One of the best parts of owning unique or everyday jewelry pieces is the sparkle and shine that comes with them. However, as time goes by, your favorite jewelry may begin to lose its shine and would probably need a good polish.
Generally, dirt, everyday dust, lotions, soaps and grime from anywhere have the potential to clog your jewelry settings and ruin the overall appearance of your favorite jewelry pieces, whether bangles, rings or necklaces among others. Other times, this could damage your jewelry in such a way that you may never be able to comfortably wear the jewelry pieces in your collection anymore.
That said, it is very important to have your jewelry professionally cleaned or you can always do it on your own. Now, you may be among the individuals who have purchased their jewelry from Tiffany & Co. and have opted for the professional cleaning option. In this case, you may be wondering whether they would actually clean jewelry that you have purchased from them for free.
For this reason, we will answer your question by looking into whether jewelry from Tiffany & Co. tarnishes and look at a few tips that you can use to successfully clean your jewelry at home.
Does Tiffany & Co. Jewelry Tarnish?
Just like every other elegant silver jewelry piece in the industry, Tiffany Silver has no exceptions and will eventually tarnish. (here is a detailed post for you: Does 925 silver turn your finger green?)Generally, tarnishing is caused by a chemical reaction that discolors the surface of any metal after forming a thin layer or corrosion on that particular metal. The good thing is that the effects are eversible.
To reverse the tarnishing process, Tiffany & Co. tends to use a silver cleaning cloth on your silver jewelry pieces and has also deployed this specific cloth on its online websites to ensure that you can clean it on your own. In addition to that, they also sell Tiffany Blue polishing mitts that have been designed to make your jewelry cleaning process much easier.
If your favorite jewelry pieces have been tarnished for a long period of time, then you would need to invest in a polishing cream or spray to help you clean them successfully. You can always get these products from Tiffany itself at an extra cost.
When it comes to Gold and Platinum jewelry, they do not really tarnish but they can always use a little polishing so that they do not lose too much of their shine. Diamonds and gemstones do not tarnish either but they have the potential to accumulate debris and dust if you wear them on a regular basis thus would need some cleaning done so that they do not lose their brilliance and shine.
Does Tiffany & Co. clean your jewelry for free?
More often than not, Tiffany & Co would need you to pay a certain amount so that they can clean their jewelry but this shouldn’t stop you from walking into their stores and politely inquiring for your item to be cleaned. For the most part, a great number of sales associates may actually clean your favorite jewelry pieces for free.
Technically, they use an ultrasonic machine that has been developed to make your most stunning Tiffany jewelry vibrate into a cleaning solution that is concentrated. This process takes off any dirt, debris and any other unwanted materials from your jewelry pieces. A challenge that may arise during this cleaning process is the loss of stones from their settings due to the vigorous movement of the machine. The good thing is that this rarely happens and in the event that it does, Tiffany& Co. would willingly replace it for you.
Sometimes, the cleaning process could involve either polishing or steam cleaning, but this entirely depends on the type of item that you have. All in all, a great number of Platinum, gold and silver items would need a certain level of polishing to maintain their lustrous shine.
In as much as it is a great idea to have your jewelry professionally cleaned, you can always purchase the jewelry cleaning product alongside the ultrasonic machine and do it from home, but you would need to be extremely careful. Aside from that, you can always consider inexpensive options such as using a gentle liquid with soap and a toothbrush where all you need to do is scrub your unique jewelry piece with extreme caution so that you are able to carefully remove dirt form it.
If you prefer to stick to the Tiffany & Co brand for your jewelry collection, then you are advised to purchase their personalized Jewelry care kit that comes with a cloth, a jewelry cleaning solution, a brush and tweezers.
Tips for cleaning Tiffany Silver jewelry on your own
One thing you should keep at the back of your mind is that sterling silver eventually tarnishes, especially when you expose it to air, salt and products that contain sulfur Here are a few tips that can help you maintain the shine and dazzling effect that comes with Tiffany’s Silver jewelry;
1.General Silver Care
Take a small amount of Tiffany’s silver jewelry cleaner and pour it on a soft cloth then rub it across the silver jewelry piece multiple times until you notice the debris coming off.
Next, you would need to rinse the silver in warm water then carefully dry it using a clean cloth.
Doing this will successfully remove the tarnish and leave your favorite silver jewelry looking good as new.
Something you should know is that chlorine and bleach have been identified to accelerate the tarnishing process so you may want to avoid them entirely.
2.Special Considerations
An oxidized finish on your favorite jewelry pieces is often the intentional blackening of crevices in the embellishment of a silver object so that its decorative details are more conspicuous and stand out better.
You would need to be very careful when cleaning this off because this specific finish can be easily removed and get damaged by overzealous cleaning and polishing.
Conclusion
Once your jewelry is cleaned and polished, you would need to ensure that they are dry and properly stored.
You can always use the Tiffany Blue flannel bags that have been designed to protect it from abrasion and offer a decent degree of tarnish prevention.
Alternatively, you can store them in bags made of pacific cloth to prevent tarnish.
Read more useful tips here or more newly-published posts here!
Stephanie is a jewelry lover when she was a teenager. Her major was fashion design when she was in college. She is a jewelry designer at SOQ Jewelry and other design companies. Now she is also a writer for our website. She writes a lot of designs&brands posts with very actionable tips.