How to clean costume jewelry

Tanya

I am wondering if anyone has any tips on this. I have recently gone back to my ballroom dancing and when pulling out my dance costume jewelry that has been stored for couple of years I have discovered that a lot of the pieces have oxidized and thus become black. They are mostly silver tone metal with a lot of rhinestones, mostly clear but some are colored.

Thank you very much!

17 years ago

General

9 replies

Latest reply was from Nicole

Ana

(website)

Veteran

Hmm....that's tough. Sometimes when costume jewelry oxidizes like that, it's permanent because it's usually due to your skin reacting with the metal. But maybe try warm soapy water and rub very gently to make sure none of the finish comes off as well. There may be some product out there to clean costume jewelry as well. Let me see what I can find.

17 years ago

Tanya

Veteran

Thanks Ana! I have googled it and found advice on how to clean the stones themselves. However, nothing on the actual metal of the pieces. Maybe someone will have some ideas.

17 years ago

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I'm stumped. It's tricky. I’ve brought pieces to Nordstrom to clean up before and they did a good job.

17 years ago

Tanya

Veteran

Thanks Angie, I do that with a few of the best pieces, and try to do something with the rest myself. Now, if there weren't any stones, just simple silver colored metal that turned black, how would I go about cleaning that?

17 years ago

Lena

Active Member

Tanya, I don't have much to add because I only have experience cleaning silver jewelry (with these felt cloth thingies). I just wanted to comment that I'm excited about you resuming ballroom dancing. Big yay!!! Good for you!

I'm thinking about signing up for private Pilates instruction in January. I used to take classes and do it at home, but fell behind and frankly got out of shape. I'm thinking about taking an introductory package with private classes to relearn proper technique and then get into group classes which are cheaper. Plus it will motivate me to exercise more in general. And actually I was surprised to learn that it's not as expensive as I expected (around the cost of one BCBG dress for 6-8 weeks of classes).

17 years ago

Becky

Veteran

I just purchased some costume jewelry at a jewelry party and it was recommended to clean them with warm soapy water (dish soap) and a soft cloth.

17 years ago

Tanya

Veteran

Lena, that is great about Pilates! I used to do it for a short period of time abd really liked it, but the schedule was inconvenient for me so i had to quit it. I am sure you'll get a lot of enjoyment from it.

The trouble with this jewelry is that the rhinestones must never get in touch with water, they are cleaned with alcohol and such. So i am trying to figure out how to clean the blackened metal part without water. I am hoping that maybe there are some special felt like things like there are for silver, or maybe some house remedies anyone knows of ( i remember heraing something about baking soda, but I could be completely wrong).

17 years ago

marianne

Active Member

Tanya, I only have a recipe for cleaning silver. I actually tried it once on a non-silver cheap metal piece and it worked, but not as well as silver. Anyway, there are many variations of this, but I usually put the piece with some baking soda into a pan lined with aluminum foil and pour hot water over. I realize it's risky since you don't know what the metal is, maybe you could try it on a small part so you don't risk ruining it?

Glad to hear you're getting back into dancing!

17 years ago

Nicole

Veteran

Tanya, have you tried using silver polish? The kind people use to clean tarnish off of real silver silverware?

You could also try this old home remedy trick that works for silver plate.

Put a piece of tinfoil in the bottom of a dish that is big enough to hold the jewelry. In a big sauce pan, heat a half gallon of water to boiling, then put it in the kitchen sink. Add 1/2 cup of baking soda to the boiling water. (it'll spill over, that's why you put it in the sink). Then pour the water/baking soda into the dish that is holding the jewelry.

You can reheat the pan of water and baking soda and repour it over the jewelry if it does not clean it the first time around. This will work if the oxidation is tarnish caused by air born sulfer.

17 years ago

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