If you'd like to disinfect your jewelry, you can use regular household isopropyl alcohol or hydrogen peroxide, as long as the jewelry is solid gold or platinum and is only set with diamond, ruby, or sapphire.
What Kind of Jewelry Can Be Cleaned With Alcohol. If you have any jewelry that's made from a real precious metal such as silver or gold, you can clean it safely with alcohol. As long as your jewelry is made from these metals, the jewelry won't be damaged, whatever its karat or quality.
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.
Rubbing alcohol can work wonders, but bleach can literally destroy jewelry so avoid it at all costs. Using warm water is the best bet when cleaning your own jewelry. However, water can cause reaction with the cleaning fluids resulting in discoloration and Sterling Silver is especially susceptible to this problem.
Never use toothpaste, baking soda, or a commercial metal cleaner on gold. If you use these abrasives, you may scratch the gold. Never use bleach.
Mix 1/2 cup vinegar and two tablespoons of baking soda in a small bowl. Allow your jewelry to soak in the white vinegar and baking soda solution for a few hours. Then, rinse the jewelry with clean water and pat dry with a cotton cloth before storing your pieces away.
Yes! To clean your jewelry using isopropyl rubbing alcohol, fill a small bowl with it—just enough to fully cover the piece you wish you clean. Leave the jewelry to soak in the bowl for a few minutes. Alcohol dries completely clear on metal surfaces so there is no need to rinse it off with water.
Contact with alcohol will cause the jewelry to discolor, crack, and develop small holes. This can be dangerous, as cracks and holes serve as bacterial breeding grounds. If you have any jewelry that's made from a real precious metal such as silver or gold, you can clean it safely with alcohol.
Gold dissolves quantitatively in ethanol using 2-mercaptobenzimidazole as a ligand in the presence of a catalytic amount of iodine.
Yellow gold is the least susceptible to damage from hand sanitizer because there's no film or layer that can become tarnished or worn down. Platinum is another fairly safe metal.
Alcohol-based sanitizers have no effect on metal rings. Non-alcohol-based cleaners typically use chlorine-based compounds as germicides. The chlorine could cause tarnishing of jewelry, especially if the piece is made of silver, low-carat gold, or nickel-based gold.
The answer is essentially "nothing," as long as your hand sanitizer contains at least 60% alcohol; non-alcohol-based hand sanitizers usually contain some form of chlorine, which could potentially be harmful to your gold over time.
Gold is one of the least reactive elements on the Periodic Table. It doesn't react with oxygen, so it never rusts or corrodes. Gold is unaffected by air, water, alkalis and all acids except aqua regia (a mixture of hydrochloric acid and nitric acid) which can dissolve gold.
A simple soap and water solution is all you need to clean plain gold necklaces, bracelets, earrings, bangles, and other ornaments. Cleaning your plain gold jewellery with soap water rids it of accumulated dirt and oils. This method is one of the fastest ways to restore your gold jewellery's shine without any hassles.
The best method is to dip a cotton ball or swab into a capful of rubbing alcohol. With your earrings in, apply it directly to the front and back of both the earlobe and earrings. Make sure to carefully rotate the earring to get it clean from all angles.
6. Jewelry cleaning. If you're still naïve enough to wear your nice jewelry around the kids, you're familiar with the Play-Doh that can get encrusted in your engagement ring. A baby wipe can help your jewelry sparkle like your eyes used to sparkle when you arose around noon on Saturdays.
Jewelry Dry Disposable Wipes
Prefer to use a dry cloth on your jewelry? These disposable wipes are soft and gentle, and safely clean and polish your jewelry and watches. The wipes leave an “anti-tarnish shield” to help keep your accessories looking like new.
Although Windex shouldn't harm any hard gemstone, we seriously recommend using this method only for diamonds, and only for platinum, gold, and silver. Windex is an ammonia solution, and harmful to soft gemstones (for example, emeralds and pearls), so using it for anything else is just too big a risk of damage.
Dish Detergent & Warm Water
The best homemade jewelry cleaning solution is a mixture of a few drops of Dawn dish detergent in warm, not hot, water. Let the piece sit in the solution for a few minutes, longer if it's very dirty, then gently scrub with a new, baby-size, soft toothbrush.