i did a lot of research before i bought my van cleef sweet alhambra bracelet and i also just
got my bracelet back from the resizing service so i thought i would just share everything all
the important things that you need to know before you buy your next Van cleef piece
so that you don't have to spend time to research on things like repairing cleaning different stones
and resizing etc and let me know if you have any questions let's get right into the video first
let me give you a quick crash course on the collection size and stone if you're already
really familiar with van cleef feel free to skip to the next section from the timeline below there
are collections like classic alhambra playful perlee frivol and the new lucky spring collection
the most popular ones are Alhambra and perlee Alhambra is the signature four leaf clover
they're inspired by the clover leaf each leaf is supposed to bring love health fortune and the luck
to its owner who doesn't like that right when it comes to the size in the alhambra collection
the smallest and the most dainty size which is the one that i have called sweet alhambra
the next size up is called the vintage alhambra the next size up which is bigger is called the
magic alhambra certain stone color combos is only available in certain combination it's not like all
different sizes have different stones available when it comes to stones the red one is called
carnelian white iridescent one is mother of pearl the green one is malachait there's also the black
onyx the brownish one is tiger's eye there is also pure gold rose gold and diamond pieces
as well each stone also has different meanings like the carnelian is like the symbol of life
endowed with the power and facility the soul's journey to the next world carnelia also denotes
joy and happiness also the red is such a great color in chinese culture and to me personally as
well i'm definitely sold on the red color the onyx is like protection you can look into different
meanings for other stones as well when i ask that which stone is the most difficult or most easy to
care when it comes to van cleef to their customer service they mention it to me such a thing called
mohs hardness scale it's basically a scale that tells you how hardness scratch resistance of your
stone is one is the most soft 10 is the most hardest and i'll give you an example diamond
is 10 on the scale so you don't have to worry about the diamond piece from van cleef it makes
a difference when it comes to different stone pieces based on the hardness scale level mother
of pearl is the most delicate material it's really beautiful but you're not supposed to get it wet
it's easily get scratched or lose its shine if you get it wet and i also saw some people say they
turned yellow after long time the other delicate stone is the green malachait i've seen some horror
story online that people swim in their malachait pieces the green color turned into whitish color
even you don't get wet from what i read is that this piece is really hard to maintain
it doesn't age very well over time if you have any malachait piece comment down below to let me
know your experience pieces are like tiger's eye onyx the carnelian are considered harder
wearing and easier to take care compared to other stones generally speaking if you're looking for
everyday wear then gold rose gold white gold will be a better option to you because makeup shower
perfume sleeping gym are all okay next let me show you everything come with the van cleef purchase
so i bought my van cleef sweet alhambra bracelet from their official website which is
their e-boutique the purchase comes with a giant velvet box travel pouch i think the travel pouch
size you get is pretty random like mine is such a dainty bracelet but they gave me a really big
travel pouch which is really nice and then there's the van cleef shopping bag there's a booklet
including the care and services it includes information like how you should be caring for your
pieces the service comes with the purchase like the resizing and there is an authenticity card
so the authenticity card includes serial number reference number and the date of the purchase
of the piece which is the same as the serial number on your bracelets there are four different
ways that you can purchase their pieces i'll talk a little bit about the differences first you can
buy it from van cleef official website which is also their e-boutique this is also where i bought
mine bracelet and i have really good impression of their customer services because i asked many
many questions for this video and the customer service all patiently answered all my questions if
the piece that you want on their site is showing as call for availability when you call they can
try to locate this piece for you in any of the physical van cleef boutiques if you want to check
the shade of the stone for example how each shades of red carnelian looks different they will also
be able to show you a picture of the shade for you to decide the e-boutique source for you from
their physical boutique it still follows their e-boutique return policy you can get a full refund
within 30 days if the piece is not available in any of their corporate boutique they can
also place you on the waiting list for the item which i'm currently placed on the waiting list
for certain piece with the e-boutique when you buy online directly you're not able to pick the shade
