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EARRING GOOP ON YOUR POSTS?

DIRTY EARRINGS NEED CLEANING TOO!

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Gross Earring Goop on your Earring Posts

What is that thick, white, mountain of crud on your earring posts?

Cottage cheese?

Ladies and gents, what are you thinking?

Why don’t you clean your earrings?

You know, those gold and diamond things you put in your ears that you forget about for 8 months?

They get dirty.

Real dirty.

I can’t tell you how many times a customer will take off their earrings and hand them to me with big, chunks of earring goop, gunk, whatever you want to call it, stuck to the ends of the posts.

White foreign substance…

I don’t get it.

Some earrings get so bad that the little holes in the earring backs get filled up with junk as well.

I’m here to tell you…

I’m not touching them!

It’s DISGUSTING!

I know, I know, that’s the whole reason you’re here in the jewelry store, to get them cleaned. I get it. But, come on, why only clean them once a year?

Can you imagine what your clothes would look like if you never washed them?

*GAGS!

I’m going on earring goop strike.

What’s funny is the fact that people know this.

They feel bad about it.

They smile and get embarrassed and try to wipe the debris off the earrings before they hand them to me…

Too late.

I’ve already seen them (and retched).

I’ll have nightmares about them later…

Why put anyone through this?

Can’t you clean your earrings more often? Or bring them to a jeweler more often so we can clean them in the ultrasonic cleaner. You know, like once a week, or at least once a month? That way it keeps the grime from building up and getting nasty and groossssssss!

Earrings get hair sprays and perfumes on them, soaps and shampoo, it’s a natural part of life, for sure. But they need to be scrubbed and cleaned just like everything else does.

Do this:

Take some jewelry cleaner solution (or a little Ammonia and warm water) and an old toothbrush and gently dab at them. Scrub underneath the diamonds or gems. Get into the baskets and between the prongs and mounting.

Get the gunk out.

Keeping your earrings clean not only makes your diamonds look brand new again and sparkle like the day you bought them, but it also keeps your posts from tarnishing, staining, turning dark or black and getting brittle or weak.

Weak?

That’s right. Jewelry that gets dirty can wear down faster because the metal will corrode.

So take your earrings off and clean them good.

Get all that foreign whatever-it-is off your posts and backs. And then maybe you won’t feel so embarrassed and have to make excuses when you pull your earrings off and there’s 6 month old potatoes growing there.

Yes, this sounds gross, but believe me, it is!

It’s gross and it smells.

I’M NOT TOUCHING IT!

lol

I don’t know where your ears have been…

Mud bath?

GAGS!

Horrors, I tell you, horrors!

Better get your toothbrush…

There’s some heavy cleaning to do…

Check out all the ultrasonic cleaners here.

Cheers! :)




Recommended Jewelry Supplies:

Ultrasonic Jewelry Cleaner Jewelry Steam Cleaner Complete Jewelry Cleaner Kit Diamond Dazzle Stick
Gold Silver Jewelry Polishing Cloths Jewelry Making Supplies Kit Gold Acid Test Kit Watch Tool Repair Kit
Ring Adjusters EMT Emergency Ring Cutter 10x Jewelers Loupe Jewelers Microscope

Recommended Jewelry Supplies:

Ultrasonic Jewelry Cleaner Jewelry Steam Cleaner
Complete Jewelry Cleaner Kit Diamond Dazzle Stick
Gold Silver Jewelry Polishing Cloths Jewelry Making Supplies Kit
Gold Acid Test Kit Watch Tool Repair Kit
Ring Adjusters EMT Emergency Ring Cutter
10x Jewelers Loupe Jewelers Microscope

2 Comments on EARRING GOOP ON YOUR POSTS?

  1. Gack!! I’ve seen it too – but not on MINE! That’s just what you said – GROTESQUE! I sometimes clean and polish rings at family gatherings, as I have plenty of supplies, and a small ultrasonic cleaner too. I’ve had a few of the younger girls ask if I can clean their earrings, too, “while I’m at it.” First time, I said “Sure!” before I realized what I had let myself in for!

    I’d never seen such a gathering of grotesque gold and silver, and cheap plated flea market jumble in my life! Eeeewww…..I did NOT put them in my only supply of good cleaner I had left!

    Fortunately, I wear GOOD, sterile disposable gloves when I do cleaning like that in any quantity, so it saved me from direct contact with that nastiness. (Working in surgery, and being partly in charge of the supply rooms, to keep stock rotated and expired goods removed, I used to be able to get hold of actual sterile surgical gloves, that had already passed their sterility expiration date, were to be discarded anyway, and were generally too small – I wear a 6-1/2 – for the mostly male surgery interns to wear to practice their suturing on suture boards. So, since I kept them sorted out, and expired gloves removed from stock, I’d bring home a few. Depending on size, style, and type, others of us went through the available, and each took a couple that fit.)

    Anyway, I took all the nasty real and costume pieces, and ran some warm water into a small plastic bowl, and added some dish soap – named after “the early morning,” ya know? ;-) After checking them out, separating gold and silver, checking for loose stones, and stones that can’t be soaked, and bad plating condition, I threw in what looked OK, and let them sit for a while, then cleaned them with a toothbrush, and rinsed them GOOD in hot water. I threw out that soapy water right away too!

    I polished them up best I could, and some were absolutely unrecognizable when I got finished with them! So much so, that I actually had some trouble finding the rightful owners of a couple of pairs! They didn’t recognize their own earrings! One pair turned out to be aquamarine, instead of some nondescript brown things!

    I told them that next time, I would be happy to polish them for them, but only if they were already CLEAN!! You can’t polish dirt! And I have kept my word, too.

    (That stuff is primarily skin oils, dead skin cells, sweat, makeup, and other cosmetics, but boy, it sho’ do stink! The stuff that really gets me even worse that THAT, are those big round “gauges” that get worn in the great BIG holes in some folks’ earlobes. I can tell when they don’t get taken care of. And sometimes I don’t have to get terribly close to tell either, because they can be smelled, worse than this “earring slime” can be. There are folks who do keep their ears and ear jewelry clean, of course, just like there are folks who don’t. But, my goodness – WASH your ears and clean your jewelry! You can lose your piercings by not doing so, and infections can develop in the holes, no matter how long you’ve had them, causing them to close up, so that you must get it treated, not wearing any earrings during the time, because the tissue can get so inflamed that trying to wear posts in the inflamed tissue can cause the holes to stretch out. With nothing to keep the holes open while the tissue is inflamed, they can close over with scar tissue, and you usually can’t get them repierced in those same spots later. That certainly can cause a problem with keeping your earrings lined up! Some people can develop overgrowth of scar tissue, called keloids, which can make it impossible to keep your ears pierced at all. Something to be considered, eh?

    • Ha… “while I’m at it.” So true. Many people lose diamonds out of their mountings, and there is so much gunk in their rings, they don’t even notice. And watch bands… Man. Those stink more than anything. I need surgical gloves for my hands and nose. :) -Richard

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