Jewellery Care
To help keep your jewellery looking good here are a few tips.
Skin and hair products can react with jewellery causing it to tarnish and discolour, as can perspiration.
Remove any jewellery before physical exercise including gardening to ensure it is not damaged. Chemicals found in swimming pools will cause extreme tarnishing of your jewellery so always remove your jewellery before entering a pool or the sea.
We recommend taking off some jewellery while sleeping which could become damaged, for example necklaces using snake chain can kink.
We recommend storing your jewellery in an airtight box or zip bag to prevent tarnish from the air over time.
Cleaning
To remove tarnish and brighten up your silver pieces we recommend using a silver dip solution. Always ensure you rinse your item with warm soapy water after silver dipping and then dry it thoroughly. At Latham & Neve we use silver cleaning dips and cleaning cloths from Town Talk, an established British company renowned for their quality products.
For cleaning stubborn areas and recesses dipping a cotton bud or an old soft tooth brush in silver dip is usually effective. On matt/satin and textured surfaces we also recommend cleaning with a soft tooth brush with silver dip or alternatively a small abrasive pad can be used (ensure all recesses of the jewellery are clean and dry).
Do not dip gold plated items or oxidised jewellery
Use warm soapy water and a soft toothbrush.
Caring for oxidised silver jewellery
We do not recommend cleaning oxidised silver with a silver cloth or chemicals, as it will affect the finish. It is best just to wipe the pieces gently with a soft cloth and warm soapy water, if necessary soaking beforehand. Rinse the piece thoroughly with fresh water and pat dry, again using a soft cloth.
The dark colour of oxidised sterling silver is the result of a special surface treatment that with time and wear will lighten and in places may disappear altogether, giving each piece its unique character. If however you would like your piece of jewellery restored to its former glory, for a small fee you can return it to us for re-oxidising.