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. Bleach reacts with gold and will eat away at gold alloys.
Toothpaste is abrasive and has a hardness of around 3/4 on the Mohs Scale of Hardness. Metals such as gold and silver are softer, so toothpaste can actually scratch damage your gold and silver jewellery. Not to mention, the chemicals in the flavour oils used in toothpaste are corrosive to metal.
Despite what you may have heard, this is a complete hoax. It is not recommended that you use toothpaste to clean your jewelry as you may end up permanently ruining its luster and overall integrity. It's better to use a jewelry cleanser specifically formulated for safety and efficacy.
Keep adding toothpaste and rubbing it off until the tarnish is gone. Depending on how badly tarnished the piece is, this can take about 15 minutes. Rinse the jewelry in warm water.
Never use toothpaste, baking soda, or a commercial metal cleaner on gold. If you use these abrasives, you may scratch the gold.
Vinegar. Cleaning your gold and gemstone jewelry couldn't be easier with white vinegar. Simply drop the jewelry into a jar of vinegar and let sit for 10 to15 minutes, agitating occasionally. Remove and scrub with a soft-bristled toothbrush, if necessary.
Vinegar and gold jewelry—the perfect pair! Who knew that a simple ingredient like vinegar could make your jewelry sparkle and shine just as brilliantly as it did when you first brought it home?
Chlorine is gold's worst enemy: with repeated exposure, chlorine will weaken your gold jewelry's structure and eventually lead to it breaking. Make sure to take your jewelry off before getting in a pool or spa. Cover or remove while cleaning: household cleaners with acids or abrasives will damage your jewelry's finish.
You can use some vinegar to increase the shine of the jewelry. Since the gold is fake, you don't have to worry as much about possible damage to the metal. Lemon juice can also do the trick. Dry with a soft cloth after rinsing in lukewarm water.
Mild Clean
The mildest method of cleaning gold—and it's also the easiest and most economical—is to mix a bowl of warm water and a little dishwashing liquid into a sudsy solution. Soak the gold jewellery briefly and then gently scrub crevices and design details using a soft toothbrush or eyebrow brush.
Aucl3 + HCl –> H+ [ AuCl4]–. This hydro metallic chloride is soluble in Aqua Regia. Hence, the gold is polished or you can say that a thin layer of gold is shaved off from you. The above chemical process occurs during the cleaning of the gold ornament.
This is a handy and maybe unexpected tip, but Coke does indeed clean gold. You can dip your gold in a small bowl of Coke and make sure that it is completely covered. Leave the gold plated jewelry in the solution for 10 minutes and then rub with a soft cloth and rinse.
Baking soda, salt and aluminum foil.
Lay all of your darkened costume jewelry on the foil. Mix one tablespoon salt and one tablespoon of baking soda and mix with one cup warm water. Pour into the dish. The mixture will create a chemical reaction with the foil and bubble as it cleans the jewelry.
While quick exposure to water will not ruin your jewelry, however, if you leave gold in water for too long, it will eventually start to turn a greenish-black color. This happens because alloyed gold is a reactive metal that reacts with water and oxygen to form gold oxide.
Vinegar is incredibly corrosive. So, if your gold jewelry is made of a different metal or alloy, the vinegar will cause it to tarnish. Gold is a non-reactive metal, so it will not react to vinegar.
Submerging in Vinegar
Vinegar is another popular at-home solution for cleaning. But like lemon juice, vinegar is very acidic and will cause damage to your soft stones and plated jewelry. Soaking your jewelry in a bowl of vinegar will remove the jewelry's shine and finish.
Assuming your ring is either just platinum, gold or silver and ONLY has diamonds, you can use Windex to clean it.
A gentle way to clean gold involves a few simple ingredients – gentle liquid detergent like Woolite or Palmolive, warm water, and a soft toothbrush or an eyebrow brush. Using a firm toothbrush or another brush with hard bristles can damage your piece.