Noticed some dark spots on your jewellery, most probably on the bar which passes through your ear? Maybe even a dot of a rust colour.. Well, this unfortunately down to the fact that Sterling Silver will always be prone to tarnishing. We spend a lot of time designing our jewellery and we source only the best metals which is why we use high grade .925 Sterling Silver.
Pure silver does not tarnish but unfortunately it is too soft to be used in jewellery crafting so we add a small quantity of copper to strengthen the silver. The resulting product is .925 Sterling Silver which is 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% copper. The yellow or black discoloration of sterling silver items is a result of the added copper reacting with the salt and sulfur in the air.
Tarnishing can take place even faster if sterling silver comes in contact with detergents or cosmetics. Even just the chemicals in our sweat is enough to cause corrosion.
The good news is that with sterling silver, regular care can really slow down the tarnishing, unlike silver-plated jewelry which will deteriorate no matter what. And even if your silver jewellery already has a bit of tarnishing, then a good home clean-up, or better, a professional polishing, can bring it back to glory.
