Shine Smarts: Jewelry Care Starter Kits

Starter Kits are a popular concept with consumers in many industries – think Clinique’s famous 3-Step System in skincare and BMW’s popular Complete Car Care Kit in automotive. These starter kits offer a variety of products along with specific instructions on when and how to use them. From bridal jewelry to graduation pearls, from amazing timepieces to silver jewelry and fashion pieces, your customers want (and need) to care for their beautiful jewelry at home. They will look to their professional jeweler for the tools and information to do so safely and effectively.

A Jewelry Care Starter Kit would offer products that allow your customers to clean many or all categories of jewelry in her wardrobe. Here are some sample categories to consider as you build your private-label starter care kit:

Bridal

Bridal jewelry is often the first significant piece of fine jewelry a woman owns and it is generally worn daily, which means it needs frequent at-home cleaning with professional products. Help your bridal customers learn the best way to keep their precious wedding jewelry sparkling. A fine jewelry cleaning formulation with a jewelry brush is safe for gold, platinum, diamond and other harder gemstones. The brush allows for safe cleaning of delicate settings.

Fashion

Whether or not you offer fashion jewelry in your store, your customers are wearing it. Fashion pieces are perfect for very trendy items, statement pieces that are price-prohibitive in precious gemstones, and for wearing to the beach or pool to protect one’s fine pieces. Most of these pieces require more gentle cleaning as they may be glue-set, use softer metals or softer gemstones. A non-ammoniated jewelry cleaning formulation and a professional polishing cloth are perfect tools for this category of jewelry.

Metal Jewelry

Most women and many men wear gold, platinum and silver jewelry without set stones. These pieces develop build-up of dirt and oils and can become tarnished, so they do require at-home cleaning on a regular basis. Gold and platinum can be cleaned in a fine or gentle jewelry cleaning formulation and polished with a professional polishing cloth. To remove tarnish from sterling silver jewelry, your customers need a gentle or silver jewelry cleaning formulation and a treated polishing cloth.

Travel

Customers away from home need to freshen up their jewelry to keep it shining after the gym or at the beach. This may not be as in-depth as an at-home cleaning, so offer easy, portable and TSA-sized products for the task. A portable jewelry cleaning stick, a jewelry cleaning wipe and a professional polishing cloth are all outstanding tools for cleaning jewelry on-the-go.

Watches

Another piece that is usually worn daily, watch bracelets collect a build-up of dirt and oils which dim their shine, and can leave marks on your wrist! Even if a watch is waterproof, your customers are not comfortable soaking it in a cleaning formula and they typically do not own a steamer. So, they need another cleaning option. Polishing cloths, microfiber cloths and jewelry cleaning wipes make cleaning watches simple, as they can be used to wipe the bracelet and face, while keeping the inside mechanism dry.

A Jewelry Care Starter Kit can be custom designed to best fit your jewelry product line. Assess what categories of jewelry your customers would most need to clean to determine what products should be included. Also consider that at-home jewelry cleaning is a two-step process of cleaning and polishing, so you will want a combination of products that clean and polish. Finally, the kit should offer instructions outlining how to clean different categories of jewelry and how to use the products offered.