for your stone or leave any note to tell them you want a lighter or darker shade of red if
you're buying stones pieces like carnelian in the vintage size i would recommend to see it in person
to pick or call their customer service to ask them to source the right shade for you but if you're
buying something dainty like my sweet alhambra i feel like it doesn't make a crazy difference
for me personally as i bought mine online the other thing i want to mention is that if you
order online you do get a big box like mine which you don't get in the physical boutique order
the next place that you can also buy from vca corporate boutique which is owned by vca however
i was told that the corporate boutique if you're not happy with the shade you only get store credit
or exchange for return this is something that you need to know just in case if you change your mind
the other way that you can purchase is from the vca boutique inside of neiman marcus they are not
affiliated directly with the corporate so everything follows neiman's return policy
you can get full refund and you can also get your points for your neiman credit card san
francisco only has the vca inside of neiman there are certain things are better in the vca boutique
compared to the VCA inside of neiman which i will cover in a bit in the next section the next way is
you can also buy pre-loved van cleef pieces from online retailer you can get slightly cheaper than
the retail price the price difference is not huge this is also why vca holds their value better than
other fine jewelry pieces from my observation the lower price point vca piece is close to
retail the big ticket pieces like perlee bracelet you can get more discount when you buy pre-loved
i'm guessing it's because the higher end market has less customers overall the only thing you
want to pay attention is that if you do buy you want to buy from reputable online retailers
which i'll link down for you in the description box when it comes to cleaning and care let me
share van cliff's official stance with you first you need to avoid exposure to fragrance chemicals
or cosmetics as these would affect the stone color in the form it's best to wait until fragrance is
dry completely before you wear your jewelry no exposure to high temperature like prolonged sun
exposure you can't expose the piece to water fresh colorinated or salt water which means you
shouldn't get it wet and you can't swim with it no gym because they said you're supposed to prevent
it from being knocked or from coming in contact with harmful substances van cleef recommend
cleaning with a soft and a dry cloth diamond is the only piece that they recommend to use water
to clean they also recommend to visit van cleef boutique which they will provide you appropriate
cleaning cloth and a shine service to revive the original brilliance of each piece also the shine
service is free of charge so when you take it to the boutique to clean some of the pieces can be
put in their ultrasonic machine to clean it for you others according to my SA they will use down
dish soap to wash it surprising right because down dish soap is a ph neutral soap no other chemicals
in there you can just walk in and drop off your piece to any van cleef boutique if you happen
to be in the area i did mine when i pick up my bracelet from resizing it only took me a few
minutes you don't have to do it all the time but this is something really nice to have the customer
service also told me that after i purchased my piece i should go into the van cleef boutique to
get a microfiber cleaning cloth from the boutique and when i walk into the van cleef boutique in
the neiman marcus i asked for it they said van cleef has never supplied them any cleaning cloth
so i believe the customer service was referring to van cleef's corporate boutique they have the
cleaning cloth but the neiman one doesn't so they only have this neiman marcus fine jewelry cleaning
cloth and this is what they gave to me this is the part i mentioned that corporate boutique
is nicer than the VCA inside of neiman if you don't have any cleaning cloth that is totally
fine too because you can just use any cloth for your glasses because those are microfiber cloth
and they are gentle enough for all the fine jewelries for the delicate piece i mentioned it in
the harness scale section like the mother of pearl or malachait you really don't want to shower swim
or get it wet or anything like that for the pieces you want to absolutely follow the guidelines but
honestly for pieces like my carnelian or onyx they are actually more hard wearing the customer
service person did tell me that it's okay to get it wet what's more important is to avoid
the chemicals because you don't know what kind of ingredients of your lotion body wash or hand wash
has it's not recommended to submerge inside of the water for a very long time i actually saw quite
some people mention it online that they wear their pieces to shower and sleep with it the carnelian
onyx pieces are totally fine i'm guessing they're using less chemical product because water is fine
but then you have to avoid the chemical stuff essentially you can decide what you want to do
with these hard wearing pieces like carnelian i will also talk about the repair policy in a bit i
don't wear my carnelian pieces um 24x7 at this moment i don't shower with it and i don't sleep
