Video:How to Clean and Care for Pearls

Transcript:How to Clean and Care for Pearls

Hello, my name is Nanami Shiiki. I'm with Silverscape Designs in Northampton and today I'm going to tell you about cleaning and caring for your pearls.

Store Pearls Properly

Pearls by nature are very easily scratched, and can be damaged. So you want to make sure you're keeping them away from other jewelry and also away from other gem stones. So when you're storing your pearls you want to make sure that you're keeping them in a small pouch, something alone and away from excessive heat and dryness. So it's good to keep them with a little bit of air. Don't keep them in a safety deposit box; it's too dry and contained.

Wear Pearls Carefully

When you are wearing your pearls you want to make sure you're putting your pearls on after all of your cosmetics and beauty products are on; perfumes, hair products all go on first and then your pearls. Because the chemicals in those products can actually eat away at the pearls and that cannot be replaced.

Cleaning Pearls

In terms of cleaning your pearls you really want to make sure that every time that you wear them and take them off that you're wiping them down with a soft cloth. You can get these as most jewelry stores. You want to just make sure that you're wiping them down, removing any excess oils from your body. It keeps them, the silk clean and it will also reduce the times you have to actually wash them.

Periodically you do need to cleanse your pearls and the best way to do that is to either use a pearl cleaner, a cleaner specifically designed for pearls, and you're just going to submerge your pearls, swish them around a little bit, it doesn't take too long. Dry them off with a soft cloth and let them dry at least 24 hours lying flat. You want to make sure that the silk in between the pearls dries thoroughly. If it's damp it's going to trap dirt.

If you don't have any jewelry cleaner on hand that specifically designed for pearls, you can just use a very mild detergent, like ivory liquid soap and warm water, and again you're just going to submerge the pearls for a few seconds, swish them around a little bit and then dry them off and lay them out to dry.

Long Term Pearl Care

If you're wearing your pearls frequently you want to keep in mind that you really should have them restrung professionally about once a year, that way they'll give you a longer life for your pearls and it will keep them from breaking unexpectedly.

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