Your Hyo Silver jewelry is meant to shine. Keeping it shiny and bright is easy with proper cleaning and care. Regular cleaning of your Hyo Silver jewelry will help it retain its beauty and luster for years to come.
Banish the Tarnish
Finding that perfect jewelry piece that you immediately fall in love with is exciting! If you notice a green tint on your jewelry or finger, don’t panic! Your jewelry just needs some cleaning. Understanding why sterling silver jewelry can become tarnished and cause skin discoloration is the first step to resolving the issue. With proper cleaning, you’ll be able to restore the sparkle and shine to your Hyo Silver item.
Know the Facts: What Is Your Jewelry Made Of?
A common misconception about sterling silver causing skin discoloration is that the metal is “fake” or low quality. As a matter of fact, tarnishing is a natural chemical process that happens to sterling silver. Sterling silver (92.5%/.925) is the industry standard for silver used in jewelry. This is because pure silver is very soft and would easily bend or break. Therefore, sterling silver jewelry will be blended with another type of metal for durability and strength.
Today, the most common metal combined with sterling silver jewelry is copper. So, in this case that would mean that 92.5% of the jewelry is pure silver and 7.5% of the jewelry is copper. Even though copper is the most common alloy added, other alloy metals are sometimes used in the industry. Copper is an important part of the jewelry creation, but it can tend to create a green coloring on your skin. Keep in mind that everyone reacts differently to copper.
What Causes Discoloration & Irritation?
There are countless factors that can influence your skin, causing discoloration as well as irritation. Any type of moisture, such as humidity, showers, baths, pools, saltwater. . .even excessive sweating can cause discoloration. Everyday household items such as hairspray, body lotion, makeup, and perfumes can cause the chemical reaction known as silver tarnishing to happened to your jewelry. Sometimes a person’s skin causes silver tarnishing when the metal interacts with the fluctuating pH levels of a person’s skin.
Tarnishing is a natural reaction in silver, but the process can be hurried along with exposure to causal agents and conditions. For extra precaution when getting ready, make sure your jewelry is the last step before heading out the door, so you minimize the chance of exposure to any of these chemicals.
While household chores are a daily part of life, they can wreak havoc on your jewelry. Always remove jewelry before doing any tasks such as washing dishes, deep cleaning the kitchen, or scrubbing away scum in the bathroom. Chemicals in household products can react with and possibly damage your jewelry while causing skin irritation and/or erosion of the metal, which also causes tarnishing.
How To Banish the Tarnish
Keep it clean. We always recommend using our Hyo Silver Jewelry Cleaning Kit to keep your jewelry looking brand new. This kit is specially formulated to clean sterling silver, gold, gold overlay, and all types of delicate and porous gemstones, including turquoise and pearls. It includes our gentle cleaning solution along with a Hyo polishing cloth to restore silver and gold to their original luster. If experiencing skin discoloration, cleaning the item should resolve the issue. For more detailed information, visit our Jewelry Cleaning & Care section.
Keep it safe. Store your clean, dry sterling silver jewelry in a dry airtight container or anti-tarnish bag. Adding an anti-tarnish strip with the silver jewelry in an airtight container can slow down the process even further. Keep your silver jewelry out of the bathroom and shower area as high humidity may expedite tarnishing. ALWAYS take off your silver jewelry before any type of water-related activity or when working with chemicals.
Show it off. Silver jewelry LOVES to be worn. This helps it get used to you and your body chemistry, and over time oils from the skin will greatly reduce the overall tarnishing effect it may have.
For more information on cleaning and care of your Hyo jewelry, visit our Customer Service Hub or feel free to give us a call at 877- 796-7961 option 3 and one of our customer service representatives will be happy to assist you.