with it i definitely have gotten it wet when i was washing my hands and cooking stuff but it seems to
be fine so far if you want to be extra cautious then best don't shower with it van cleef piece is
handmade so each piece of stone is unique in its own way not only that but also cut of the stone is
different as well as which caused the gap between the stone and the settings you would have to see
it under the light when i asked the vca about the gap in between the stone and the settings
and i was told that these gaps are totally normal as long as the gap is not crazy big you're totally
fine the customer service said if i'm not happy with the gap they're happy to exchange another
piece for me and i just don't think it's necessary however this is also something you might want to
be mindful about stone like a mother of pearl will definitely shrink over time when it gets water a
lot in theory they all natural stones and any type of stone are possible to have the shrinkage
what happens that if the piece shrink then the gap between the stone and the beads on the settings
will be bigger i have seen some photos online where people show their mother of pearl shrink
over time i haven't seen anybody say online that their carnelian pieces have shrinked at all i have
asked the customer service this question also i was told that carnelian is pretty hard wearing
and they have not seen any replacement requests because of the shrinkage this leads to the next
section to the repair policy what if you hit something or your stone crack what's nice is
that if anything happens to your stone van cleef can simply just replace the stone piece for you
if you want to replace my carnelian in the sweet size it usually costs about 180 different size
and different stone price will be varied according to van cleef but it's really nice service that you
have the option to replace the stone also compared to the piece itself the repair price is definitely
very affordable i have not done any repair myself but something worth asking is that if you do end
up wanting to replace it i wonder if you can leave a note saying that i want a lighter shade
of carnelian or deep shade if you will be able to choose the shade of the piece anyone have stone
replacement experience can you please leave a comment down below to let me know so any van cleef
necklace bracelet purchase you can do the resizing for free within 90 days of purchase
i asked the limit if you extend it or cut it shorter within two inches it's all free anything
longer than this range it will come at a cost and cost vary so for the boutique purchase you
can simply do the resize in the boutique but for online purchases you have two way of doing it one
is you can do it with the online e boutique what they would do is they will send you a resizing kit
and then you measure yourself and you send a bracelet to them they will do the resize and
they send it back to you the second option is that you can take your bracelet to your local boutique
and with your receipt and then they can do the resize for you in the boutique as well i did mine
in the van cleef boutique inside of neiman the main reason is because i wasn't sure if i would be
able to measure my wrist correctly do everything right i just wanted a SA's professional opinion
so i choose to do it in person the e-boutique estimated that it usually takes about two to three
weeks when i did it in person in san francisco the SA told me the estimation is four to six weeks due
to the crazy situation impact things are delayed for sure so in the end it took me about five weeks
to have the resize done the other thing that i want to mention is that when they do the resize
they take the link from both end of the bracelet to make sure it's symmetrical i totally cut
my bracelet for one inch i got a two small piece of the chain back after i did the resizing
anything that they cut it for you they will return it back to you the other thing is when i drop off
my bracelet i only give them my bracelet i didn't bring any travel pouch or anything with me when i
pick up the bracelet i didn't ask for anything the SA in vca boutique packaged my bracelet
with another box and a different travel pouch give it back to me which is really nice if you
don't i assume that when you pick up your resizing piece you should be able to ask for another travel
pouch and a box VCA also provide personalized engraving service for rings and pendants
the service is complementary the max inscription length will vary depending on the design of your
piece besides your authenticity card when you got with your purchase vca can also provide the
authentication service for appraisal or insurance purpose which they will examine your piece refer
to their historical archive in order to certify its authenticity after the authentication process
you will receive a letter of authenticity that you can keep this service usually takes a few months
the price of the authentication service is 1 800 and if it's for insurance purpose
it's complementary for contemporary creations and one thousand two hundred dollars for
other creations after i wear my bracelet for longer i'll definitely share a review video
including the wear and tear definitely stay tuned for that video leave me a comment down below to
let me know if you think this is helpful or if you have any questions and i'll see you soon bye