Crystal Care & Wear

Crystal Care & Wear

What actually matters, and what doesn't.

Most of what people ask about wearing crystal isn't about the stone — it's about rules they've heard somewhere. This page covers the ones that matter, and the ones that don't.

Which hand?

There's no physical difference between the two. The left-hand, right-hand idea comes from crystal traditions — one side for drawing in, one for sending out — and the traditions disagree with each other about which is which. A mineral can't tell. Wear it on whichever wrist you use less, and it will last longer.

Water

Water is fine for most stones. Quartz, garnet, agate, chalcedony, obsidian and the feldspars have all spent a long time in rivers. The exceptions are the soft sulphates and carbonates: selenite dissolves in water, and malachite and lapis are sensitive to acids and chlorine. As a rule, anything at 5 or below on the Mohs scale comes off before you swim.

Showers and swimming

Soap, shampoo, chlorine and salt are harder on jewellery than water is. Anything above 6 on the Mohs scale will shrug it off if you rinse and dry it afterwards. Anything below 5 shouldn't go in. Selenite should not get wet at all.

Cleaning

Warm water, a soft cloth, and patience. That's the whole method for almost everything we sell. Two things not to do: don't put anything soft, layered or visibly included into an ultrasonic cleaner — the vibration opens fractures that were already there — and don't use household cleaners, vinegar, ammonia, or jewellery dip. A soft dry toothbrush is the best tool for the gaps between beads.

Storage

The most common cause of damage isn't wear, it's storage. Stones scratch each other: quartz will mark obsidian, garnet will mark malachite, and a feldspar can split along a cleavage plane from a knock inside a drawer. Keep pieces in their own pouch, or lay them flat instead of letting them pile up.

Sunlight and heat

Some stones hold their colour in their crystal structure, and light damages it — amethyst and kunzite are the two in our collection. Others hold their colour in physical material inside the stone and are unaffected — rose quartz doesn't fade. As a rule: nothing on a sunny windowsill for months, and never on a hot dashboard. Heat fades smoky quartz and can crack a stone coming in from the cold.

While doing things

Take pieces off for anything involving impact: gym work, cycling, gardening, moving furniture. This isn't about how good the stone is — small hard objects meeting at speed is how jewellery breaks. A piece worn through a normal day will outlast the habit of wearing it.

Cleansing, the other kind

If you follow a practice that involves cleansing a stone — moonlight, sound, smoke, salt — none of it will harm the mineral, with two exceptions. Don't put soft stones in salt, which is abrasive and slightly acidic, and don't put selenite or malachite in water. Everything else is safe.