Cleaning Raw/Rough Quartz?

Vhyra

Hello everyone!

I'm totally new to the crystal world, but I was curious so I recently bought a bag full of rough quartz and stones (rose, white, citrine, amethyst, tigers eye & many others). I want to clean them up but it's seemingly a bit difficult! What tends to happen is I run them under water with a little bit of soap, then leave them to dry. When they dry, a white powdery substance starts to appear, especially on the tiger's eye. So I repeat the process and nothing has been working. Any ideas?

Thanks so much!
 

Aster Breo

First, be careful about using water to clean stones. Most are fine with water, but it can dissolve some kinds of stone. A little online research will usually give you enough info to know which are safe in water. (Ditto for salt, which can damage some stones, as can sunlight, if exposed for too long.) Quartz is safe in water.

Make sure you're rinsing the soap off thoroughly. Your description sounds like it might be the soap drying on the stones.

You can also use a toothbrush to gently scrub most stones. I use a toothbrush and mild dish soap for most of my jewelry and specimens.
 

readings.by.mia

From my experience, stones become much prettier when I bury them for cleansing, and you'll probably get rid of the powdery substance this way. Bury them in a plant or somewhere you can locate them, leave them there for a few hours or days and then polish them with a piece of cotton fabric.

As Aster Breo said, be careful when exposing your crystals to sunlight. Rose quartz easily loses its color if it's exposed to sunlight for long, and amethyst turns yellow / brown if constantly exposed to high temperatures.

Enjoy your stones!