TikTok Wants You to Keep Your Jewelry in a ‘Water Jewelry Box’—But Should You?
I was notified by my editor a couple weeks ago about the fact that kids on TikTok are putting their jewelry in “wet jewelry boxes” or “water jewelry boxes,” and I was confused. So I looked it up, and I’m going to just summarize what’s going on so you don’t have to go looking yourself. These “wet jewelry boxes” are just containers, sometimes jewelry boxes and sometimes not, filled with slime or Orbeez, their rings and necklaces pressed into it.
So before we start, as you might already have figured, don’t do that. It’s terrible for your jewelry. If you have costume jewelry or any kind of gold-plated or gold-filled jewelry, getting your stuff wet will have your rings and necklaces looking busted and tarnished. If you have silver or bronze jewelry, it’s going to oxidize and develop either a black or green oxidation layer. This, thankfully can be polished off, but still. According to jeweler Irina Aran of Facets Fine Jewelry, getting your jewelry wet will keep your jewelry from looking new. “If you have stones, all that slime is going to get caught in the setting, and if that happens, you’re not going to be able to get it out without going to a professional. Whether it’s fine jewelry or costume jewelry, it’s a terrible idea.”
One creator, @shopellasthings, who sells jewelry appears to show videos of herself soaking her jewelry in the shower, in slime, and in other wet jewelry boxes, possibly to show that her jewelry doesn’t tarnish, but that’s actually not a fair claim. All costume jewelry will tarnish eventually unless it’s made of stainless steel or solid gold. (Those materials risk getting slime caught in them.) It’s also not entirely clear why she’s getting them wet.
People in the comments don’t seem to agree either. “its a water jewelry box or a wet jewelry box its used to keep ur jewelry from getting tangled,” one user wrote. “No, it’s to show her jewelry doesn’t get tarnished lol,” another replied. “i dont care for the purpose of the video im just saying this is called a water jewelry box,” the first wrote back. “Not trying to sound dumb but would it not tarnish your jewelry?” wrote someone else. “It’s not a water jewelry box.. I used to have a box like that and its a soft fabric on the inside. One time I spilled water on it and it immediately started molding, so no,” wrote another.
Utimately, this trend is a hot mess. Some allege that it’s good for traveling because your chains won’t tangle, but that’s still not as good of a solution as just using a soft cloth travel jewelry organizer, according to Aran. Her recommendation is the straightforward one: “Just get a travel jewelry box—you can get them from anywhere—and keep it organized.”
I asked Aran why she thinks trends and bad jewelry advice like this happen online, especially as someone who runs a popular jewelry brand online. “I do try to align our video content with what’s trending, and sometimes it all comes down to the controversy of shit. That’s it,” she said. “This video right here is a perfect example. I would post, Why You Should Never Do That. But it needs to be controversial to go viral. No one would normal would ever do that.”
Her advice for storing jewelry is this. 1. Try not to have different metals touching each other. If you have chains, they can get tangled, and otherwise different metals have different hardnesses, and they can rub against each other and cause scratches. 2. If you have stones, you don’t want to get them wet, especially things like opals, quartz, or turquoise. “Putting water on an opal is going to completely change the color of it.”
For cleaning, she has some tips. “What I recommend for diamonds, you boil hot water, put dish washing soap in it, drop your jewelry in there, give it some time and let it degrease. Twenty minutes later, take it out and use a soft bristle toothbrush and get in there gently.” Aran doesn’t recommend this method for emeralds, opals, or any semi-precious stones.
