This article provides a guide on how to make and use a homemade DIY jewelry cleaner. The process involves combining two cups of Windex with a few drops of Dawn Dish Soap in a microwave dish, then microwaving the liquid mixture for one minute without the ring in it yet. The article also discusses five easy-to-make jewelry cleaner recipes, including cleaning silver, gold, pearls, costume jewelry, remove tarnish, shine diamonds, and clean gemstones.
To clean silver, gold, pearls, costume jewelry, remove tarnish, shine diamonds, and clean gemstones, one can create a paste of baking soda and water by mixing one part water to three parts baking soda in a small bowl. The paste is then applied to the silver jewelry, wetted, and used with a soft microfiber cloth to wipe away the grime.
Regularly cleaning jewelry is an easy way to maintain rings, earrings, and necklaces at home. No professional or expensive jewelry polish is needed, and the process is simple and effective. To clean jewelry, soak it in a solution made from 1 cup of water, 1–2 tsp (4.8–9.6 g) of baking soda, and a squirt of dish soap for 20 minutes. Scrub the jewelry with salt, baking soda, and dish detergent, then rinse it in cool water and dry it well.
The best homemade jewelry cleaning solution is a mixture of a few drops of Dawn dish detergent in warm, not hot, water. Mix two tablespoons of baking soda and one tablespoon of distilled white vinegar or lemon juice in a small bowl, then dip a drop or two of gentle dish soap into lukewarm water. Soak the silver pieces in the mixture for a few minutes, then use a soft microfiber cloth to wipe away the grime.
📹 DIY JEWELRY CLEANER | Get Shiny Jewelry in Minutes!
In the video you’ll learn how to make your own jewelry cleaner. This DIY jewelry cleaner will save you money and is safe for you …
📹 How To Clean Your Sterling Silver Jewelry At Home With Baking Soda
Cleaning sterling silver with baking soda & aluminum foil is a very simple way to remove tarnish off silver. Many people do like like …
Hey there! Local science guy here. So what causes the tarnishing color on the surface of sterling silver is actually silver sulfide (Ag2S), which is black. When a thin coat of it lines the surface of silver, it darkens it. There’s 2 ways you can remove this. You can buff out the surface through polishing (which can remove some of the silver) OR you can turn the silver back using this method (which preserves the silver). The aluminum (Al) and baking soda (NaHCO3) form a “bridge” between the silver and pulls the sulfur attached to the silver off because Aluminum loves to bond with Sulfur, creating Aluminum Sulfide (Al2S3). You can do this with cold water too, but the boiling water acts as a catalyst and causes the reactions to happen a lot faster. It’s important that the silver makes some contact with the aluminum to make sure the process of electrolysis happens. After after a while, the sulfur bonded to the silver is carried through the water/baking soda solution and will bond to the aluminum instead, leaving your silver to be alone. Bam! Silver? ~brilliant & clean~ Tarnish? ~gone!~ Edit: H2SO4 to NaHCO3 2nd Edit: Wow! I come back a year later to see 2.2k likes! Thank you all! I hope you’ve found this information helpful 🙂 I’ve noticed some comments below mentioning this method not working: Please be aware that this works on REAL STERLING SILVER! I would not try this method on plated jewelry! Some cheap jewelry is an alloy of copper and other metals which can oxidize and turn green when exposed to water/other chemicals.
Not a chemist but I’ve taken a few chemistry courses in my uni days. The reaction that causes the bubbling is basically this. Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate or NaHCO3 when dissolved in water and with energy put in, in the form of heat the facilitates a reaction in which CO2 escapes as a gas and the sodium bicarbonate (a weak base) is converted to sodium carbonate a considerably stronger base. Not as Alkali as bleach or Lye or potash for example but it’s the difference between a pH of 8.x to one around 10 or 11. Whereas bleach is more on the order of 12ish and NaOH upwards of 13. My guess is that this then reacts with the aluminum and the Silver Sulphate and then created some kind of salt but that’s just my speculation
I worked! A 50 years old lady’s silver belt that was hand made 50 years ago given to me for my mom. I never thought my belt will ever looked the same. It’s bright and shiny! However, I reused the left over baking soda from the bowl and used a bush to brush through the belt again. It’s looks almost brand new. Thank you SO much for sharing. Oh, I used a lot of baking soda because my belt is pretty long. I didn’t want to repeat it, so go all the way folks!
Just want to add to this: after removing jewelry I found using a small toothbrush with dish soap to be very effective to get the last of the tarnish off. I used this on my silver rope necklace and it came out like new. Proved to be a very good way to get the small grains of the leftover baking soda off as well as grease from sweat, oils, etc. and then to use a rag to wipe down after.
Thank you so much!!! I had. Bracelet Rut I found… 8+ years ago. I never cleaned it when I found it. Just washed it. I stopped wearing it because it looked nasty. And put it away. I am now just starting to go trough my stuff and getting rid of stuff that just doesn’t make me happy. I found my bracelet. And thought of getting it professionally cleaned. But I was like, when, I don’t know meanwhile I will look I. YouTube to see if there is a cleaning solution to make at home…. Your article came up, and cleaned, oh my lord!!! So inexpensive, so fast, so easy! Thank you! It cost me $ o because I had everything in hand… thank you for sharing your knowledge 💗.
