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Four quick and easy ways.

Knowing how to clean silver jewellery firmly fits into the category of style hacks that will serve you well for many years to come. Once you've learnt the process, you can use the skill again and again, meaning that tarnished silver jewellery will be a thing of the past - and good riddance, if you ask us.

But before we get into how to clean your favourite items using materials such as silver polish, laundry detergent, baking soda and ketchup (yes, really) let's first take a quick look at what exactly tarnish even is and what causes it, plus, how to prevent it from happening.

Tarnish is a form of corrosion that can happen to silver, appearing as discolouration in the form of a yellow, brown or even grey/black coating on the surface of your jewellery.

Pure silver is naturally resistant to tarnishing but, since it's considered too soft to use for most jewellery, the majority of your necklaces, rings and bracelets are likely a form of sterling silver (which is 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% composite material, such as copper).

Tarnishing is essentially a chemical reaction between sterling silver and chemicals like sulphur, chlorine and various acids. You might think you don't come into contact with these chemicals very often at all, but you'd be surprised. The PH levels of your skin (which, fun fact, contains acids) can cause jewellery to tarnish, as can things like swimming or even showering and washing your hands, depending on the water and products used. Perfume, moisturisers and soaps are also common causes of tarnishing - who knew?

So, now that we've established that tarnishing is very common with silver jewellery, you'll be glad to know that it's also totally fixable - praise be!

There are multiple ways to clean and remove tarnish from your silver jewellery - the right method depends on two things: how tarnished the item is and, of course, what you have available.