4 Effortless ways to clean your jewellery without toxic chemicals

All-purpose jewellery cleaner: Dishwashing soap

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All-purpose jewellery cleaner: Dishwashing soap
Mild dishwashing liquid is great for silver and gold jewellery (just don’t use them on your pearls). Here’s what you need:
Ingredients:
Dish soap
Water
Yup, that’s it! Choose a natural, chemical-free brand of dishwashing soap and mix it up with some warm water to create a soapy concoction. With a soft-bristled toothbrush, simply clean your jewellery with soft brush strokes. If there are gemstones in your jewellery, you can use a soft cloth to clean them.
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Heavy-duty jewellery cleaner: Baking soda
For jewellery that is more heavily tarnished, this is a more intensive treatment. It works exceptionally well on silver jewellery. Here’s what you need:
Ingredients:
Aluminium foil
Baking soda
Hot water
Line a small, shallow bowl with aluminium foil and fill the bowl with hot water. Submerge your silver/gold jewellery in the water and add 1 - 3 tablespoons of baking powder (depending on how big your bowl is). Make sure the jewellery touches the foil. Leave the mixture for about 30 minutes. This should be enough time for the tarnish on the jewellery pieces to be left behind on the aluminium foil. Neat, right? Repeat the process if required.
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Sterling silver jewellery cleaner: Lemon juice
The acidic properties of lemon juice can help remove tarnish buildup from silver jewellery. Here’s what you need:
Ingredients:
Lemon juice
Water
In a bowl, mix a tablespoon of lemon juice with 1 and a half cups of water. Leave your silver jewellery to soak overnight in this solution. The next day, rinse, wipe down, and marvel at the renewed sparkle in your pieces! Only try this with your sterling silver pieces - do not use this method on white gold, gold, or pearls, as the acidity in lemons can damage them.
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Quick and easy jewellery cleaner: Vinegar
A simple bath in plain white vinegar will be enough to clean your gold jewellery. Here’s what you need:
Ingredients:
White distilled vinegar
Put your gold jewellery in a small container (so they are not overlapping), and cover with white distilled vinegar. Soak for about 15 minutes, rinse, and leave to dry naturally. With silver jewellery, you can do the same thing, but also add a pinch of baking soda as well, and leave to soak for longer - about 2 to 3 hours.

It’s a fact of life: if you wear jewellery, your pieces are going to become tarnished over time. To keep them looking shiny and new, you are going to have to give them a good clean once in a while. The bad news is, jewellery cleaners and polishes are chockfull of chemicals, and they can be expensive to boot. Of course, it is hard to know exactly what goes into commercial jewellery cleaning products, though if you were to take a whiff of them, you’ll be able to tell that they don’t smell even remotely natural. Even professional jewellery cleaners warn you to put on gloves before handling such products.

The good news? There are plenty of other ways you can clean your jewellery without the need for these expensive chemicals. Sure, you might come across information on the internet telling you to use the likes of ammonia to make your diamonds sparkle, or window cleaner to strip the tarnish from silver and gold jewellery, but you don’t have to resort to such means.

To stop yourself from using nasty chemicals in your homemade jewellery cleaning solutions, try some safe and natural options with ingredients you already have in your kitchen. Head up to the gallery to check out a handful of quick and easy formulas you can whip up at home.

Angela Goh

Photos: Getty Images

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