Care Tips

To keep your Kemmi pieces looking as fresh as possible, please follow these simple care tips:

PREVENTIVE CARE

Wear: You can avoid tarnish by wearing your jewelry often. The oils in your skin will “clean” the silver and keep it looking shiny. Avoid grinding your jewelry on hard surfaces, every piece and and detailing are meticulously handmade, therefore you must take extra care and treat it as fine jewelry. 

Avoid exposure: Contact with household chemicals, perspiration, rubber, chlorinated water, or any substances which contain sulfur (e.g., mayonnaise, eggs, mustard, onions, latex, wool), will cause corrosion and tarnish. Direct sunlight also causes silver to tarnish, so be sure to take off your silver jewelry before you go swimming and sunbathing.

Lotions, cosmetics, hair spray and hair products, and perfumes are also “enemies” of silver and will accelerate tarnishing. There’s a reason generations of women have been getting dressed with jewelry last, as a finishing touch! If you are a guy, you know the steps now.

Storage: As exposure to air tarnishes it, storing silver in airtight plastic bags or your Kemmi pouch is a great preventative measure. Just make sure you don’t store multiple jewelry pieces in the same bag: silver is a soft metal, so the individual pieces can scratch each other. Link or chain bracelets should be kept unclasped or unhooked to prevent scratching as well. If you can’t use plastic bags, try to make sure that the storage area has low humidity.

Gold Vermeil pieces: avoid contact with water. We strongly suggest that you remove your gold vermeil jewelry before washing your hands and before taking a shower. Gold vermeil jewelry is made of solid Sterling silver base material and coated with a thick layer of gold. The gold may fade overtime revealing the solid sterling silver underneath. If you wish to never remove your gold jewelry, in that case you need to purchase solid gold. 

POLISHING

Simply polishing your silver works well when the tarnishing is not too severe. It’s also the best method for cleaning oxidized silver, as you can stay away from the intentionally tarnished areas.

Silver is soft and can become scratched easily. You can use a special silver cloth to polish your items. Do not use paper towels or tissues to polish your jewelry as they contain fibers that can scratch the silver.

When polishing, use long back-and-forth motions that mirror the grain of the silver. Do not rub in circles, as this will magnify any tiny scratches. Also, change to a different section of your cloth frequently to avoid placing tarnish back on the silver.