Simple ways to clean your costume jewelry

Costume jewelry tarnishes and wears over time. Here are two simple tried and tested ways to make your jewelry shine again. 

Costume jewelry

Option 1

You can watch a video tutorial here 

What you'll need:

• A bowl
• Tin foil
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 Tbsp baking soda
• 1 cup hot tap water (not boiling)

1. Line a bowl with tinfoil.

2. Pour 1 Tbsp salt and 1 Tbsp baking soda onto the tin foil, mix.

3. Add jewelry to the mixture in the bowl and distribute it as evenly as possible.

4. Pour the hot water into the bowl and mix the jewelry around.

5. Fold the foil closed and let sit for 30 minutes to an hour.

6. Rinse jewelry in a bowl of cold water.

7. Rub jewelry dry with a clean cloth.

Option 2

What you'll need 

• A bowl
• Food grade citric acid - you can buy this at most grocery stores and health food stores (Citric acid is also an amazing eco friendly way to remove hard water build up around your house so it's worth having on hand!)
• A scrub brush
• Hot tap water

1. Pour hot tap water into a bowl.

2. Add approximately 1 Tbsp of citric acid to the water and stir.

3. Add the jewelry to the hot water and citric acid and let sit for about 30 minutes.

4. Scrub the jewelry and then swish in the citric acid mixture one more time.

5. Rinse jewelry under the tap and wipe dry.

Voila, your costume jewelry is like new again! 

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Love you to bits, 

Sam

Owner, curator and creator @purpleastervintage