How to Care for Gold Plated Jewellery

The gold you wear every day goes through more than you think. It meets sunscreen at the beach, hand cream at your desk and a quick rinse when you wash your hands before dinner. Gold plated jewellery is a thin layer of gold over another metal, and a little care keeps that layer looking warm for longer.

Most of our pieces are 22k gold plated, and a few, like the Vesper Set and the Riviera Necklace, are 24k gold plated. The plating is named on every product page. The advice below is general good practice for plated jewellery of any karat.

Does gold plated jewellery tarnish

It can, given enough time. Plating is a layer, and anything that rubs against it or reacts with it will slowly wear it down. Friction from clothing, sweat, salt water, chlorine, perfume and cleaning products are the usual culprits. How quickly that happens depends on how often a piece is worn and what it meets along the way, so nobody can promise you a number of months or years. What you can do is slow it down.

Everyday habits that help

• Put your jewellery on last. Perfume, hair spray, sunscreen and body lotion should go on first and have a few minutes to dry.
• Take it off for water. Swimming, showers, the gym and washing up are easier on your pieces when they are sitting on the bench.
• Take it off before sleep. A chain caught under a pillow all night rubs more than you would expect.
• Give rings and bracelets a break when you are cleaning or gardening, since they meet the most friction of anything you wear.

How to clean gold plated jewellery

Gentle is the rule. After you wear a piece, wipe it with a soft dry cloth to lift skin oils and anything left from creams. If it needs more than that, dip the cloth in lukewarm water with a drop of mild soap, wipe the piece, then wipe again with clean water and dry it straight away.

Skip anything abrasive. Toothpaste, baking soda, polishing cloths treated for solid gold or silver and ultrasonic cleaners can all take plating with them. Pearls, shell and stones need even softer handling, so wipe around them rather than soaking them. Our guide to freshwater, baroque and shell pearls explains why each one behaves a little differently.

How to store jewellery

Store each piece on its own. Chains tangle and scratch each other in a shared dish, and a hoop rattling against a pendant wears both. A small pouch or a lined box with separate sections works well.

• Keep pieces somewhere dry, away from the bathroom steam.
• Fasten necklace clasps before you put them away so they cannot knot.
• Lay layered sets like the Posy Set flat or hang them, so their three chains stay apart.

Summer in Australia

Our summers are long, salty and full of sunscreen, which is exactly what plating likes least. On beach days the necklaces can stay at home. A bracelet like the Talisman Bracelet or the Linen Bracelet can come along for a hot afternoon in town and come off before anyone heads into the water, and it helps to wash the sunscreen off your hands before you put it back on.

Small things, worn often

The pieces you wear most will show the most life, and that is how it should be. A quick wipe after a long day and a place of their own at night are the two habits that matter most. Browse all our gold plated jewellery to see which plating each piece carries, or read about the everyday pieces people never take off.