5 Essential Tips to Care for Your Jewellery

How can you keep your jewellery looking its best?

You've invested in beautiful jewellery—pieces you love and want to wear for years, perhaps even pass down one day. The good news? Most jewellery damage is entirely preventable with a few simple habits.

Proper care isn't complicated. It's about understanding what damages your pieces and making small adjustments to protect them. Every Inês Santos piece comes with a soft storage pouch and professional polishing cloth—everything you need to keep your jewellery beautiful. Here's how to use them, and what else you need to know.

1. Remove Your Jewellery Before These Activities

The single most important thing you can do is knowing when to take your jewellery off. Remove it before:

Swimming - Chlorine in pools and salt in seawater damage metals and loosen stones. Plus, cold water makes rings slip off easily.

Showering and bathing - Hot water and soap create a dull film on jewellery, and slippery soap makes pieces easy to drop down the drain.

Exercising - Impact can loosen stones and bend delicate metalwork. Sweat is acidic and tarnishes certain metals.

Cleaning - Household chemicals, especially bleach, permanently damage jewellery. Always remove rings before cleaning.

Applying beauty products - Perfume, hairspray, and lotion contain chemicals that tarnish metals and dull stones. Put jewellery on last, after everything else has dried.

Sleeping - You can snag chains on bedding, scratch yourself, or bend rings from inadvertent pressure during the night.

Make removal convenient by keeping a small dish near your bed, in your bathroom, and by the door. When it becomes automatic, you'll protect your jewellery without thinking about it.

2. Store Your Jewellery Properly

How you store jewellery when not wearing it significantly impacts its longevity. Each Inês Santos piece comes with a protective storage pouch. These pouches prevent scratching, reduce tarnishing, and keep chains from tangling.

Why separate storage matters: Jewellery stored together rubs against itself, causing scratches. Harder stones like diamonds can scratch softer stones like pearls. Chains tangle with other chains, creating knots that damage delicate links.

The essentials:

• Keep each piece in its own pouch when not wearing it
• Store in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight
• For travel, simply place your pouches in your luggage—each piece stays protected

Special note for pearls: Store pearls separately and avoid airtight containers. Pearls need some air circulation.

3. Clean Your Jewellery Regularly

Regular cleaning maintains beauty and lets you spot potential problems. Use the polishing cloth provided with your Inês Santos jewellery for quick maintenance between deeper cleanings.

For regular maintenance: Simply clean your pieces with the jewellery cloth using light, circular motions. This removes oils, restores shine, and removes light tarnish. Do this every few wears to keep pieces looking their best.

What to avoid:

• Harsh chemicals (bleach, ammonia, chlorine)
• Paper towels or regular cloths (they scratch—use your jewellery cloth)
• Soaking pearls (wipe with damp cloth only)

About your polishing cloth: When it becomes heavily soiled, gently hand wash in mild soap and water, then air dry completely before using again.

4. Handle Your Jewellery with Care

How you put on and take off your jewellery matters as much as how you store or clean it. Rough handling causes most preventable damage—bent prongs, stretched chains, broken clasps, and loose stones.

When putting on jewellery:

• Hold necklaces and bracelets by the clasp, not the chain
• Don't pull or tug on delicate chains
• Fasten clasps gently—forcing them damages the mechanism
• Put rings on by gently twisting, not forcing over knuckles
• Handle earring backs carefully to avoid bending posts

• For tight-fitting bangles: Slide the bracelet onto your wrist from the side, tilting your hand to help it pass over. Never force open the bracelet gap to make it wider—this will break it. Once the bangle is on your wrist, you can make slight adjustments to position it comfortably, but the initial fitting should always be done by sliding it on sideways, not by opening and closing it

When taking off jewellery:

• Remove pieces one at a time, giving each your full attention
• Don't yank necklaces or bracelets off without unclasping them
• Place pieces directly in their storage pouches, not on hard surfaces
  

Extra care for delicate pieces:

• Pearl strands and chain necklaces need gentle handling—they're more delicate than they appear
• Thin rings and bangles can bend if gripped too firmly
• Stone-set pieces shouldn't be grabbed by the stone—hold the metal band instead
• Remove rings before pulling on tight gloves or clothing

Think of handling jewellery like holding something precious and slightly fragile—because it is. A few seconds of careful attention when putting on or removing pieces prevents most accidental damage.

5. Check Your Jewellery Regularly for Signs of Wear

Make it a habit to inspect your jewellery. Catching small problems early prevents bigger issues later—and it takes just a minute.

What to look for:

Prongs and settings: Check that stones are secure and prongs haven't bent or worn thin. Gently wiggle stones with your fingertip—they shouldn't move at all.

Clasps: Test that necklace and bracelet clasps close securely and hold firmly. Worn clasps feel loose or don't "click" properly.

Chains: Look for kinks, twisted links, or thin spots where the chain might break. Run the chain through your fingers to feel for rough spots.

Overall condition: Check for scratches, dents, or tarnish that needs attention. Look at earring posts and backs—they shouldn't be bent.

Your jewellery will tell you when it needs attention—you just need to look.

Simple Habits, Lasting Beauty

Caring for jewellery properly isn't about being overly careful—it's about simple habits that become second nature:

✓ Take it off for certain activities
✓ Store pieces in their protective pouches
✓ Clean regularly with your polishing cloth
✓ Handle with care when putting on and taking off
✓ Check regularly for signs of wear

We provide the essential care tools—the storage pouch and polishing cloth—with every piece. You already have what you need.

Follow these practices, and your jewellery will look stunning for a long time. The pieces you love deserve your care.

Shop our collections to discover jewellery crafted to be treasured for generations—and designed to be cared for easily with the tools we provide.