I used your method and I’m very happy with the result, the only problem is my silver ring which was very tarnished, now it’s much lighter but very matte, it doesn’t have it’s old shine. Is there a way to polish it at home safely? I found some info about very high grade polishing paper but I’ve never used it on jewelry and i don’t know if it’s safe
This worked like a charm. I had to do it twice on my sterling silver pendant and chain. I was a little worried about the gems in it (garnet and period) but there’s no damage to the stones. It’s incredibly shiny and beautiful again! The comment above mentioned making sure that the silver touches the aluminum and I think that’s an important step. Thank you so much for sharing this article.
If this method doesn’t work good enough, try tightly wrapping the silver and baking soda in foil (with the ends open for water to enter) and drop it in a pot of boiling (salted) water. Immediately turn off the heat and allow it to fizz and bubble for 3 minutes or so. I could smell the silver sulfide coming off, and when I unwrapped the chain I noticed the tarnish transferred onto the foil. I repeated this method a few times to restore a wheat chain back to new condition. Definitely worth doing this to achieve the result. 🙏
Alot of people when asked about silver being good for jewelry say “no” or something like “it is the worst metal” because of tarnish.. Well alot seem to be lazy. Silver also for some reason can shine more than gold! Say what you want about silver, I love it. Just because it is cheaper than gold does not make it less a noble metal or a cheap metal.
hey, I have a 6.5mm Santorini Necklace in 60cm 925sterling and it’s pretty tarnished and lost it’s original shine. It has lots of little grooves and links that are hard to get in for cleaning. Should I just use this method or bring it to a Jeweler who powerwash and polishes it? I don’t think he is able to apply a new coat of Rhodium but I couldn’t get it clean myself using a silverclean cloth and an ultrasonic cleaner.. thx for the help in advance 🙂
I went to the thrift store cos I was bored and wanted to get something that’s looks good and is inexpensive And I got 2 rings one looked tarnished so I wanted to look at what can remove it So I hope it works I’ll up date after I do it if it worked or not Scientifically it should Update:it worked like a crane it was bronze and it no longer looks black
Man I barely comment on anything but this is legit. I’m in love with this lazy method since there’s no scrubbing involved 😀 My necklace looks brand new, wow. BUT there was some smell like rotten eggs in the process 😅 might have to do smth with the reaction idk. Anyways, no smell after shortly rinsing equipment and the necklace off 👍
Wow, I was amazed at this method. for silver jewelry. I had a gold bracelet and wore it into the pool. The bracelet has silver indented ridges on it. Turned the ridges black. I tried this method and it worked. Got a tooth pick and cleaned the ridges out. Bracelet looks brand new. Thank you very much!
i have a 22 inch cuban link chain thats like 20 dollars, very cheap, it tarnished very quickly around the clasp, in like a week or 2 it was completely tarnished (just that part) would this work for my chain? i dont want to like ruin it more than it already is if my chains made of like different material
I had my rings on while I had to use lime sulfate, and even though I was wearing gloves, it still managed to get my hands wet, which turned my settling silver rings to bronze color. I was so devastated 😭 Cause they are custom made from Russia. I’m greatful that I came across your article by chance, I was able to restore them to beauty. Unfortunately, I also find out one of my rings was actually fake. But I’m still very happy
My silver jewellery chains and earring studs reacted, for some reason, with the silver liquid cleaner I’ve used before with no problem. Perhaps it was old. The silver came out of the liquid extremely tarnished, and I thought ruined forever. I used the method in this article, and the silver came out shiny and like new. Thank you to Luke Zion Jewelry.
My ex-bf gave me a very delicate necklace I wear everyday. It became tarnished but idk why? It wasn’t sitting in my jewelry box 🧐I thought jewelry tarnished from not wearing it 🤷♀️ My ex has since passed away from Pancreatic Cancer but I still have one of the lovely memories of him. This article was spot on! My necklace is no longer tarnished…it’s shiny..like the day he gave it to me. Ty for sharing.
Incredible I’m now about to be 45 and I have a bunch of silver jewelry that I need to clean. So I look up a gentle way to clean them. And I find this method which is literally the first method I ever used to clean silver back when I was like 5 years old😂 I used to watch a bunch of DIY shows and still do 😆❤️
Thank you! I found a ring I bought in Australia this morning organizing my closet. It only took 60 seconds to get the tarnish off. I am so happy to be able to wear it today! Tomorrow is the birthday of my friend Prem Rawat and it’s why I was visiting Australia to spend time with him when I bought the ring as a memento.
I just used this technique today (V-Day) on two antique bracelets I bought at an estate sale. Although, personally, I like the old tarnished look, many do not. Being as this is to be gifts the shine is expected. Let the new wearers tarnish them naturally and I’ll refer them to this instructional! Happy Valentine’s Day All
So it helped my SEVERELY tarnished sterling solver chain. It didnt come up that good but it definitely made it cleaner. I think i will have to go to a jeweler to get it done professionally, but at least now it doesnt look like ive rolled it in the mud 😂 just a tiny bit dull lol. (yes i did use a polishing cloth after i dried it, didnt make it sparkle, just made it clean)
This looks great for all silver jewelry, but we have a nice designer piece with a pearl, (given as a gift from a dearly departed aunt, so has high sentimental value as well). I know pearls are delicate and dissolve with vinegar. Will this method harm the pearl? (I also have a white gold over silver ring w/ cz that has tarnished. Nothing special, but would like to clean this too without turning the cz cloudy if possible.)
Would this work on Indian Silver. Had hoped to have my Rahjastani horse chromed having had an elaborately carved lamp also of Indian Silver chromed. The company doing the electro plating refused saying there were joins and whatever…… would seep into the horse! I now have a black metal horse! Does anyone have any ideas? J