mazi + zo Jewelry Care Tips

Your mazi + zo sorority jewelry is designed to last a lifetime if you take care of it. Here are some of our tips and tricks for taking care of fine jewelry. 

We’ll cover:

1. How to Store Sorority Jewelry
2. How to Clean Your Jewelry
3. Special Care Tips for necklaces, Rings, Threader Earrings, and Studs

How to Store Jewelry

The most important thing to remember when storing jewelry is that moisture is the enemy! Even our waterproof, tarnish-proof pure .925 silver can discolor if exposed to water or humidity for too long. 

There are lots of ways to keep your jewelry cool and dry:

• A high-quality traditional jewelry box is designed to keep out moisture and may even have anti-moisture material hidden in the construction.
• Drawer inserts are another approach if you’re in a relatively dry climate
• Jewelry often comes in pouches or other packaging designed to keep jewelry dry
• In addition to providing protection from theft, a good jewelry safe should be airtight
• If you use plastic trays, stands, or organizers that aren’t designed specifically for jewelry, you might want to consider including strips of anti-moisture paper in each section.
• If you use a hanging organizer (we love these for visibility!), please hang it in a dry space (not the bathroom!)

The next priority when storing jewelry is avoiding tangled necklaces and scratched charms and the best way to do that is to prevent individual pieces of jewelry from touching each other when you store them. Don’t double up hanging necklaces or  toss a bunch of earrings into the same box. Try to store jewelry in something that’s lined with something soft so you don’t scratch the edges of charms and hoops. This is particularly important for enameled pieces which can scratch more easily.

Pro tip: Baggies. Believe it or not, most jewelers store their inventory in small, inexpensive zip-top plastic bags. Why? The bags keep jewelry dry, it’s easy to isolate each piece so nothing gets scratched, and you can quickly and easily find the piece you're looking for. Extra tip: we let the clasp end of the necklace hang out of the baggie, just above the bag’s seal, so the necklace doesn’t tangle and the clasp can’t scratch the charm. For additional protection, you can add anti-oxidation paper to each bag, especially for silver pieces.

How to Clean Jewelry

If your jewelry starts losing its shine, give it a gentle clean at home. Here’s how: 

For sterling silver pieces, the first step is to polish the piece with a soft cloth like a lens or screen cleaning cloth. If spots remain, try using a jewelry cleaning cloth made with micro abrasive materials, but you shouldn’t have to do this often if you’re storing it correctly. In a pinch, you can clean jewelry with mild dish soap but avoid soaking silver jewelry to avoid tarnishing. If you use water, make sure the piece is bone dry before you store it in anything airtight! 

Enameled silver pieces are more delicate than silver alone and require a gentler touch. You can use a soft, damp cloth to gently wipe the enamel to remove any dust or light grime without scratching the enamel. Do not use silver cleaner or abrasive cleaners as these can damage the enamel. If spots remain on the enamel, you can use a soft toothbrush dipped in a mixture of warm distilled water and a few drops of mild dish soap. Gently brush the area without applying too much pressure. If your piece has tarnished silver areas, use a silver polishing cloth to clean just the silver parts, avoiding the enamel.

Solid 14k jewelry is stronger than sterling silver so you have more options. As with silver, you can start with a soft cleaning cloth. If that doesn’t work or you need to clean gemstones, you can soak gold jewelry in warm water with a drop of dish liquid and then use a very soft toothbrush to make sure it’s all clean. Rinse and dry thoroughly before storing. This works for solid gold and gemstones; we don’t not recommend soaking pearls, opals, or any gold vermeil, gold-filled, or gold-plated jewelry.

How to Clean Earrings

Ear piercings are more vulnerable to germs than your finger or neck, so we recommend cleaning earring posts and backs every time you wear them, whether or not they look dirty. To keep the germs away and protect your sensitive lobes, give the posts and backs a quick wipe with rubbing alcohol which dries right away. And this goes double for threader earrings when the whole chain can pass through your piercing. At mz, we use box chains for our ear threaders because they’re smoother than other styles but there’s still a risk of hair product and dead skin cells lodging on the chains, so ALWAYS clean them with alcohol between wearings. And if you’re the “never take them off” type, we still recommend taking your earrings out once in a while and giving them and your ears a good clean!

Special Care Tips for Necklaces, Rings, Threader Earrings, and Studs

• Please don’t store your jewelry in the bathroom (see above r.e. moisture.)
• When you take a necklace off, always re-clasp the ends so there’s less chance of an end getting caught on another chain or knotting up. If you’re not storing a necklace right away, lay the necklace out at its full length to avoid tangles.
• Always close the drain if you’re putting jewelry on in the bathroom
• It’s a good idea to take jewelry off before you sleep (this is a do as we say not as we do kind of thing)
• If you’ve got a new piercing, you can use a travel pillow to protect the ear when you sleep on your side
• Our open sorority rings are designed to give a little to fit 2 sizes, and don’t try to fit them on a finger that’s sized larger than recommended-- they’re strong but can still snap if pushed too far. You’ll also want to take care that the open design doesn’t snag on your clothes when you’re getting dressed or the ring might twist. We recommend taking off your rings before lifting weights or other activities that put a lot of pressure on your hands and could bend a ring.
• Remember to use a rubber earback to secure your threaders or you risk them falling out. (There’s much less risk of losing threaders if you thread them though multiple piercings, check out our guide on how to style threader earrings.)
• Stud earrings - while most earbacks are universal, not all backs will fit every post. Don’t try to force a back onto a post or you’ll risk bending or snapping off the post.

Keep your mazi + zo sorority jewelry looking shiny and gorgeous with our pro jewelry care tips.