How do you to get the smell of cigarette smoke out of jewelry?

Question

I bought this glass pearl necklace off of ebay and it smelled like cigarette smoke. How to get this smell out?

Answer 1

If there is any type of "skin" covering the glass like you see on a regular pearl, do not wet it or use anything abrasive or you will damage that covering.  Plus, treating the "pearls" you will still have odor coming from whatever it is strung on.  You have several choices that will treat both without damaging either the pearls or the string.  Fill a plastic container with borax, baking soda, talc, or some activated charcoal and put the necklace inside the container with a lid.  Leave it in there and check it after several days to see if it still smells. All of the above absorb odors, but if it still smells, add more of whatever you are using.  Once the odor is gone, you can either use the brush attachment on the vacuum to suck off the excess or use a soft makeup brush to flick it off.

Answer 2

Try #1

Boil some water, then pour that into old cup you won't use anymore.

Pour in some sudsy or lemon ammonia in the cup about 4 table spoons let that soak for 1 hour. Don't worry it won't harm your jewelry as it the same stuff the Jewelry store uses to clean you soft. They use pink dye mix with ammonia. If you want to really clean them put them into old nylon and tie both ends and place it on the bottom of your washing machine. One normal cycle with some ammonia and hot/hot or hot/warm wash cycle for on small or light load.

Try #2

Another way you can do this is put the jewelry into the dish washer and put it into a tray for special items have a lid to close. This why they don't fall out. If you use the dishwasher don't use ammonia use gel to clean them. Normal cycle no dry heat.

If you're not happy with #1 then do #2 or #3

Try #3.

If you have old coffee tin or glass jar you can put them into that with the sudsy ammonia and hot water. Close the lid tight. Then shake it.

Answer 3

Hot water and dawn dishwashing liquid.  It cuts the oily residue from the cigarettes.

Answer 4

Wash your jewelry with a lot of scented soap and water.  Repeat as necessary.  

Answer 5

Scrub it with toothpaste. It makes it real shiny too.

If the smell persists try soaking it in vinegar for a while.

Good luck!

Answer 6

You can try washing it by putting it in a bowl of lukewarm water with some Woolite or mild dish washing soap.  Let it soak then rinse really well.  Pat dry

Sun always gets the smell of smoke out.  Every time we come home from a bar smelling of smoke, I put our clothes in the sun... bags, ties and shoes too... anything that was with us the night before.  Sure enough, the smell disappears completely.

I would avoid using brushes, dishwashers and alcohol.  Toothpaste works on gold but am not sure about the glass.  It depends on how delicate the glass may be.

Answer 7

I would use an old toothbrush along with some regular toothpaste-scrub it--rinse it of---pat it dry----place it into some alcohol and let it sit for awhile--take it out of the alcohol and brush again--put into some water--soak for awhile--pat dry on a towel and not only will you necklace be smell free but it will also be very shinny.

Answer 8

I've read a lot about people buying things from ebay and then they can't get the putrid smells out of the things they bought there.  Anyway, I'd be careful about soaking it in alcohol like a prior person answered here.  It is possible that the alcohol can ruin the finish on the pearls or if there's any glue or something, it can loosen it and make the whole thing fall apart.   For instance, it can cause damage even to the string that the necklace is strung on.

I'd go with the toothpaste thing.  That's what I do with my jewelry.  Or, you can go to most jewelry counters in various stores and they usually sell jewelry cleaner.  That's something that you can soak your stuff in.

I must confess, I've never heard of jewelry smelling of cigarette smoke --- especially to the point that you can't get the smell out of it.  Yuck!  I hope you succeed.  That's a shame for you to get stuck like that.