How to Care for Gold-Plated Jewellery (And Make It Last for Years)
Good gold-plated jewellery is more durable than its reputation suggests — the pieces that fail early are almost always let down by habits, not materials. A few small adjustments to how you wear and store your jewellery will add years to it.
Put it on last, take it off first
Perfume, hairspray and moisturiser are the biggest everyday threats to plated gold — not because they attack the metal directly, but because they contain alcohols and oils that slowly dull a polished surface. The simple fix is sequencing: get dressed, do your hair and skincare, spray your perfume, and then put your jewellery on. Reverse the order when you undress at night.
Water is fine. Chlorine and salt aren't.
A properly PVD-plated piece can handle handwashing, rain, even the odd shower, without issue. Swimming pools and the sea are different — chlorine and salt are aggressive enough to work into any weak point in a plating over time. If you're stacking jewellery for a beach holiday, treat it as a "take off before you swim" accessory rather than an all-day one.
Store jewellery the way you'd store anything you actually value: separately, flat, and out of the light.
Storage matters more than people think
Tangled in a drawer, gold-plated pieces scratch each other constantly — that's mechanical wear, and no plating process fully resists it. Keep pieces in the pouch or box they arrived in, or laid flat in a lined tray with space between them. Every Amyras order ships in a jewellery pouch designed for exactly this.
Cleaning, gently
A soft, dry microfibre cloth after each wear removes the oils and residue that dull shine over time. If a piece needs more than that, use lukewarm water with a drop of mild soap, a soft cloth (never anything abrasive), and dry it immediately and completely — moisture left sitting on plated metal is worse than the wear from wearing it.
When in doubt, wear it anyway
Jewellery that stays in a drawer for fear of damaging it isn't doing its job. Our pieces are built for daily wear — 30-day returns and a genuine anti-tarnish guarantee exist precisely so you don't have to be precious about it.