Silver jewellery needs looking after, and Pandora is no exception. If not properly cared for, silver will tarnish. This post offers you a tutorial on how you can keep your jewellery looking nice and shiny.
Before I start, however, I will warn you: never, ever ever use chemical liquid silver cleaners to clean your Pandora jewellery. These will ruin it. Chemical cleaners are too harsh, and will remove all of the oxidisation that enhance the detail on your charms. It’s a no-go.
Prevention is better than the cure
There are things you can do to slow down the tarnishing process. Tarnishing will happen much more quickly if you let your jewellery come into contact with agents such as perfume, salty air, sulphur, skin creams, hairspray and chlorine. For example, you should never go swimming with your jewellery on. Furthermore, the pH of your own skin can affect how quickly your jewellery tarnishes: if your skin is more acidic, the jewellery will tarnish quicker. Unfortunately, there’s not an awful lot you can do, if that is the case.
Cleaning your Jewellery
1) The Pandora store
Most Pandora stores have a sonic cleaning machine called the tumbler. Pandora stores as a rule will offer a complimentary cleaning service – just take in your bracelet and ask in store.
2) Warm water and dish soap/washing up liquid
This is an easy method to do from home if you want to just give your jewellery a quick clean – and it’s recommended by Pandora themselves. Firstly, get a bowl of warm water and add a couple of drops of mild washing up liquid (or dish soap). Then, once it’s bubbly, pop your jewellery into the bowl. Note: don’t put your pearl, cameo, wood or leather items into the bowl: the water will damage them! Let them sit for a couple of minutes.
Now what you need is a soft-bristled toothbrush. Using the toothbrush, gently scrub your charms until you are satisfied that they’re clean and shiny.
Dry your charms off carefully using a soft towel. Note: Dry them individually, else you’ll scratch them!
Et voila. You are done :)
3) Polishing cloth
A polishing cloth is a great method to keep your items looking sparkling. Simply rub the silver parts of your jewellery with the cloth – you should see dark marks on the cloth where the tarnish is rubbing right off the piece.
If you’re in the US, then Pandora have proper polishing cloths available to buy for $5 – lucky you!
However, if you live in other regions, the little polishing cloths that Pandora give out free just won’t do the job. They’re pretty ineffectual. They are much smaller than the US version, and have the little Pandora ‘O’ all over them. You won’t be able to see much tarnish rubbing off on them when you use them.
What you need to do is find a proper silver polishing cloth from elsewhere. If you’re in the UK, then Town Talk do a great silver polishing cloth. It’s available from Amazon for around £2, so it’s very cheap.
Storing Your Jewellery
The first thing to say here is NOT to store your jewellery in the Pandora presentation box that it comes with. These are not anti-tarnish, and keeping the jewellery in the box can actually cause it to tarnish faster! Also, while it may seem obvious, you should not store your jewellery anywhere humid, such as the bathroom. Moisture will increase the speed with which the silver tarnishes.
Instead, you could opt for:
- an anti-tarnish jewellery box or jewellery pouch. Pandora don’t currently offer either of these, so you would have to locate your own.
- a zip-lock bag. These make a perfectly good solution to storing your jewellery, as they are airtight. However, you should store your pieces in their own individual bags, to prevent scratching.
- a regular jewellery box with an anti-tarnish strip or silica gel packet placed inside it.
That concludes the basics of caring for your jewellery. If you follow these basic guidelines, then your jewellery should be looking lovely and shiny for a long time to come.
Hi gorgeous! Wow. Very informative here! By the way, how about the Pave charms and CZ charms ie.Morning butterfly? Also, do you clean it every once a week if you wear it on a daily basis? xoxo, Ann
Hi! You are absolutely fine to clean your CZ charms as you would the normal silver jewellery. The only things you should be careful with are pearl, cameos, wood and leather. I don’t clean my bracelets every week – they probably end up getting a deep clean and polish every month. You only need to clean it if you think it’s looking a little tarnished and could use a bit of a shine! :) xxxx
Hi gorgeous! Hahaha! Once every month sounds good ;)) thank you so much for the tips :)) xoxo :D
You are welcome! ;) xxxx
Hi Ellie. Are the techniques mentioned above also applicable for charms containing cubic zirconia e.g the peacock charm ? It wouldn’t do any damage right?
