How to Clean Gold Jewellery

At its best gold has a brilliant yellow shine, however it can become dull due to daily use or when stored for a long period of time. Pure gold is too soft to be used for jewellery, so other metals are added to create an alloy, and the result is jewellery that may tarnish depending upon the ratio of metals used.

Town Talk’s gold jewellery care products are specially formulated to bring back the sparkle to your gold jewellery. Scroll down for information on solid gold jewellery, how to clean gold vermeil jewellery, and also how to care for your gold plated jewellery items.

• For bringing back a deep shine to your gold jewellery try a Town Talk Gold Polishing Cloth. This will polish your jewellery to a glowing brilliance, leaving it looking like new again in no time!
• For gold jewellery with hard gemstones, you need our renowned Jewel Sparkle which is especially designed for cleaning all your gold earrings, rings, necklaces and bracelets etc. It gently dissolves surface grime on the stones and the metal mounts, which will make the gemstones shine much more brightly! Try also our handy Jewellery Cleaning Wand, Mini Jewellery Spray and Jewel Sparkle Tissue Sachets.
• When using the Jewel Sparkle dip, do not fully submerge gold watches, or jewellery with emeralds, coral, amber, opals, or any stones that have water-soluble fixings (hard gemstones such as diamonds, rubies and sapphires are fine). Instead, use our Microfibre Polishing Cloth on the stones and a Gold Polishing Cloth to buff up the gold.
• Gold is a notoriously soft metal and therefore it is prone to knocks and scratches. Protect your gold jewellery by storing it in one of our luxury Anti-tarnish Jewellery Pouches in between uses.
• If your gold is in the lower karat range, you may find that it is prone to light tarnish. Storing your jewellery in an Anti-tarnish Jewellery Pouch will also slow the formation of tarnish and keep your items sparkling bright.

Vermeil is sterling silver covered with a layer of gold which must be at least 2.5 microns thick.

To keep your vermeil jewellery looking at its best, follow the same steps listed above for solid gold jewellery.

White gold jewellery is produced when the yellow gold is alloyed with another silver coloured metal to give it a whiter appearance; this can be nickel, silver, copper, zinc - it can vary. The base alloy is whiter in colour and harder but can have a yellow tint depending on the original content of the yellow gold and what its alloyed with. As a generalisation, the whiter the base ring, the lower the gold content.

With some white gold alloys the jewellery item is then plated to give it a bright white appearance, usually rhodium plating is used (platinum & palladium plating is also possible). The thickness of the plated layer and its adhesion to the base metal / alloy can vary dramatically dependant on price and quality of the item.

If the item is not rhodium plated then a very light polishing with a gold cloth is possible (we would always recommend testing in a small inconspicuous area first).

We would not recommend gold cloth for any rhodium plated item. Use Jewel Sparkle, Jewel Sparkle Tissues and Jewellery Spray for deeper cleaning, and a microfibre cloth to polish and remove fingerprints from rhodium plated white gold items.