Jewelry Care:

June Bijou jewelry is made with genuine gemstones and high quality metals. With proper care your jewelry can last a lifetime.

Perfumes, oils, hair sprays, lotions, and other sprays are no friends to jewelry. Unfortunately, these products can cause color changes to stones, and tarnish metals, sometimes permanently. A good idea is to put your jewelry on after you have used any products.

One way to keep your jewelry at its best is to prevent oxidation. Oxidation is a natural process which occurs when air reacts to metals, this process can cause color change. Keeping your jewelry in an air tight plastic bag is an excellent and inexpensive way to stop this from happening. It is best to keep one piece per plastic bag, and never combine different metals in a bag for an extended period of time.

When you must clean dirty jewelry please use care. If possible, use a jewelry polishing cloth, read instructions and use as directed. Should you need to use soap & water, use only a mild soap, and thoroughly, but gently dry the piece. Do not use this method on any stones that are porous. If in doubt look up that particular stone before attempting to clean in this way. And lastly, should a liquid jewelry cleaner can be required, please read instructions and again be very careful not to use on porous stones such as pearls, turquoise, opals, lapis, or any soft stones. This will cause permanent damage.

Jewelry by nature is delicate and should be treated gently. Be kind to yours and it will be a thing of beauty for as long as you own it!


Terminology of metals:

14kt Gold-Filled--

This kind of jewelry usually comes in 10 K, 12K, or 14K. The solid gold is bonded to a metal alloy and will not wear off. This process allows the wearer to have all the benefits of pure gold without the high costs. Many of our pieces and chains are made this way. With reasonable care your gold-filled jewelry will last a life time.

Sterling Silver--

92.5 is commonly stamped onto jewelry made of sterling silver. Sterling silver is an alloy of silver with 92.5% pure silver and the rest composed of other metals to give it strength. As many people are aware, silver does oxidize, but with proper care Silver can maintain its good looks for a life time and look as good as the first day it was purchased.

Vermeil--

This can be in 12K, 14K, or 24k. Vermeil is the process of using sterling silver plated with gold. This is well known and practiced technique, extremely durable and will last indefinitely with proper care.

14kt Gold Plated--

In this process a heavy layer of gold is electrically plated onto materials such as brass. With good care, pieces made in this way can last for quite some time without tarnishing through.