Yippeee! You are Engaged; How to Care For Your New Ring.

It goes without saying; your engagement ring is one the most important pieces of jewellery you will ever own. Proper engagement ring care needs to a top priority after the months (and maybe!) years you have been dreaming of the perfect ring! Read on below for my top tips on how to care for your engagement ring.

1. Always Arrange Your Insurance. Whether you are adding your engagement ring to your house insurance or setting up a whole new policy; insurance is necessary to protect such a financial investment if something gets lost, stolen or damaged. All Holly Robinson Jewellery engagement rings are presented with an up to date insurance valuation which I recommend requesting new documents every 5 years for.

2. Never Take Your Ring Off In Public. Hand washing is a must in a public bathroom, but I always recommend resisting the temptation to remove your engagement ring when you are not at home. The possibility of leaving it in the bathroom or even dropping it down the drain is too much of a risk.

3. Don’t Hold Your Ring By The Centre Stone. Diamonds are a magnet for dust, dirt and body oil; when you put on or take off your jewellery use the metal band to hold. If your diamond looks hazy or cloudy after wear this is a sign something is stuck underneath!

4. Keep That Sparkler Sparkling There are so many cleaners available on Amazon, Etsy and Ebay right now; I highly recommend sticking to a good old fashion clean with washing up liquid and a soft toothbrush if you are unable to visit your jeweller. With so many ‘cleaners’ on the market it is a challenge to keep up with what works and what could cause harm to your jewellery.

5. Remove Your Ring During Hands-On Activities. I advise against gardening, cleaning dishes, moving furniture, any exercise (even yoga!) with your engagement ring on, A diamond is one of the worlds hardest natural materials but that doesn’t mean a cut and polished diamond can not chip!

6. Book In For A Polish Pre-Wedding When you picture your wedding photographs you want our wedding rings and your engagement ring to look brand new. Therefore, I always recommend booking your engagement in for a professional cleaning and polish pre-wedding to ensure all ring compliment each other on your big day.

7. Keep Ring Dishes All Around The House I sure don’t need another excuse to find new quirky dishes and bowls as I am totally obsessed. I have ring dishes in the bedroom, in the bathroom and the kitchen to ensure I am removing my rings before any activity that could cause damage.

8. Never Wear Your Ring When Showering I always recommend taking your jewellery off before showering and this includes bathing. You may find that your fingers swell or shrink slightly with different water temperatures which could result in your ring getting quite tight or falling off entirely.

9. Remove While Sleeping

This is a controversial one. I know you don't ever want to be without your ring but wearing to bed is really not recommended. Firstly, you could scratch your other half and secondly, if your ring were to catch on your bedding you could damage or pull your setting work.

10. Be Aware of the Components That Make Up Your Ring Different metals and different gemstones react differently to the environment around us and the chemicals we put on our hands. If you are wearing White Gold you do not want to be keeping your ring on whilst using hand sanitiser. If you have emerald or morganite gemstones you want to steer clear of ultrasonic cleaners and household cleaners. For specialist advice please email me directly

Why I wrote this blog:

One of my closest friends recently got engaged and I was blown away by the incorrect and/or misleading information she had about caring for her new engagement ring. Can you believe these; cleaning the ring with bleach and the typical old wives tale of 'if you never take it off, at least it's safe on your finger'