Hi Archana, I’m sorry that I missed your comment! Yes, you can clean your charms containing cubic zirconia this way. It’s only pearls and wood beads that you need to watch out for really. :) Hope that helps and sorry for the delayed reply!
Ellie
It’s ok Ellie :) I also wanted to know how to care for the bracelet. Do I follow the same method for it too?
Can you clean your pandora to much? I do my ever week thank you
Hi Tracey! If you’re just gently cleaning them with the methods described here, I can’t imagine it will do your pieces any harm. You certainly don’t need to clean them once a week but it’s pretty much up to you how often you do it! :)
Ellie
How would you clean the barrel of your pandora bracelet once it is tarnished?
Erm, I would probably work on it with a polishing cloth – a proper one, not the one that Pandora give you. :) If that doesn’t work, you could always take it into the store and see if they can give it a turn in the tumbler for you!
Good to know this care guide as pandora never said anything. At the moment my bracelet has tarnished spots since the sale. I thought i ruined it by cleaning my hands with soap and water, and such but it seems after i read this i could be tarnishing it with my skin.?
Puerto rico pandora doesnt sell the tarnish storing bags As a friend went to ask a while back and told her no. But what can we expect since they dont give out catalogs, had to go to a authorized dealer to give us catalogs.
Oh good, I’m very glad to hear that it was useful! Soap and water shouldn’t tarnish your bracelet, so it does sound like it could possibly be contact with your skin – especially if you use creams etc. :)
We don’t get the anti-tarnish bags here in the UK either. :( I just keep all mine in a jewellery box with some silica gel sachets in and that works a treat. They all get worn pretty regularly anyway! :)
Oh good, I’m very glad to hear that it was useful! Soap and water shouldn’t tarnish your bracelet, so it does sound like it could possibly be contact with your skin – especially if you use creams etc. :)
We don’t get the anti-tarnish bags here in the UK either. :( I just keep all mine in a jewellery box with some silica gel sachets in and that works a treat. They all get worn pretty regularly anyway! :)
I went to the one of the Pandora stores in the Philippines and they gave me a polishing cloth that tide me over once I got back to Australia but it didn’t have any O’s embossed and did a good job, the cloth is almost a dark-grey, and was a lot better than the one I was given in Australia (the one with O’s.) But the dish-soap method was the best, it got rid of the tarnishing and trapped dirt in my bracelet, since the air pollution in the Philippines was quite high, my bracelet looked grubby every third day – but that could be because since I had to lather on the mosquito repellent and sunscreen!
I’d only use the polishing cloths as a stop-gap if you are travelling.
One of the Pandora staff back at home, asked when I got my bracelet. He dropped his jaw when I said it’s only been six months (boyfriend got it on my 24th, and it’s my first proper silver jewellery). Apparently my bracelet still looked like new to them – before I got the ‘freebie’ polishing cloth I’d store my bracelets in a spare jewellery pouch and in an airtight container away from sunlight, though that could be a bit far haha! The sales assistant told me that it’s quite rare for customers to take care of their bracelets and I was surprised, because why wouldn’t you – it’s something my boyfriend thoughtfully picked out, and that it’s quite an investment once you have a lot of charms, but also it’s pretty to wear when it’s always shiny!
Hi Melanie! Thanks very much for this, it was an interesting read!
I know what you mean about taking care of your jewellery. Pandora is really popular here in the UK, but the number of tarnished and dirty bracelets I see is unbelievable! I think a lot of people just never take theirs off, or that they leave to tarnish when they’re not wearing them. It doesn’t make sense to me either, as Pandora is really rather expensive and usually has a lot of meaning behind it :)
It sounds like you take wonderful care of your bracelets, though, haha. I know that I certainly treasure mine – I don’t go to extreme lengths but I have silica gel packs in my jewellery boxes and I give them a good clean every couple of months or so. I also use the dish soap method – I then use the Town Talk polishing cloth once they are dry and together that works wonders!
Thanks for commenting :)
Hi Ellie,
Here in Singapore, Pandora is starting to charge a nominal sum if we want to get our bracelets/charms cleaned. Prices are not very friendly, something along the line of S$30 for one bracelet + 10-20 charms. That translates to somewhere around GBP12-13. And this is only for silver bracelet. For 14k gold or rose gold, price can double. :(
That’s why I am now looking around how I can clean them myself. :)
Hi! :) That’s such a shame, I always thought it was really great customer service that they offered free bracelet cleaning :/ Especially considering how much of a premium we pay for the jewellery.
