A few people have been asking me what to do about keeping their rings clean during this covid-19 / coronavirus pandemic because we are all washing our hands for 20-30 seconds many times each day. Many of course take their rings off when they wash their hands and then put them back on, so they are conscious that this may be a way of carrying the virus on the jewellery.
And if you do leave your rings on whilst washing your hands, will this cause them any harm?
And with all of this hand washing and hand cream, our rings can quickly look dull with soap or cream residue. So people would like to know how to safely and quickly wash their rings at home to keep them clean and sparkly.
The advice here in this article only applies to jewellery made from precious metal (เงินสเตอร์ลิง, ทอง, platinum, palladium) and with precious or semi-precious stones. This advice also only applies to rings with hard stones like diamond, ทับทิม, ไพลิน, aquamarine, tourmaline, garnet, อเมทิสต์, peridot, topaz, ซิทรีน. If your ring contains a sensitive stone like an emerald, opal or tanzanite or an organic gem like a pearl, amber or coral do not follow this advice as water and detergents will damage them. Rings with these materials are ideally to be left unworn during this pandemic and are best only cleaned by a jeweller.
Also, do not follow this advice for costume jewellery, which usually does not like being washed at all and can be damaged or rust with water and detergents.