Wash Your Hands and Your Jewelry!

The Coronavirus is a fast spreading epidemic that must be handled in the most responsibly way. People are constantly becoming sick, even with minor colds. It just takes one step to ensure your safety, as well as others, and that’s by maintaining your hygiene. With what’s going on in the world today, it is essential to constantly wash your hands and carry around a handy container of hand sanitizer wherever you go.

So what’s so great about hand sanitizer? Well, it kills about 99.9% of the germs that travel along with you. What some of you may have never considered is that hand sanitizer also cleans whatever is on your hands, including jewelry. But does it do any damage to the ring that on your finger? 

It has been said that hand sanitizer does less harm than soap! As long as the hand sanitizer contains over 60% of alcohol in it, then it the metal surrounding the ring will stay in great condition. According to Shan Aithal, a metallurgist at Stuller, “hand sanitizers are not capable of removing tough, albeit thin, rhodium that’s on a piece of jewelry…Hand sanitizers come in two varieties: alcohol-based and non–alcohol-based. The ones with alcohol are benign to jewelry items as alcohol is the main germ-killing ingredient. However, non–alcohol-based ones typically use chlorine-based compounds as germicides. These chlorine compounds could react with water and release free chlorine. Free chlorine radical is very reactive and could cause tarnishing of jewelry, especially if it is made of sterling silver. Also, halogens are known to cause stress corrosion cracking in low karat golds, in particular, nickel white golds.” 

However, keep in mind that hand sanitizer is made up of rubbing alcohol and will not hurt diamonds or damage the integrity, value, or brilliance of your stone. However, excessive and repeated exposure to cleaning agents or hand sanitizer can make the finish on white gold wear a little faster. Hand sanitizer shouldn’t have a major affect of gems and pearls, yet it’s not recommended and still important to take precaution just in case. For instance, it is best to come into contact with pearls after your hands have fully dried from the hand sanitizer, or else it can change the surface of the pearl and cause cracks. Hand sanitizer can also leave residue on gems, so a little rinse at the end of the day will make them brand new. Hand sanitizer is also not safe on porous stones like opals or turquoise. 

Don’t let this discourage you from using hand sanitzer! It imperative to take health precaution at all times, especially at times like these where there is a virus constantly floating around. It’s still important to clean your jewelry just as much as washing you hands because jewelry contains just as much bacteria, if not more. If you take off your jewelry, wash your hands, then put your jewelry back on again, you are basically contaminating yourself with bacteria all over again.