Cleaning cheap jewelry....

[honey52]

I tried to do a search in this subforum about cleaning jewelry and all i got were diamonds, gems, expensive stuff...but i've got a few cute cute pieces from american eagle, express, and forever 21. After a year or two i notice a lot of tarnishing (most of the pieces are a silver color - not sure if it's really silver) so how would i clean these pieces of jewelry.

If they have pearls and crystals (ones that may fall off easily but have not done so yet) should i clean them any differently??

Thanks in advance~

 

[azia]

A lot of those costume jewelry pieces cannot be cleaned. Once they tarnish, it's actually the COLOR that has rubbed off, rather than silver which is just a film that can be cleaned off.

 

[honey52]

I see, so my best bet is to throw what i can into a silver cleaner and if it doesn't work on an item toss that out since its pretty much... useless jewelry huh. hahaha thanks!

 

[ShimmaPuff]

Before dumping them in anything, I would try a spot test, to see if it does anything, you don't need to waste a whole mess of silver cleaner on something it is not going to clean.

And if it doesn't. You don't need to throw them out. Try painting them with a metallic nail polish you like, gold, silver, copper, OR, you can take this opportunity to mix together a color you would never find in a store, but that will go perfectly with your favorite top. Or your friend's favorite top, and poof! a surprise present! You could add beads or rhinestones to them, whatever looks good, or even experiments you have been thinking about secretly but would not want to try on old expensive earrings.