When shopping for stone jewelry, you need to be educated on everything to look for. Your jeweler can help guide you on what and how to look at stones to make sure that you can distinguish bad from good quality. This type of education can help you make better decisions without so much help when you are jewelry shopping.
To make sure your jewelry makes you look great, wear jewelry that compliments your skin tone. If you have a cool skin tone, choose jewelry with a silver tone. When wearing gemstones, try pearls or jewel-toned stones. To compliment a warm skin tone, wear gold jewelry and pieces with earth tones. Coral and turquoise also look great on those with warm skin.
When buying jewelry, you may want to consider semi-precious stones. Semi-precious stones can be found in a wide variety of colors, cuts, and price-ranges. Not only will you be able to get more for less, but, since many people choose precious stones, your semi-precious gemstone jewelry may seem ever rarer than diamonds!
If you are looking to purchase a piece of jewelry with precious stones, there are synthetic gems that are more affordable, and have a similar grade of quality as natural gems. But, remember that imitation gems which are composed of plastic elements are indeed fake, whereas synthetic gems are cultured in actual laboratories.
Every necklace, bracelet or anklet can benefit from a quality clasp. It is extremely easy to lose your valuable chains, pendants and stones with jewelry that has a flimsy clasp. For very expensive necklaces and bracelets, at least one safety clasp is recommended. You might even want to add an extra clasp on your jewelery for added protection.
Gold jewelry can be effectively cleaned with one teaspoon of ammonia, one teaspoon of dish soap, and one cup of water. The dish soap will act as a de-greaser, while the ammonia has an oxidation quality. You can use this as your regular cleaner for gold jewelry, but never use it on precious stones.
Take care of your natural and synthetic pearls by gently wiping the jewelry and stones with a damp cloth to remove traces of perspiration, oils, and dirt. Never soak the pearls in water or expose them to steam cleaners, hot water, or ultrasonic cleaners. Protect your pearl jewelry by putting it on only after you have sprayed your hair with styling products, perfume, and so on.