A new year is the perfect time for fresh starts—including taking a little extra care of the jewelry you wear every day. The pieces you love are made from precious metals and gemstones designed to last, and with just a bit of attention, they can continue to look beautiful for years to come.
What Can Wear Down Your Jewelry?
Fine jewelry is made to be worn, but everyday life can take a toll over time. Contact with skin, lotions, soaps, and daily activities can cause subtle wear—often in ways you don’t notice right away.
At Glitters Fine Jewelry, we work with 14k and 18k gold, along with platinum, to strike the right balance between beauty and durability. Yellow gold can develop small surface scratches and lose some of its shine with regular wear, which is why occasional professional polishing helps restore its glow. White gold gets its bright finish from a rhodium coating that naturally wears down over time and may need refreshing. Platinum is exceptionally durable, but even it benefits from periodic polishing to maintain its luster.
We have several different types of home jewelry cleaners here at Glitters. Feel free to stop in and discuss which one might be best for your needs!
When to Come Into Glitters
Regular home care helps, but professional checkups are key to keeping your jewelry secure and looking its best. We recommend bringing your jewelry into Glitters Fine Jewelry twice a year so our jewelers can inspect and care for your pieces.
Different gemstones require different handling. Some stones, like emeralds and opals, are porous or treated and can be damaged by soaking or improper cleaning. If you’re ever unsure how to care for a piece, it’s always better to bring it in and let us handle it for you.
Everyday wear can slowly loosen prongs, weaken chain links, bend metals, wear down earring
backs, or loosen gemstones. These changes are often easy to miss—but catching them early can prevent bigger issues later. Over time, fine scratches—especially on wedding bands—can also dull the surface of gold, platinum, and silver. Professional polishing can bring back that shine without unnecessary metal loss, often making a piece feel like new again.
Gold is naturally malleable, which allows for beautiful craftsmanship, but it also means pieces can bend from an accidental bump or drop. If that happens, our jeweler Robyn can carefully restore your jewelry to its original shape while preserving its beauty and value.
One of the most important things we check are the prongs that hold your gemstones in place. Even the best craftsmanship can loosen over time—and while stones can often be replaced, the memories attached to them can’t.
For Today—and for the Years Ahead
Start the year by making sure your jewelry looks just as beautiful in 2026 as it did the first time you wore it. With regular care and twice-yearly checkups, the pieces you love can continue to shine now and be enjoyed for generations.
