Knowing how to clean and care for your Sterling Silver Jewelry is not as simple as you may think. These instructional tips give you the know how on cleaning your sterling silver properly with out damaging the finish and making your items last from generation to generation. Deciding on the proper cleaning products to use is some what confusing and extremely important. Choosing products such as: bleach, ammonia, alcohol, acetone, and other such products can damage your Sterling Silver beyond repair. Stay with a mild cleaner and be sure to dilute them with water (just to be safe). Some good home products to use are: baking soda, non abrasive tooth paste, mild phosphate free detergents as well as commercial silver cleaners.

Choosing a cleaning brush. Be careful on the type of brushes you choose to deep clean Sterling Silver. Stay away from hard bristle brushes with horsehair and abrasive style brushes. The best cleaning brushes to use may be a baby tooth brush, a mushroom brush, very soft bristle toothbrush also consider using a sunshine cloth, which can be used wet or dry. When cleaning Sterling Silver always clean up and down motion NOT in circular motion.

When drying your sterling silver jewelry choosing the proper cloth material should be taken very carefully. Use 100% cotton materials such as: old T-shirts, sweat shirts, cotton balls, soft flannel materials (all unbleached), and silver wipes. Using these types of home and commercial materials can help prevent your Sterling Silver from being scratched or even completely damaged. There are many misconceptions on what to do to keep your precious Sterling Silver Clean and lustrous. Following the steps provided will insure your Sterling Silver will be taken care of properly and will last a lifetime.

Gold is a symbol of prosperity, and that means that a lot of people want it for their jewelry. They wear it for earrings, necklaces, and bracelets, and now they are wearing it for their body jewelry – including nose, lip, eyebrow, and belly button piercings. But is what you’re buying really gold? If it’s not, it could make you sick. It’s generally recommended that you get eighteen karat gold, too, because ten or fourteen karat gold has a lot of impurities that aren’t good for you. They have more nickel in them along with other metals, and that means that you have a higher chance of being allergic to them. Eighteen karat gold is about seventy-five percent pure, so an allergy to it would be unlikely.

The only other gold that you can buy easily is twenty-four karat, but that’s considered ‘pure’ gold, and it’s very expensive. Most people don’t want to, or can’t, pay that kind of money, so eighteen karat is their best option. It’s possible to have an allergic reaction to this jewelry, but it’s very unlikely. When buying gold body jewelry, the best thing to do is buy from a reputable source so you know what you’re getting.

Gold jewelry is marked with the karat information, so check to see if you can locate that information. If you can’t you most likely have gold plated jewelry and that’s not something you want to put into your body. Even people who don’t have allergies to base metals like nickel can still have a reaction to the inexpensive metals they use for these pieces of jewelry, so avoiding them is really the safest and best choice. They can cause discomfort, swelling, and infection even in piercings that are already healed up. If you aren’t sure where the jewelry came from or what karat it is, it’s better to avoid it and get something else. If you can’t afford eighteen karat jewelry, stick to silver or something else that doesn’t have a lot of base metal in it and that won’t give you a reaction. Then buy eighteen karat gold body jewelry when you can afford it.