Lady Hacks for Survival

Costume Jewelry

Hack for Saturday 2/14/2015 12:18 p.m eastern- 3/9/15 Monday 4:23 p.m eastern

Today's hack is on what every girl loves and adores... COSTUME JEWELRY ladies! This chapter will be based off of the 4 major jewelry items. Now, first things first, you should NEVER refer to your costume jewelry as fake. Your probably like "Well of course it's fake. It's not real."
Well, just don't. Even if it isn't real jewelry, you never know if someone else may think it's real!

You probably all had a fair share of costume jewelry. Whether it be because it's cute or cheaper than "real" jewelry. Now I know that you have your real jewelry, the items that costs a fortune, but regardless if it's expensive or cheap, it's still real, because it was bought, and your wearing it!

Scenario
You and your friend Jane Doe go to the mall to find an outfit for the casual school dance. While looking around in Forever 21, you come across an old "friend" from last year. However she is not really your "friend." You don't know why you call each other "friends", because you both secretly hate each other. But any way, you run into this person and you both exchange the "fakeness."

-Fakeness: consisting fake smiles, attitudes. Your overall presence is fake-

In a Sentence- Your fakeness is on a different level.

However, after this encounter Jane notices your gold flower studs and your matching necklace.
"Omg, I love your jewelry, it must have cost a fortune!" Jane iterates without sarcasm. While your just thinking this cost me about $20 all together.

So don't go walking and parading you jewelry around and calling it fake. If she was too ask you if it was real, you probably shouldn't lie, and say it's costume jewelry, and that you just got it from the store that sells jewelry. Regardless if you like her or not, because it's not cool being caught up in a lie.

Now I know costume jewelry has its pros and cons, usually more cons than pros, but trust me, its worth it. I have definitely had my share of costume jewelry, and along the way, I discovered so many neat tips and tricks, that will ensure you longer lasting jewelry.
First item:

Rings
Costume rings, can be tricky to maintain. However, I recently found a really cool trick to use, to keep your finger from turning green. Now if your like me, when you wear costume rings for an extended amount of time, your finger will turn a weird shade of green. This is 100% preventable if you coat the inside of the ring, with the clear base or top coat of nail polish.

I know this is extremely weird, but trust me, it works! It doesn't matter if it's a top coat or base coat, as long as it's the clear coat, that way you won't ruin your ring, because it dries clear. You literally just put the polish, on all areas, that has contact with your skin, and it will ensure a much longer lasting ring.

Necklaces
For necklaces, I find it very useful to use a jewelry rack. You can even use ziploc baggies so that way your necklaces will not get tangled so quickly. I also would recommend you to not wear these items while you sleep, in addition to activities that will allow you to sweat, or get wet. This will only result in the discoloration of your jewelry. Especially if it was a silver colored item.

Earrings
For costume earrings, there is not a ton of downfalls that I experienced. However, costume earrings do tend to brake really easily. Earrings containing a faux gold also seems to fade quickly as well. When purchasing a pair of earrings, you should always cleanse the stem of the earring, (the part that enters your ear piercing) with jewelry cleaner, which you could usually buy wherever you get your ear pierced. Overall, for earrings, I would just say to try not to wear the same pair daily, but if you do, it's okay, just be aware that they probably will fade, or either break sooner than expected.

Bracelets/ Bangles
Bracelets or bangles is the one piece of jewelry, that I very seldomly buy. This is due to the easy discoloration of the item. For some reason, bracelets seem to fade a whole lot faster than other costume items. Why? I honestly don't know, I'm only a sophomore in high school taking chemistry, and we have not yet learned about chemical reactions dealing with jewelry...sooo yeah.

Scenario (this is a legit scenario that actually happened btw)
Your in school chilling with your friends. You came to school looking cute. You have your hair all done. Even though you wear uniforms, you know you just slayed your outfit, and your decked out in some costume jewelry you happened to not wear in awhile. You have on some nice sized faux gold hoops, and you have on these nice slim costume gold bracelets along witb your real gold bracelet you wear daily. As your in the computer lab at your school, your typing your essay, and a classmate next to you asks if your bracelets are real, and if they're supposed to look like "that". You look at her confused because, your thinking "well yeah they're real. I'm wearing them, aren't I?" Then you happen to look down at your wrist and realize you have different shades of gold on your arm. Including that nasty shade of gold. You know, the one that turns to like a bronze!?

You don't want to be in this awkward situation, therefore you definitely should not clash your real gold items, with your faux jewelry items.

~Well ladies, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter! If you have any topics you find interesting, and would like me to write about, Let Me Know! Whatever you may want my opinion on, or even if you just want to be informed of cool advice and/or tips, just inform me. I won't mind writing about it.

~ I obtained my definition from a combination of Google and everyday youth slang terms.

~Btw, when I express "Hack for [...]", that is the day I started the chapter, to the day that I finished it.