Why sterilisation matters: Ensuring safe & clean jewellery at Kalima

 The opinions and policies expressed in this blog are strictly our own. These blogs are intended to explain the reasoning behind our practices here at Kalima Emporium. They are not a critique of other studios, as each has its own policies and procedures.

At Kalima, we’ve prioritised safety and hygiene since our founding in 1998. Cleaning and sterilising all jewellery - whether for piercing or retail - has always been our standard practice. Here’s why

Manufacturing Residue

During the production of body jewellery, raw titanium undergoes milling, shaping, and polishing. Polishing smooths the surface to reduce manufacturing marks, which minimises places for bacteria to hide and reduces tissue irritation during wear. However, the polishing process often leaves behind toxic residues that are invisible to the naked eye. Removing these residues prior to fitting jewellery or piercing with jewellery is critical to preventing irritation and ensuring the safety of the wearer.

This is especially an issue if you change your jewellery before your piercing is fully healed. Most piercings take 9-12 months to fully heal and the majority of piercings are stable enough at 4-5 months to be changed for the first time. So, if the jewellery hasn’t been thoroughly cleaned by a studio (or online retailers) and the jewellery is fitted, you then coat the inside of your piercing and any leftover open wound with this polish. This can cause your piercing to flare up, become red and irritated, and your body can absorb these toxic chemicals.

Over the years we have had countless clients coming in with irritation issues when they have fitted unclean jewellery from other studios or online retailers. They often think this is due to the quality of the jewellery, but as most professional studios use many of the same suppliers it is actually just because the jewellery hasn’t been thoroughly cleaned before use, and the toxicity starts to cause issues.

Handling & Cleanliness

Jewellery passes through multiple stages before it reaches the customer, including manufacturing, packaging, and distribution. It can be dropped, handled by many different people, or even returned after brief use. Workshops and warehouses are not sanitary environments, which makes proper cleaning and sterilisation even more essential.

Commitment to Safety

At Kalima, we use a dedicated jewellery-specific ultrasonic cleaner and autoclave to ensure every single piece is properly cleaned and sterilised, away from our used tools. 100 or so pieces of jewellery down the line, you can see this polish and debris collecting in the bottom of the ultrasonic. It really is quite amazing how much of this invisible polish there is on your jewellery, and how much comes off during cleaning can be astounding.

After it’s initial cycle through the ultrasonic, the jewellery is dried and sealed in specialised autoclave pouches and is sterilised. These autoclave pouches guarantee its sterility and safety until that pouch is opened, and most have a 5 year timeframe for this. Plastic baggies, usually supplied with an alcohol wipe, or unsealed packaging raises questions about whether the jewellery has truly been cleaned, and definitely has not been sterilised. This is something to keep in mind when shopping for new pieces.

Client Well-Being

Many clients aren’t aware of the importance of sterilisation. However, over the years, we’ve seen numerous cases of irritation or complications caused by uncleaned jewellery—even from reputable suppliers. While some studios might skip this step to save time or costs, we believe it’s essential for your health.

Despite the time and expense required, we often spend 6-8 hours a week cleaning, packaging, and sterilising - we remain competitive in pricing and include jewellery fitment at no extra cost at the time of purchase. This reflects our commitment to offering not just quality jewellery, but also peace of mind for every client.

By maintaining these standards, we prioritize your safety and uphold our studio’s ethos of transparency, integrity, and care.