver jewellery with a specialized polishing cloth. If you are not happy with the results you can make a home-made solution for deeper cleaning. Alternatively you can buy ready made solutions available online and in various stores. Waitrose’s silver polish seems to work particularly well.
How to make your own silver dip at home
There are a couple of ways to make your home made silver cleaning solution. We have chosen the most safe and less aggressive variants.
1. The juice of lime and sea salt in a copper bowl will strip oxide when brought barely to a boil. Take 1 lime and 1 table spoon of sea salt. Put the sea salt and the juice of a lime into a copper bucket, put your jewellery inside and boil for 5-7 minutes. Here you are! You can rinse, dry and wear your beautiful pieces of jewellery.
2. Vinegar, salt, baking soda and aluminium foil. You will need half a cup of boiling water, half a cup of vinegar and 1 table spoon of salt and 1 table spoon of baking soda. Cover your bucket with the aluminium foil. Add salt and baking soda and then add water and vinegar. Put your silver jewellery in the bowl and try to maximise the contact of the jewellery with the foil. The silver will become clean within 5 minutes.
Tips and tricks
For quick results clean silver with tooth paste. Yes, you can clean your silver jewellery with a simple tooth paste. You will need a soft toothbrush and a toothpaste. In a minute or to of hard work, you will again see the noble shine of your small silver friend.