Jewellery Cleaning Service
Daily Healed Piercing & Jewellery Care
We like to think of piercings as an extension of ourselves or you; which is why we recommend cleaning daily in your normal personal hygiene routine.
You wouldn’t leave 1 tooth un-brushed in your mouth, so don’t for get to clean your piercings & jewellery daily, too.
Daily cleaning helps prevent the accumulation of daily oils and grime that will make your jewellery look dull or lead to skin irritation and piercing flare-ups.
If you experience random flare ups of your piercings and are wearing verified implant grade jewellery; chances are you are simply not cleaning your piercing well enough for its locational needs.
For example; daith piercings are in an oily/waxy, hidden location. This requires more attention to actively cleaning the piercing compared to that of a helix piercing; which has more air flow often and gets more water contact when showering and cleaning products near it when washing hair, lowering the need for active cleaning attention in comparison.
Jewellery can and should stay looking vibrant and new, but if yours is looking a little on the flat side there are a few tips and tricks below for home care and some information on our in-store professional jewellery cleaning services.
As a standard rule, we do not recommend removing your jewellery to clean. There really shouldn’t be a need for you to do this unless the piercing has to much build up for you to clean away, and in that case we would recommend a professional clean in store to prevent jewellery damages and extra wear and tear to your jewellery.
Disclaimer
While our range has a manufacturer's warranty, wear and tear is not a manufacturing issue, nor is accidental damage, breaks or loss. If you would like insurance on your jewellery to cover you in those situations, please add your jewellery to your home contents insurance policy.
Cherrycore does not offer insurance cover on jewellery or cover repairs costs, including that of shipping for repairs.
At home care:
There are many options to clean your jewellery and give it back its vibrancy. You will need to assess your skin needs to see what works best, however here are our most popular & most effective options.
- pH balance soap when showering lightly rubbed on skin around jewellery and rinsed directly over jewellery. Be careful not to touch your jewellery too much as this may loosen components, resulting in jewellery loss. Check for tightness as needed for your jewellery needs. Or ask us if you are unsure.
- Manual scrubbing should only be done rarely and if really needed. This includes using a soft bristle brush like a disposable mascara brush and mild pH balanced soap to lightly brush over the jewellery gems. The 1st step is to do the clean above then after showering take a photo of your piercing and assess areas of need for deep cleaning. To deep clean jewellery, wet thumb and index finger, place a small amount of pH balanced soap between fingers to lather lightly, blob soap on to jewellery and leave for 2-4 minutes. Think of it like soaking a cooking pan after cooking something sticky; soaking helps break down the build up making removal easier.
- After soaking, flush the area with water or NeilMed Saline Solution to remove all soap. Reassess buildup. If still there, repeat steps but instead of soaking, use a soft mascara brush to lightly brush away any build up; checking regularly to prevent damage.
- If you are too rough you may damage your jewellery; including dislodging gemstones from settings. Doing a manual deep clean is at your own risk and comes with the risk of damaging your jewellery; including opening prong settings and dislodging gem stones. This is not covered under warranties.
In store clean:
To lengthen the life and lustre of your jewellery we, like all jewellers, recommended and offer jewellery cleaning services.
This allows us to assess your jewellery and try to prevent any potentially preventable problems or damages.
For example; if you have had hair snag under gold prong settings, your setting may have been compromised and opened out of its original set position. Fun fact; the human hair is as almost as strong as steel and can create issues if caught under settings and pulled. It’s really no different to putting fishing line under the setting and yanking, which is an often used method for opening fine prong settings.
We offer 2 cleaning options depending on your needs and budget for jewellery maintenance.
First option: Quick clean; $15 per item.
Our first option is our manual clean where we will remove your jewellery and carry out an eye inspection first, followed by hand cleaning with jewellery specific cleaning products. We will then use a disposable soft mascara brush to manually remove what is possible and re soak. Then dry and buff with disposable polishing cloth, then rinsed and cold solution sanitisation soaked for best disinfection before re rinsing and re installing.
All these steps take time and care as your jewellery is classified as a contaminant with exposure risks to us, the technicians, which is why we only use disposable products when handling / processing worn jewellery.
If your piercing is not 100% healed, this cleaning method is not available for your piercings; however our second option is 100% suitable due to extra steps and sterilisation processing.
This option will not guarantee all removal of build up up. It will not give the same results a a professional deep clean as the same machines are not being used. If you have light buildup this is a suitable option, if you have heavy buildup this will improve your jewellery dramatically but will not bring it to a ‘good as new’ condition.
Second Option 2- deep clean: $50 for single item plus $25 Per additional item.
Drop off & collect next day service available during week days for $20 per item; fitting not included.
Disclaimer:
Not all stones and settings are suitable for this method and alternatives maybe used in accordance to your jewellery needs.
At Cherrycore we will only offer this service for jewellery that is verifiable or was purchased from us.
This is a similar processing technique to that of a qualified jeweller; however we have add a few additional steps for safety.
As this service takes additional time and processing steps, this processes is charged at the same rates as you would pay with a qualified jeweller for jewellery cleaning. After all, we are experts in jewellery too, using the same and more advanced methods for jewellery cleaning.
So what are the steps?
We will remove your jewellery and carry out an eye inspection under magnification first to assess any damages.
Should a prong be elevated, we will re set the prong to reduce gem loss risks. We will also document this for you and take images both before and after altering your jewellery in this event.
We then will do a hand cleaning with jewellery specific cleaners to remove any superficial buildup followed by a re assessment under magnification to assess any hidden damages.
After assessment we will re soak jewellery to soften any build up & then use a soft mascara brush to manual remove what is possible.
Once we have manually removed what is possible we will then use our ionic cleaning machine that has been customised for disposal & single use followed by rinsing, buffing and re rinsing and then placing your jewellery in to a sterilisation pouch for sterilisation in our Siltex steriliser.
Once sterilisation is completed, we then use our jewellery steam cleaner to ensure all areas are effectively cleaned and your jewellery is bought back to as near as new as possible.
We will then carry out our final inspection under magnification before re sterilising via our Statim steriliser and re fitting your jewellery for you.
All these steps take time and care as your jewellery is classified as a contaminant with exposure risks to us, the technician, which is why we only use disposable products when handling / processing worn jewellery.
This method is the safest method for us to offer this service and will require an appointment for appropriate time allocation. Sterilisation can not be done without deep cleaning first as sterilisation does not vaporise soil build up, and steam cleaning can not be done with out sterilisation prior to prevent aerosolising potentially harmful contaminants on jewellery.
Please note that even after the deep cleaning process mentioned above this does not make the jewellery suitable for re use with a fresh piercing and in accordance with the Victorian legislation for skin penetration procedures, Cherrycore will not perform any piercing with Jewellery that has been worn.
For more information:
https://www.health.vic.gov.au/publications/infection-prevention-and-control-guidelines-for-hair-beauty-tattooing-and-skin
We hope that by sharing the steps, it helps our clients understand why it’s not a quick 2 minute task and the fees are reflective of both machinery use and team time and effort.