The ultimate home cleaning for a diamond? a ramble

[Amphoteric]

A note of advice to those that use a bowl to soak rings in...make sure it is a bright, colorful bordering on obnoxious and is dedicated to this use. My aunt had her rings soaking in a ramekin and one of her sisters was over for dinner and did the dishes. The visiting sister just grabbed the ramekin and dumped it out to clean, by which point she realized that the rings were down the drain. Luckily, the rings were recovered from the trap. But, I heard this same kind of story all the time at my grandmother's shop. Even if everyone in your house knows the rules, visitors may not.

I hate to to be the science nerd that ruins the party...Micellar water is a surfactant...it reduces the surface tension of liquids...just like most every kind of detergent on the market. It may be very safe for skin, but could be a very expensive alternative to Dawn. I don't know which brand you use, but they usually contain a bunch of other stuff to manage the pH, preservatives (often citric acid and or salts), sugars, natural (or not) fragrance, and things to moisten skin. Those could build up on a gem and, at least theoretically, damage gold.

I know what micellar water is and what is composed of. Either way, it works for me, and much better than dish soap. My rings look like they were professionally cleaned after a good soak and nothing else has ever gotten them that clean. I use hand sanitizer hundreds of times a day for work and nothing has removed the residue better.

 

[MarionC]

I used bleach to clean my rings (it does a great job!) until I found out it affects the molecular structure of the metal.

 

[rockysalamander]

I know what micellar water is and what is composed of. Either way, it works for me, and much better than dish soap. My rings look like they were professionally cleaned after a good soak and nothing else has ever gotten them that clean. I use hand sanitizer hundreds of times a day for work and nothing has removed the residue better.

Cool. I often soak things with dried on sanitizer in alcohol in a sealed container. Soak, scrub. Soak, scrub. Soak, scrub. I'm glad you found a good solution.

 

[KKJohnson]

Making me want to visit the jeweler for a clean and quick browse around the store

 

[steviedsgirl]

Quite by accident I discovered that the "frother" attachment on my espresso machine makes a great jewelry steam cleaner! It gets the oil and goop off of stones and melts the nasty out of the settings. I have a set of surgical tweezers that I use to hold onto the jewelry, and I keep a damp paper towel underneath to catch anything that might come loose. Amelia looked clean when I first received her....then I gave her a few steam baths.

 

[MarionC]

Quite by accident I discovered that the "frother" attachment on my espresso machine makes a great jewelry steam cleaner! It gets the oil and goop off of stones and melts the nasty out of the settings. I have a set of surgical tweezers that I use to hold onto the jewelry, and I keep a damp paper towel underneath to catch anything that might come loose. Amelia looked clean when I first received her....then I gave her a few steam baths.

Thank you!
I could not find a jeweler steamer in France, but I'm pretty sure they have espresso machines! Glad to hear it works.