Do not spray on perfume or other sprays while wearing your gold plated jewelry. Wear your jewelry after you have sprayed on your favorite perfume so that chemicals on the spray or perfume does not interact with your jewelry’s metal.

Wait until your lotion or cream is dry or has been absorbed by your skin before you wear your gold plated ring, bracelet or necklace. Substances like oil, nail polish, nail polish remover, chlorine, perfume and the like may react with metal/plated jewelry and will cause it to tarnish easily. This also goes with sweat, so make sure you don’t forget to remove your gold plated jewelry when you exercise or anything that would require heavy physical work, and also when swimming.

Every after use, clean your plated jewelry with a cotton ball or a very soft cloth to remove any dust and dirt it has acquired. Gently rubbing the surface of your gold plated jewelry using a soft jewelry cloth also helps restore shine.If your jewelry needs more cleaning you may clean it with warm, soapy water. Soak it for a few minutes and you may clean it with a soft brush.

Stay away from jewelry cleaners and antibacterial soaps which may have certain components that will just make your gold plated jewelry tarnish more quickly.To avoid scratches, wrap your jewelry in a soft cloth after cleaning or keep it in a jewelry box separate from other types of jewelry you have.

 

 

 

*How to Find Out If Jewelry Is Gold Plated* 

The difference between solid-gold and gold-plated jewelry is related to metal composition: While solid-gold jewelry is made of a gold alloy that is consistent throughout the piece, gold-plated pieces are made of a non-gold metal that is just covered with a thin film of gold. Let’s see how you can find out whether a piece of jewelry is solid gold or gold plated.

 

 *Gold Markings* 

Looking at gold markings is one of the fastest way to determine whether your Jewelry is solid Gold Or Gold plated, it will also indicate the purity of the  Gold

 

 *Acid Testing: The Most Reliable Method* 

Perhaps the most reliable way to find out the gold content of jewelry is to do an acid test.

Although you can buy an acid testing kit and perform the test at home, interpreting the results can get tricky depending on the gold alloy examined. This is why we recommend that you have such a test done by a professional.

Here’s how acid testing works:

The jeweler will take some sample material from your jewelry and then apply acid to it to observe if there is a color change, which will indicate what metals the sample contains.

Acid testing is used mainly to determine the karat of solid gold jewelry, but it can also indicate whether the piece is plated.

It’s also useful to know that many gold-plated pieces are coated with 24/22/20/18-karat gold, so if you come across an item whose surface acid-tests like 24, 22, 20, or 18 karats but the price is too cheap for that karat, then the jewelry is probably plated.

Alternatively, if you scratch a plated piece deep enough, you will see the underlying metal, which will confirm that the jewelry is not solid gold — try this on your own risk, though.

Note: Solid gold does not mean pure. You should keep in mind that solid pieces consist of an alloy of gold and other metals, and the purity of this mixture depends on how much gold it contains. A piece can be made of solid gold and have very low gold purity at the same time (purity is indicated by the piece’s karat).

 

 *Magnet Testing* 

Another way to test what metals you jewelry contains is to use a magnet. Since gold is not magnetic, if your jewelry is attracted to the magnet, the piece must contain some other metal.

This test, however, is not conclusive for a couple of reasons.

First, while a reaction of your jewelry to the magnet indicates that the piece is not made solely of gold, this does not necessarily mean that it is plated – it can still be a solid gold alloy that has low purity and contains a magnetic metal.

Second, a piece may be gold plated without being attracted to a magnet if the core metal, which is covered with gold, is nonmagnetic.

The magnet test is not completely useless, however: Used in conjunction with other tests, it can give you some clues about what your jewelry is made of.