The best way to care for diamond jewelry is lukewarm water, a drop of mild dish soap and a soft toothbrush, about once a month. Store each piece separately and dry.
Diamonds have a hardness of 10 on the Mohs scale, the top of the scale. That applies to natural diamonds as much as to lab-grown diamonds, that is laboratory-grown diamonds. In everyday life, hardly anything scratches them. They don't lose their shape. They don't age.
What they can lose is their sparkle. And that's almost always due to a single reason: grease.
Skin oil, hand cream, soap, perfume. These things build up in layers on the stone and on the setting. No drama. But over weeks, a stone that refracts light becomes a stone that looks dull. This is not a material defect. This is a lack of care. Why a good piece still lasts a lifetime: read Jewelry as an investment.
What really helps
You don't need an expensive cleaning kit. You need lukewarm water, a drop of mild dish soap, and a soft toothbrush. Soak the stone, brush gently, rinse thoroughly. Done. Once a month is enough if you wear the jewelry regularly.
What you don't need: aggressive cleaners, chlorine, bleach. Please use ultrasonic cleaners only after checking with us. They won't harm the diamond, but they can attack the setting.
What diamonds can really withstand
Hardness level 10 means: no other material scratches a diamond. Except another diamond. This is important to know if you store several pieces together. Two diamonds touching each other in a drawer can damage each other. Not because they are soft, but because they are equally hard.
What diamonds cannot withstand is a hard blow to the right spot. Along the cleavage plane of the crystal, a diamond can break. This rarely happens, but it does happen. No problem with everyday wear. For gardening, sports, or heavy manual labor: remove jewelry.
Common mistakes
Storing jewelry in the bathroom is a common mistake. Humidity and temperature changes are not good for solid gold either. A dry place, ideally each piece in its own ANNARELLE box, is all you need. Separately, because diamonds scratch other diamonds. No shared compartment, no loose bag where the pieces touch each other.
And please: don't sleep with jewelry on. Not because the stone will be damaged, but because settings suffer under pressure. A prong that bends minimally is enough for a stone to no longer sit securely enough.
And if something does happen?
A bent prong or a loose stone is no reason to give up on a piece. We repair it. A piece that gets repaired is one that does not need to be replaced. Write to us through our contact form.
Pour toujours.
