Woman shares £1.62 trick to make tarnished jewellery look good as new again

Joanna went viral after sharing the trick
With the prices of seemingly everything rising, many people will want to try and avoid splashing too much cash on new and unnecessary purchases if they can help it. One item that you might want to buy more of but may not really need is jewellery – especially if you’ve got lots of gold plated pieces that are looking rather tarnished, as if they’ve seen better days.
But it turns out you don’t need to fork out a fortune for new jewellery, as you can easily make the earrings, necklaces and bracelets you already own look good as new and it’ll only cost you £1.62 to try it out for yourself – unless you already have all the items you need in your kitchen cupboard and then it won’t cost you a penny.
The simple trick was shared on TikTok by a user named Joanna Fleming, who posts under the name @joannafleming13.
In her viral clip Joanna explains that she’s not a jewellery expert and she can’t promise her advice won’t ruin any of your jewellery, but she’s found that the method has worked for her every time she’s given it a go and she’s been doing it for months.
She said: “Ok so we’re going to start by lining a heatproof bowl with some foil, then fill that bowl with some hot water and add about a tablespoon of bicarbonate of soda and about a tablespoon of salt.”
All of these items will set you back £1.62 – with bicarbonate of soda priced at 59p from Tesco, table salt costing 35p from Marks & Spencer and tin foil just 68p from Asda.
Joanna continues to explain: “Just mix that together. I can’t even prepare you for this before and after.
“You’ll pop your jewellery in for about two minutes”
She then takes her jewellery out of the bowl, rinses it off under the cold water tap and dries them off, before showing viewers the before and after photos and the earrings look good as new.
More than 157,000 people have since watched the video, with over 18,000 liking it.
One person said: “I am a jewellery expert. This is a very good non abrasive tip. Fabulous.”
Another wrote: “WHATTT. This makes me cry at the amount I have thrown away in the bin.”
While a different user added: “I found this method around 10 years ago for my silver jewellery, didn’t know it works well with gold plated as well! Will give it a go.”
However, some warned that the trick should only be used on jewellery without stones, saying: “Note: it pops off any stones or enamel that could be stuck on the metal.”