How to Clean Gold Rings with Care: A Francesca Guide

How to Clean Gold Rings with Care: A Francesca Guide

Want your ring to look as good as gold all year round? Learn how to clean gold rings safely and easily with our tailored gold ring care guide.

Words by Sam Bailey

It’s the most regal hue of all with a long history of being adorned by queens and kings, now fashion and jewellery forecasters have proclaimed the return of all things gold.

From Marie Claire to Vogue magazine gold, in all forms that it glitters be it yellow gold, white gold or rose gold, is making its way back in as the foundation metal for all engagement pieces and statement rings.

And with the revival of gold rings in particular, comes a need to keep them well cared for… afterall they are worth their weight in gold! So keeping their lustre will also bode well for heirloom pieces in time to come.

To keep your gold pieces shining bright, we’ve curated a list of care tips so you can learn how to clean gold rings at home (including both cleaning rose gold ring and how to clean a white gold ring).

Discover practical tips and tricks on how to clean gold ring at home below.

3 Tips On How To Clean Gold Rings At Home

With so many types on the market, each gold cleaning kit may vary, but we recommend at the very least investing in a solid gold polishing cloth - it’s easy to use, is safe for solid gold and can be folded up and carried anywhere.

The good news too is that we have our very own available for purchase at Francesca. 

Sold as a stand alone piece, no full gold cleaning kit needed - our solid gold polishing cloth will enhance the natural lustre of your gold pieces, keeping them tarnish and fade free and work as a year round tool to quickly brighten rings at a minimal effort.

Shop the solid gold cleaning cloth here.

With three main types of gold available - yellow gold, white gold and rose gold - knowing what your gold ring is made of will vary as to knowing how to clean a gold ring at home.

In brief, the quality and level of solid gold (or mix of metals) will inevitably alter the cleaning protocols and care you give it. See our bespoke guide to learning how to clean gold rings below.

• White gold
  A mix of pure gold and white metals such as nickel, silver, zinc and palladium and rhodium, the combination of elements naturally means extra care and consideration to what cleaning chemicals you use (if any) based on the potentiality to affect the metals within it.

Chemicals to strongly avoid with white gold include ammonia (found in floor, glass, carpet, multi-purpose and bathroom cleaners) and chlorine. Both can damage white gold, especially white gold plating.

To safely learn how to clean white gold ring, we recommend avoiding harsh cleaning chemicals (and chlorine pools) and sticking with a polishing cloth or microfibre towel. If it’s dirty use a gentle toothbrush to lightly scrub away impurities then rinse with lukewarm water and towel dry.

• Rose gold
  Rose gold carries similar considerations to white gold. A mix of pure gold and copper, rose gold can easily be affected by the wrong cleaning chemicals, products or cleaning methods (such as harsh scrubbing).
  
  With a copper base, it’s important to keep in mind when cleaning a rose gold ring that you don’t expose the ring to anything that may cause it to tarnish, change colour or leave a funky unwanted mark on skin (think green or grey residue).
  
  When cleaning a rose gold ring, we recommend avoiding exposing it to salt water, citrus fruits and sulfur as they are known to react badly with copper. Instead stick to a polishing cloth made for rose gold and if you need to remove grime, follow the same method as white gold and just wash in warm water and dry with a microfibre towel.
  
  One caution here: when it comes to daily wear, always avoid wearing rose gold when cleaning or freshly applying beauty products or perfume.
  
  
• Yellow gold
  Unlike the other mixed metals, the good news is with yellow gold or solid gold is that it’s the least reactive metal. So that accidental exposure to perfume, beauty products or cleaning products is likely to cause less harm or damage than if the other two gold types were exposed.
  
  In layman’s terms, the higher the carat of gold is, the less likely it will tarnish.
  
  However, reality is that most gold is mixed with alloy metals, so with this in mind, we advise the same care methods and cleaning protocols as the other gold types when wanting to clean gold ring at home.
  
  The only key difference is that yellow gold is more common so you can more easily invest in cleaning solutions such as a gold ring cleaning kit or polishing cloth.
  
  Shop our Francesca solid gold polishing cloth here.

If you’re fast discovering how fickle varying metal combinations can be when it comes to learning how to clean gold rings, why not use this to your advantage as a valuable consideration for when determining what gold ring type you invest in.

With so many beautiful designs and metal hues, we’re not one to be biased as a jewellery brand. It’s really about choosing the hue that suits you and also your lifestyle and care capacity.

For example if you’re a swimmer regularly in chlorine, a rose gold ring may not be a great idea. Consider what occasion or how often you plan to wear your ring and how your lifestyle may influence how often you can clean gold ring at home. 

However that said, in terms of gold rings we love at Francesca that are super low maintenance cleaning wise we love the following designs:

• A solid yellow gold band such as: Align Band.
• A simple diamond ring such as: Flemington Diamond Ring.
• A thin rose gold band that’s stackable such as: Dolly Ring.

To discover our full collection of gold rings available shop our solid gold ring collection here.

Alternatively, to learn more about how to clean gold rings that are specific such as how to clean diamond rings see our blog page here [insert blog link once live].