Keeping a piece the way you found it.

The metal runs all the way through a solid gold piece, so there is no plating to wear thin and nothing underneath waiting to show. It can be worn in the shower, at the gym and overnight without coming to any harm, which is the whole reason we chose it.

What dulls gold over time is not the metal. It is what settles on it: soap film, body oil, hand cream and the fine grit that finds anything worn every day. Lift that off and the shine is already there.

To clean it. Warm water, a few drops of unscented washing up liquid, and twenty minutes in the bowl. Work a soft toothbrush gently behind a setting or along a chain, where the film collects. Rinse in clean water and dry with a lint free cloth.

Sterling silver is 92.5 percent silver, and silver reacts with sulfur in the air. That reaction is a film on the surface rather than damage to the metal, and it lifts away to leave the piece underneath unchanged. Most of our silver is finished with rhodium, which comes from the platinum family and slows the reaction considerably.

Prevention is storage. Keep silver in a closed pouch or a lined box rather than open on a dish, ideally with an anti tarnish strip, and out of the bathroom where the air holds moisture.

To clean it. A soft cloth is usually enough, and it works best if you wipe a piece before putting it away rather than after leaving it out. For anything more, warm soapy water and a soft cloth, dried thoroughly.

Nothing in ordinary life will scratch a diamond, which makes them the least demanding stone we sell. What they do attract is oil, and a film of it is what takes the life out of a stone long before anything else does.

Light enters a diamond from underneath, so the back of the setting matters more than the front. That is where a soft brush earns its place.

To clean it. Warm water, a drop of unscented washing up liquid, a soak, then a soft toothbrush behind and around the stone. Rinse and dry with a lint free cloth.

Where a piece is set with lab grown diamonds we say so on its product page, and those carry an IGI certificate with the color and clarity stated. A lab grown diamond is the same material as a mined one, so it is cared for in exactly the same way.

A pearl sits at about 2.5 on the hardness scale where a diamond is 10, and its surface is nacre rather than crystal. That is what gives a pearl its depth, and it is also why a pearl is treated differently from everything else here.

To clean it. Wipe with a soft cloth very slightly damp with clean water after wearing, and let it dry before putting it away. Nothing else is needed and nothing stronger is advisable.

Put pearls on after perfume and hairspray rather than before, and store them flat in a soft pouch where nothing harder can rest against them.

Malachite is the most particular thing we carry. It is beautiful, it is soft at about 3.5 to 4 on the hardness scale, and it is porous, which means it takes in what it is soaked in.

To clean malachite. A soft, dry cloth, or barely damp and dried at once. Never leave it to soak.

Enamel is glass fused to metal. It is stable and colorfast, and it wants only to be kept from knocks and from anything abrasive.

Cubic zirconia is hard at about 8 and cleans much like a diamond, with warm soapy water and a soft brush, though it shows an oily film sooner.