After clearing and organizing our entire wardrobe on a recent Marie Kondo-inspired spree, we came to a shocking realization: We’ve never cleaned our jewelry—not even one piece in our sizable collection. To remedy that, we picked up the Simple Shine Complete Jewelry Kit. The kit’s ammonia-free, biodegradable cleaning liquid, soft cloth, and fine cleaning brush are safe to use on almost every metal and gemstone imaginable, including diamonds, heirlooms, and antiques, so we had high hopes. Read on for our complete review of the Simple Shine Complete Jewelry Cleaning Kit.
Design: Small size makes storage easy, but it’s difficult to clean larger items
The Simple Shine Complete Jewelry Cleaning Kit includes a small tub of cleaning solution, a fine cleaning brush, a polishing cloth, and a small jewelry tray which is useful for cleaning a couple of rings at once. The star of this kit is undoubtedly the aquamarine-colored cleaning solution. The formula is free of ammonia and other harsh chemicals, so you can use the solution to safely clean jewelry made of gold, palladium, platinum, sterling silver, stainless steel, titanium, all other metals, diamonds, pearls, beads, and soft and porous stones. You can also use it on flatware and antiques. The liquid is biodegradable, too, so it’ll do as little harm to the earth as it will to your jewelry (by which we mean none). We also appreciate that the fluid has a subtly clean, dish soap-like scent, rather than the harsh chemical smell that some cleaning liquids can have. The one pitfall here is that the cleaning liquid’s container is small, which makes it difficult to immerse larger pieces of jewelry. On the flip side, its small size makes it incredibly easy to store (we keep ours in a medicine cabinet).
Performance: Easy and effective
To put it simply, this kit works. It did wonders to bring our tarnished jewelry back to spotless, gleaming life. The kit is extremely easy to use, too. Just dip your jewelry into the solution for two minutes, rinse off the liquid’s soapy residue with water, gently dry with a paper towel, then polish with the included dual-sided cloth. Use the inside of the cloth to first rid the surface of tarnish, then buff with the outside—it’s gentle enough to maintain finishes, but abrasive enough for a thorough polish. As an optional step, you can use the included fine cleaning brush to work away any lingering grime just after you remove your jewelry from the solution. In our experience, we found that the cleaning fluid and cloth were effective enough on their own, though. If your jewelry doesn’t need a deep clean, you can opt to use just the polishing cloth without the solution. We used the cleaning cloth on a silver ring (without using the liquid first) and were oddly satisfied to find black, greasy evidence of the ring’s grime on the cleaning cloth. Just keep in mind that the manufacturer doesn’t recommend using the cloth on fashion or plated jewelry. We first tested the Simple Shine Complete Jewelry Cleaning Kit on a vintage silver and onyx necklace that hadn’t had a proper cleaning in about two decades. We tried to buff away the tarnish using only the cloth at first, but the necklace was too grimy to see any results. When we readied it for the solution, we also ran into a little snag: the cleaning fluid’s container was too small to immerse the chunky necklace. To get around this, we poured the solution into a larger Tupperware container (which we won’t use to store food), then poured the solution back into its container after we’d soaked our necklace for the recommended two minutes. This process was a little messy but we were thrilled with the results. Our necklace came out so clean that we didn’t even need to take the extra step of buffing it with the soft cloth. The solution was effective in reaching the necklace’s irregularly shaped sides, too, but we did find the fine cleaning brush useful (if a little laborious) for scrubbing the links’ smaller nooks and crannies. Next, we tested the cleaning kit on a silver bracelet with red jasper stones, a gold cameo ring, and a diamond and sapphire ring. Here, again, we noticed an immediate difference in our jewelry’s quality and shine when we pulled each piece out of the cleaning liquid. We didn’t need to use the cleaning cloth or fine brush on any of these pieces.
Price: You’ll save on cleaning bills
With a $30 retail price, the Simple Shine Complete Jewelry Cleaning Kit is a steal—especially considering how effective and versatile it is. If you typically have your jewelry professionally cleaned, you’ll end up saving hundreds of dollars in the long run.
Simple Shine Complete Jewelry Cleaning Kit vs. Magnasonic Professional Ultrasonic Jewelry and Eyeglass Cleaner
If you’re looking for a hands-free clean that requires no manual work, give the Magnasonic Professional Ultrasonic Jewelry and Eyeglass Cleaner a go. The machine uses ultrasonic sound saves to gently but effectively rid your pieces of dirt and grime and with a 20-ounce capacity, there’s plenty of room for multiple items. With five preset cleaning cycles (90, 180, 280, 380, and 480 seconds), you can add your jewelry to the basket, set your preferred timer, and let the gadget get to work. While the Magnasonic is more expensive than the Simple Shine kit—it’s $70 full price—it performs just as well and is a great option for those looking to clean high volumes of jewelry or antiques. We couldn’t be happier with the Simple Shine Complete Jewelry Cleaning Kit. If you’re looking for a safe and easy way to clean your jewelry at home, this is it.
