Around 18 months ago, an little incident occurred in relation to my much-loved Pandora bracelet. Having worn the bracelet every day since I received it as a gift from my husband, I didn’t pay any thought to removing it before going swimming with my daughter.
It wasn’t the first time my lovely bracelet had come into contact with water, since I’d kept it on my wrist whilst swimming before. However, on this particular day, I think I must have visited the most heavily chlorinated swimming pool in the whole of the UK.
When I got out, I realised that the chlorine in the water had totally ruined my bracelet, turning it from bright and shiny to horribly dull and dirty. I was rather mortified and tried everything I could think of to remove the tarnish, before failing miserably. I hid it away for some time, until my husband noticed I wasn’t wearing it, at which point I had to fess up.
Here’s what my bracelet looked like after the swimming pool incident!
Not great, right? Each one of the charms had been bought for me as a gift to celebrate a special occasion or memory, so I was totally gutted to have ruined it like this! I left the bracelet tucked away in a drawer, until I came across this fantastic article which explained how to remove tarnish from silver jewellery! Please do have a read of it for full instructions and how the process of removing tarnish actually works, once you’ve finished reading my post.
Before I explain what I did that actually worked, here are the methods I tried before that all failed…
- Washing the bracelet with gentle detergent and water.
- Washing it with soap and water.
- Rubbing with a special jewellery-cleaning cloth.
- Soaking in lemon juice and salt.
- Soaking in lemon juice and vinegar.
(I’d read somewhere that old fashioned cleaning methods involved lemon juice and vinegar, so thought it was worth a shot!).
Here’s what I did that worked….
- I covered a small bowl in aluminium foil (could have used an tin foil plate if I had access to one).
- I added 1 x tablespoon of salt and 1 x tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) into the bowl.
- I then poured some hot (not boiling) water into the bowl and mixed the salt and bicarbonate of soda together until they dissolved.
- I removed the charms from the bracelet and put them into the bowl separately as well as the bracelet chain itself.
- I left the bracelet chain and charms to soak for around 10 minutes before removing.
When I took the bracelet out of the solution, I could see already that it was starting to look a lot better (after 18 months no less!). To finish making it look just about as good as new, I polished it with my silver jewellery cleaning cloth
Here’s what my bracelet looked like after cleaning!
A million times better! I’m so happy that I can wear my bracelet again! Time to start thinking about future ones to add onto it! I came across this really cute Mickey and Minnie safety chain charm on Amazon, which I’d love because Disney will always hold a special place in my heart. We took our daughter to Disneyland Paris in January and we have lots of amazing memories from the trip.
Finally…
So there you have it, this is how I salvaged my extremely tarnished Pandora bracelet! It’s worth noting that this process shouldn’t be used for jewellery that is made from antiqued silver or if it contains semi-precious or precious stones. If your jewellery is really valuable, then you should consider taking it to a professional jeweller just in case.
But if you are looking for a DIY home solution, I hope this post has helped you!
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*Pandora bracelet images are the copyright of Craftaholique.
OMG! It worked! I’m so happy I could cry! Thank you!
Yay! Glad you found this post useful! 🙂
Just tried it after mine been slung in the back of a drawer for months, it looks fantastic .Thank you for this fab top tip xx
No worries – glad I could help! I’m still wearing mine since I cleaned it all that time ago. Still looks good! xx
What if i dont have the clo cloth is there something else i can use.
Hello! You could just try a soft cloth and see if the tarnish rubs off? I used a silver jewellery cleaning cloth for mine though – I would recommend trying to get hold of one for best results.
Thank you so much, I’ve recently used bleach to remove molds from the rooftops of my room and I damaged my bracelet… I will follow your instructions and hope it will help me saving my pandora
Many thanks for the tip, my daughter’s bracelet now looks good as new.
Thank u so much. I accidentalyy wore mine in the hotpools today and almost cried.thank u for this top tio my bracelet and charms r already looking back to normal
Thank goodness for this excellent tip!!
I had use mould cleaner on the windows around my house and completely forgot to remove my Pandora rings. I thought I had ruined them until I found this amazing help online. They look as good as new now. One happy lady right here
Crossing my fingers. I didn’t take mine off & used hair remover cream & they look terrible so really hoping this method rescues them
Thank you so much for this!!! Saved my necklace!!
No worries, glad you found this post helpful!
Brilliant after paying 7 pounds for jewellery cleaner for my moms bracelet and it did nothing my mom was all set to buy a new one until my husband found this post on here it’s come up like a new one after soaking in 10 mins thank you fantastic
I’m really pleased this post has helped! Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting!
How many times did you have to do this to get the results you did?
Just once!
How did you clean your charms?
I put the charms into the bowl of solution as well as the bracelet and let them soak. I then polished them with my silver jewellery cleaning cloth!
Hi, can you please explain what’s the aluminum foil for? And when to use it? Thanks!
My understanding is that the aluminium foil reacts with the silver sulphide on the bracelet (the discoloured bits!). Use it right at the beginning to cover your bowl, before adding any of the solution materials.
I’m going to try this as soon as I get home. My bracelet I hope is not ruined as it was a gift.
It worked. Thank you so much for this tip. I was so upset when I forgot to take off my ring before going swimming as it was a birthday present from my son.
I nearly threw the ring in the bin as I thought I had ruined it
I found this tip on Google. I forgot to take my ring off & went in the hot tub literally just got it & it’s tarnished it’s currently soaking now, fingers crossed it works, so I was glad to see this thread & found out it’s worked for others.
I hope it worked for you!
I cannot begin to explain my happiness and gratitude to you for posting this. I was devastated that my bracelet was what I thought ruined! I did this and it literally looks brand new! It has such a sentimental value as did yours. Thank you so much for sharing!
You’re so welcome! I’m really glad that you managed to salvage your bracelet too!
I had good luck with vinegar