Caring for cinnabar & stone

A hand-strung bracelet has two materials to protect: the stones (hard, but not indestructible) and the elastic cord (the only genuinely fragile part). Almost every care complaint we have ever received traces back to one of four habits.

The four habits

• Water. Cinnabar and obsidian shrug off a splash; the cord does not. Soaps and pool chlorine also film the polish. Take it off before showers, pools, dishes.
• Perfume and sunscreen. Alcohol and oils slowly dull polished stone and dry the cord. Spray first, wear after — a two-minute gap is enough.
• Sunlight. Long UV exposure fades cinnabar's red toward orange and can dull tiger eye's flash. A windowsill is not storage.
• Storage. Flat, separate, out of the sun. Stacked bracelets polish each other — hardest stone wins.

Stone-specific notes

About the cord

We string on multi-strand elastic, doubled where the bead holes allow it. Elastic is a wear item the way tyres are: years of daily wear, not decades. If the cord relaxes, we will restring a piece bought from us — contact support and we will sort it out. Removing the bracelet before sleep and sport, per the wearing guide, is the single biggest life-extender.

Everything on this page is ordinary object care. What the beads mean is decided back at the quiz.