The Importance of Cleaning Your Jewellery

Denise Finch

Feb 4, 2025

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We all now know the importance of washing our hands with soap and water. The Coronavirus pandemic of 2020 brought this to life for all of us.

We also understood the importance of avoiding touching potentially germ-laden surfaces.

However, the guidelines at the time failed to mention the crucial importance of cleaning your jewellery, particularly rings.

Many surfaces contact the rings we wear daily, potentially harbouring hidden bacteria and viruses. Ensuring we clean our jewellery is, therefore, very important and should be part of any daily hygiene routine.

Our Jewellery may harbour Bacteria and Viruses

At the start of 2020, global authorities introduced new hygiene guidelines to protect the public. We were told to wash our hands with soap and water, for at least 20 seconds, many times throughout the day.

We also know that, when soap and water aren't available, we should use hand sanitiser with a minimum alcohol content of 70%.

Instructions emphasised the importance of avoiding contact with surfaces potentially contaminated by the virus.

Public places were deep cleaned and repeatedly so. Experts believed that the virus could remain on surfaces for many hours - even up to 72 hours on some surfaces such as stainless steel. We were told that this factor contributed to the spread of the disease.

But, despite all of this, it's surprising how we forget to regularly clean our jewellery, particularly the rings on our fingers which come into contact with many surfaces over a single day.

A Nurse Called for Action

A healthcare worker from Australia caught the attention of the world's media, in a social media post, when she called for people to start washing their jewellery every night.

Removing Our Rings

Researchers recognised that removing a large ring could beneficially aid in spreading the disease.

In the lead up to the Coronavirus outbreak, several photographs emerged in the press and on the Kensington Royals Instagram account featuring the Duchess of Cambridge fulfilling engagements, minus her engagement ring. During a visit to a hospital in January the Duchess had removed her engagement ring before her visit.

Keeping jewellery-wearing to a bare minimum when visiting hospitals helped to protect people at a higher risk of succumbing to viruses.

Of course, it's not just us ladies that need to remove our rings. Men should too as often men wear one or more rings on their fingers.

The Problem Caused by Repeated Hand Washing

Whilst we may all washing our hands more often now, this can lead to the problem of dry, cracked skin.

Cracked and open skin could lead to infections in itself.

The result is that we then use more hand cream to counteract dry hands. Creams and lotions can easily collect under our rings and in the crevices of claws and create a breeding ground for germs.

But it is not just lotions that collect under our rings. Skin mixed with natural oils from our skin can also accumulate.

We are not yet sure if germs living on rings can lead to the spreading of viruses. Studies quoted in the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States stated that the skin underneath rings may contain a higher level of germs than similar areas of skin without rings on.

A rather stomach-churning picture, we know ... hence the cleaning of our rings should be paramount in our hygiene routine.

Chlorine-based sanitisers Aren't Always the Answer

A collection of debris hiding under the stone or the claws in a ring should be cleansed away. This is best done by washing it away with a soapy solution, rather than sanitiser which will sit on the top of the debris.

Sanitisers should never be used with porous gemstones such as turquoise or pearls. Neither water nor sanitisers should be used on marcasite jewellery.

The alcohol or chlorine-based sanitisers may also damage gold over time as they can react with the copper alloy in the gold.

Soap May Not Be Perfect for Our Jewellery Either

While soap and water are excellent for removing the debris and germs from a surface, it can also leave a residue on your beautiful gemstone jewellery.

The residue can dull the stone. Indeed, many of us think our jewellery is clean when we bathe and shower with them on - indeed this is the main reason why most people never take their jewellery off!

However, the soap residue left on gemstones means the light can't pass through the stone as effectively and therefore it loses sparkle.

It surprises our customers when they remove their rings and we give them a quick clean to see how much they sparkle afterwards.

The Best Way to Clean Jewellery

Take Your Rings Off to Clean Them

The only way of cleaning our jewellery thoroughly is by taking it off. It is the only way to reach all the nooks and crannies.

This includes cleaning behind any stones, around the clasps and the settings, etc.

How You Should Clean Your Rings

It's essential to 'wash away' the germs and debris collected under and around your rings.

The best way to do this is to use a gentle dishwashing detergent, rather than soap. As previously mentioned, this is because it won't leave a film on any stones, as soap may do.

Add the detergent to warm water and leave your rings or other jewellery to soak for a few minutes. Take a very soft brush (a baby's toothbrush or a makeup brush is ideal for this) and brush under the stone, around the claws and arms of the ring with circular motions and prodding to reach every area. The same is true of our earrings and pendants - which we inadvertently touch many times a day.

Rinse and dry with a soft cloth.

Wash bands, like wedding bands, in the same way, or more wipe more frequently throughout the day with anti-bacterial wipes, but I would also rinse with water afterwards and dry with a soft cloth. This is ideal for key workers who will probably only wear only their wedding bands.

How Often Should We Clean Our Rings?

Experts advise removing rings and washing them separately each time you wash your hands, especially during periods when germs are prevalent.

While this may be the most foolproof way of stopping the spread of infection, in my humble opinion, it is not ideal and it is a little bit far-fetched to think that it will.

We easily forget to pick up our rings after washing our hands in public places, leading to misplacement or theft. If you have ever experienced this, as I have, you probably will never want to do it again.

There is also a risk, albeit small, that the ring will fall down the plug, land on the floor and disappear out of sight (why do things always seem to roll for miles when dropped?!).

I believe, and it is just my opinion, that once a day is easily doable.

Maybe We Should Not Wear Our Rings

During the pandemic many thought that it was safest to remove our rings and to leave them at home while this virus was rife. In an article in the USA TODAY, Rochelle Walensky, chief of the division of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital, suggested this very thing.

What About Your Watch?

Your watch is also important to clean.

While it may not come into contact with as many surfaces as a ring on a hand, we still lean against many surfaces during the day if we are sleeveless or we touch our watch many times, for instance, if we need to pull our sleeve back to read the time.

We also handle the watch by just putting it on and removing it each day.

Wipe a metal bracelet, the case, and the dial with an antibacterial wipe; be careful not to get them too wet, and dry them thoroughly immediately with a soft cloth.

In our jewellers, we change many batteries throughout a working day and they can carry a build-up of dirt and debris.

Do not submerge your watch in water to wash it, unless it is fully waterproof.