It’s that time of the year again. The bright lights, the dazzling outfits…and the sparkling jewelry. Jewelry often gets overlooked when dressing for the holidays, but what adds more sparkle to an outfit?

I found this easy jewelry cleaning  recipe in the Huffington Post that won’t take you long and the luminous rewards will be many!

Just remember: no toothpaste!

Here are a few suggestions for an at-home do-it-yourself cleaning that can really help brighten up your favorite jewelry items. This method will work on yellow or white gold or platinum jewelry set with most gemstones including diamonds, sapphires, rubies, tanzanite, amethyst, blue topaz and many others. Do not soak pearls, opals, onyx, emeralds or other soft gemstones, which may be damaged by the cleaning solution.

You need to give your jewelry a good bath in a diluted solution of water and a common household non-caustic cleaning solution.

In a small jar, mix about 1/3 parts household cleaner with 2/3 parts water. I recommend either Mr. Clean, Fantastic, 409, Windex or even one of those little jars of jewelry cleaner you get at the local store. The nice thing about those is they come with a little basket and a brush. If they contain some ammonia it’s OK, but bleach can react badly with some metals.

The trick to really cleaning the back of the stone and all the hard-to-get-at little nooks and crannies is to soak the item overnight. This gives the cleaning solution a chance to dissolve the built up “stuff” in all those hard-to-reach places. After your jewelry has soaked for several hours, place a wash cloth in the bathroom sink, close the sink drain and turn on the cold water. Hold the ring firmly (it will be slippery) over the wash cloth and rinse it in the running water. You can even use a wet toothbrush to poke at the open areas of your jewelry to help remove any loose remaining “stuff.”

Sparking and ready to go! Classic wire basket lever back earrings with Charles and Colvard created round Moissanite. $435

 

A good example of a cool skin tone complimented by the right jewelry choice.

Most people naturally have a preference for gold or silver–often for life. But certain skin tones are better suited for one metal over the other.

First you need to identify whether you possess a warm or cool tone. This can be done easily enough by looking at the veins on the inside of your arm. If they are blue, you are probably tend toward a cooler skin tone. If the veins are predominantly green, you have a warm skin tone.

So what metal and stone goes with your particular type? According to one source:

Cool skin tones favor silver, platinum, and white gold. Stone colors for cool skin tones are pink, blue, purple, red, and magenta. Warm skin tones favor gold, pewter, brass, and copper. Compliment colors for warm tones are brown, green, orange, yellow, coral, and turquoise.

Of course, fashion rules are occasionally meant to be broken. If you prefer gold and you’re of the cool skin tone variety, don’t let us stop you! What looks best on you is often what you like best.

Excerpts from an email from Jay Neogi, Serenity Technology to C&C.

<<Bob: As you know when Moissanite is slightly heated in air it has a tendency to form a thin layer of SiO2 (silicon dioxide) layer over the gem and since there is a huge RI (refractive index) mismatch between SiC (Moissanite) and the thin layer of SiO2 that forms, one will see this golden tone when the thickness of this SiO2 layer reaches few nanometer. It is an inherent behavior of Moissanite (SiC) material and this behavior is well documented in various technical journals. . . . . Please note: that golden tone is just the native SiO2 that forms on Moissanite and is falsely claimed by NAGL to be the color enhancement coating.