- Value: 15/20
- Functionality: 19/20
- Quality/Ease of Use: 20/20
- Aesthetics: 19/20
- Post-Cleaning Gleam: 19/20
TOTAL: 92/100
Psst: This Is a ‘Selling Sunset’ Star’s Secret to Keeping Her Diamonds Blindingly Sparkly
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Published Nov 18, 2020
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Confession: I’ve been married for eight years, and I’ve gotten my wedding ring professionally cleaned exactly…once. It’s not that I’m lazy—OK, it is that I’m lazy, and that making a pit stop at the jeweler’s is never exactly top-of-mind. Suffice it to say, my ring’s been looking a little grimy, no matter how often I wash my hands. So when I saw the electric toothbrush-looking device Selling Sunset star Heather Rae Young uses to keep her eight-carat rock fingerprint-free (per a post on her Instagram Stories), I was immediately intrigued.
The gadget is called Juli, and it was invented by a mom who lost her engagement ring down the drain after struggling to scrub diaper cream off of it with an old toothbrush. The end result is a sonic brush that looks like something the dentist from Little Shop of Horrors would create, though thankfully it doesn’t go anywhere near your mouth—and it’s a game-changer for your jewelry.
Every facet of Juli serves a purpose: The cap that protects the brush has a Safety Loop on top, which is used to secure your ring so it doesn’t meet the same fate as the founder’s. Then, once you pop it open, you’ll notice the brush itself is separated into four zones. There’s an “ice pick” at the top to clean underneath the setting; a slanted “spade” brush for cleaning big diamonds, a “pave cradle” for scrubbing rows of gems; and a set of flat, white bristles at the bottom, known as the “wedge,” for cleaning eternity bands. It comes with a cleaning solution known as The Tonic, as well as a lint-free microblend cloth for drying your jewelry once you’ve cleaned it.
Despite all of the tech-y terms surrounding the brush, Juli is remarkably easy (and, dare I say, strangely soothing) to use. You simply secure the ring in the safety loop, spritz it with The Tonic and “gently tap” the brush’s bristles to your diamonds for about 10 to 20 seconds. After that, you rinse your jewelry (keeping it on the loop), as well as the brush and your hands, and use the chamois cloth to dry your diamonds off.
I was skeptical at first. Could it really make that much more of a difference than the diamond cleaner I bought from Target? That stuff’s $8, while Juli is $160. But when I cleaned my rings, I understood the hype: This was like that time I took my ring to a pro! Only I didn’t have to leave my house! And I might therefore have a ring that sparkles more than once every four years!
It’s worth noting that Juli is only recommended for diamonds and shouldn’t be used on pearls, opals or porous minerals. (If you have a diamond-and-pearl ring, for example, Juli’s manual recommends dipping the ice pick portion of the brush into the Tonic and carefully cleaning just the diamonds.) And while the price is still a bit tough for me to justify, when I think of how much I love my wedding and engagement rings—and how often I’ve avoided wearing them during the pandemic, because I’m at home all day, getting them grimy as I cook and clean—that $160 price tag seems increasingly worth the splurge. Or, at least, worth consideration as a major holiday gift.
