Jewelry Care

To care for your jewelry and keep it clean and ready to wear, gently wipe off excess make-up and skin oils after each wearing. Use a nub free, 100% cotton cloth and gently wipe the piece clean using only the soft pads of your fingers.

Put your jewelry on your body after applying makeup, hairspray, perfumes and/or any type of lotions. Never expose your jewelry to household chemicals or chlorinated water. These chemicals can do damage to the jewelry over time.
Do not sleep with your jewelry on as movement causes stress on all moving parts. Always remove your jewelry at night or during the day when you don't need to wear it. Exercising, swimming or doing household chores while wearing your jewelry could eventually leave a film behind, dulling the color and shine!  
If you normally use particularly purchased jeweler's cloths to keep your jewelry clean and shiny, be sure to use fresh cloths since the dirt and grit left on the cloth from a previous use will now leave scrapes and pits in the piece you are trying to clean and polish.

Always remove your rings and fine jewelry before using any product that contains bleach! Bleach can cause gold and other metal alloys to breakdown leaving the metal irreparably damaged. This includes swimming pools and bathing in hot tubs as chlorine products are added to prevent bacteria growth.
Never use toothpaste or other abrasives to clean metal or stones. You will find countless websites that recommend toothpaste as a cleaner, but this is not an accepted practice by fine jewelers. And remember! Any alcohol can tarnish gold and silver plating, that includes perfumes, nail polish remover, and/or pretty much anything that contains a sufficient amount of pure alcohol.

Chains might tangle if handled in certain manner so please keep this in mind. You must keep all multiple chain jewelry contained in baggy on carton. Store in jeweler's tissue or a soft bag.

Stainless Steel:

Good Material: Gold and silver are both very beautiful materials and this is why historically a lot of jewelry and other pretty things were made from one or both of the two precious metals. One of the biggest problems with both, however, is that they both stain very easily. It is easy to smudge or strain gold and silver and for this reason jewelry of these materials needs to be handled very carefully and polished often. The same attention to detail is not a requirement with stainless steel and this makes it appealing to a number of different people.

Durable: When you consider durability, it is quite obvious that stainless steel outperforms either gold or silver. Stainless steel is not only a naturally hardy alloy (as it was created to be), but it is also an alloy that can handle a lot of wear and tear. This means that in the course of wearing jewelry that undergoes a lot of use (i.e. rings and bracelets), stainless steel jewelry will last quite a bit longer than its gold or silver counterparts. This is a bigger return on investment.

Tungsten

Tungsten is a very hard metal. It resists impacts, scratches, and abrading. It rarely shows corrosion. That's why it's good for sports. It maintains a high luster

Sterling Silver:
When cleaning sterling silver remember that it is a very soft metal and can easily be marred by a fingernail or wadded piece of fabric pushed roughly against the metal surface.
When caring for your jewelry, never use anything but 100% cotton as a polishing cloth since paper, polyester, and coarse fabrics often contain wood fibers or synthetics. These materials may impart fine scratches in the metal, especially on sterling silver.
Tarnish is a naturally occurring process of Sterling Silver called oxidation. Tarnish begins to appear as a golden tone, and then quickly gets darker. Simply wearing your Sterling Silver jewelry will reduce the rate of tarnish, as body oils slow the rate of tarnish. To help retard tarnish on sterling silver, wrap the piece in jeweler's tissue paper and place it inside a plastic zip lock bag and seal.

To remove fingerprints, light grease or dirt, add a small amount of mild liquid soap to a half cup of warm water, soak 2-3 minutes, rinse thoroughly with clean water and dry completely before storing in an air tight plastic bag.

Sterling Silver is a white and highly reflective precious metal. Sterling refers to silver that is 92.5% pure, which is stamped on the metal. Sterling silver is 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% copper. The copper is necessary for durability and strength since 100% pure silver is too soft to hold up on it's own. Silver is a wonderful neutral color trend these days, and guess what else? Yes, you can mix it with your gold jewelry too!

Stones:
Be careful when using any soaking method to clean jewelry that has soft stones such as amber, lapis lazuli, or turquoise. Extended soaking in any solution may harm the polish on the stone. Never use chlorine bleach to clean jewelry. To remove excessive tarnish, polish with a 100% cotton cloth and a good nonabrasive metal cleaner. Be sure to remove any remnants of the cleaner from gemstones and rinse thoroughly with clean water.

Falling gemstones are a problem with every jewelry items in the world that have gem
stones bonded (with glue) on them, even if you buy directly from the most expensive
jewelry retailers - you will still have stones falling off if jewelry is not handled with care, unless the stones are set as "Stone Setting" and not "Stone Bonding". This is a stone settings example:
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Gemstones settings is a much more expensive technique and makes products very expensive, thus most of our products gem stones are bonded and not set.

Swarovski Crystals:
The longevity of your hand crafted jewelry will depend on the care you give it. Swarovski crystals are known for their purest quality, luminosity and clarity. We recommend washing Swarovski crystal by hand in lukewarm water to which a few drops of a mild dish detergent has been added. Then rinse under running water and dry with a soft, lint-free cloth to avoid spotting and lint spoiling the shine. Under no circumstances should any abrasive or corrosive detergents be used; glass or window-cleaning fluids should also be avoided, as they often cause streaking. When handling your crystal, it is advisable to wear cotton gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints.

Cords:
As the protective wax, tint and cotton material are natural products, they decay and reduce in effectiveness over time. To reduce this decay, you should not wet it regularly as this will make the cord to fade faster. The cord is intended to be changed and interchange.

Gold plated:
Gold color metal plating over a base metal such as pewter or brass. Inexpensive but the plating can wear over time.

Silver Plated:
Any alcohol can tarnish gold and silver plating, that includes perfumes, nail polish remover, and/or pretty much anything that contains a sufficient amount of pure alcohol. This means a silver coating on a base metal, usually electroplated or dipped, since it has a thin coating, it can dulled if not cared for properly.

Link Collection is not responsible for improper cleaning habits, bad handling of the item, or regular wear and tear of any item.