I don’t blame you for wanting to clean them at home. I often prefer to do it myself as I know that I will put my bracelets back together exactly how I like them, haha. :)
Hi! Im new to this pandora thing. Just bought a couple of charms and i stupidly wore it on the same side as my watch. I can see scratches :( pls tell me there is a way to get rid of the scratches :(
Hi Cher, I think that sometimes scratches can be polished out – depending on how bad they are. I don’t have any experience with doing this though, so it might be best to ask a professional jeweller for help :) I will say that most of my charms are covered in little scratches from everyday wear – I think some scratches are inevitable and so I try not to worry about it too much :)
hi I’m from the Philippines and because of the heat and sun here I wouldn’t dare go out without sunblock. I only had my bracelet for 3months and it’s been tarnishing really quick. I guess it’s because of the creams I have been using. I have the anti tarnish pouch and the polishing cloth. So everyday before I keep them, I polish them to remove whatever cream they got from wearing them. I wear them everyday since I got them. I’m just wondering if the tarnishing can become permanent because of the regular exposures to different creams.
Thanks
Hi Cathy! I don’t think tarnishing can become permanent (as far as I’m aware) – tarnished silver jewellery is almost always retrievable with a bit of TLC. However, of course, the worse it tarnishes, the more difficult it will be to restore it to health :) It sounds like your creams are probably having an effect on your jewellery and it will continue to tarnish as long as it is exposed to it.
I normally wear my stacked together minimal two at a time or I wear all 4 together. Will it harm my Morano charms if they bump into each other?
Hi would like to check can we use Town Talk silver polishing spray for Pandora charms & bracelets??
Thanks!
Hi, would it be bad to wear your Pandora bracelet when your sleeve is a bit wet? I get my sleeve wet all the time!
Love your website! Please reply! Thanks!
Hi ms. Ellie..would appreciate very much your advice… i have 3 bracelets full of charms and 4 bangles with 5 to 9 charms.. im too busy and sometimes lazy to take them out of the bracelets and bangles… sometimes they stay on for 3 weeks.. is this okay?… will this loosen the bracelets and bangles faster?.. my brilliant son said not to worry because there’s not much gravity when im not wearing them so the bracelets and bangles won’t be affected much if they are just lying on their ziplock bags on the jewelry box…
I love your site, btw, it’s so informative and useful… I look forward every morning for your posts and updates…
Thanks in advance!!!… ?
When I bought my girlfriends Pandora bracelet and charms which were all bought from our local Pandora shop they have always looked very dull and yet all her
friends retain there bright silver high gleam. They are all original pieces
from my local Pandora shop can you explain this my girlfriend never wares it
to her work or uses makeup I just cant understand this I have just bought a
cleaning kit from my Pandora shop but II am not satisfied with this as it makes
feel really sad for my girlfriend. HELP.??????
Hi Eddie,
I have had mine for 10 years. This is what I do to keep mine looking brand new and my 5yr old granddaughter is following the instructions. I learned this working with fine jewelry store.
Always spay deodorant, perfume, hair spray etc,before putting your silver jewelry on!!
Get a good silver polishing cloth for sterling silver, Walmart has a very good one.
Every time you remove your jewelry Polish it with your cloth. Just run the cloth over it 3or 4times this is usually sufficient.
Now wrap the bracelet in polishing cloth.
You can put in a zip lock bag to keep it air tight. I just wrap mine in the cloth very well and put back in the box that my bracelet was placed in when I made my purchase.
The polishing cloth at Walmart is pretty large it
Will have one side that is white,polizh with this side first.
The second part is gray, polish with this one next to give that extra beautiful shine.
I normally cut these in half or thirds depending on the size needed to wrap the piece. They cost about $8.00.
Hi… I’m in the Philippines… I accidentaly dropped my pandora bracelet together with the charms in a silver cleaner… So badly it all damages espavially the color… I called the pandora cust. Serv. Here but sad to say they dont hAve any remedy… Can you please HELP ME?…. Thanks…
I store mine in smaller Ziploc bags with a sheet of Pandora paper (I save them from the bags after purchase) around them and individually wrap them (I have 5) and keep them in a closed jewelry box. I clean them once or twice a year. It’s worked great!