By Debra Kwinter
At 62, my skincare routine has expanded considerably beyond my face.
Every morning there is toner, hyaluronic acid, Vitamin C, moisturizer and sunscreen. There’s a gritty exfoliator in the rotation too. And none of this stops politely at my jawline. I go from the hairline on my forehead all the way down to, basically, my cleavage.
Décolletage is skin too. Say what, now? That is the space between the top of your boobs and your collarbone.
Which means my necklaces live in a fairly active neighborhood. They encounter moisturizer, sunscreen, sweat, the occasional overenthusiastic application of serum and whatever else I’ve decided is going to keep my neck looking 52.
And I never take them off.
I don't remove my necklaces to do my skincare. I don't take them off to work out. I don't put them in a little dish before I shower. They get cleaned in the shower when I do, and then we both carry on with our day.
That probably isn't how I would have treated the fine jewelry I grew up with. We were taught that good jewelry was something you protected from life. You put it on to go somewhere and took it off when you got home.
The problem is that I don't really want jewelry I have to manage anymore.
What does everyday life actually do to a necklace?
A necklace occupies an interesting piece of real estate. It sits directly against skin that gets sunscreen, skincare products and perspiration. It moves when we exercise and gets pulled around when we sleep. If you're someone like me who leaves necklaces on in the shower, it also gets wet every day.
That makes materials and construction matter.
Seed2Stone necklaces are designed around the same principle as the earrings: Leave-On, Sleep-In, Workout, Go Out. We use real lab-grown diamonds and solid, durable metals like 14k gold and sterling silver, rather than relying on plated finishes. We design secure, low-profile settings and smooth edges crafted for everyday wear.
That doesn't mean jewelry is indestructible or that it never deserves proper care. It means you shouldn't have to organize your life around your necklace.
My shower is also my jewelry-cleaning strategy
This is not going to impress a professional jeweler, but it's true.
Because my necklaces stay on, they come into the shower with me. The water helps rinse away some of what has accumulated during the day, and I make sure they're rinsed well rather than leaving a day's worth of sunscreen and skincare sitting on them indefinitely.
Every so often, they still deserve a more deliberate cleaning. Skin oils and product residue can build up around a diamond and its setting, which can make even a beautiful stone look less brilliant. That's dirt, not a diamond that's somehow stopped sparkling.
This is one of those wonderfully satisfying problems that can usually be solved by cleaning your jewelry rather than buying another serum.
The necklace has to fit your life, too
We talk a lot about fit when it comes to earrings, but necklaces have fit issues of their own.
Length changes how a necklace sits against your skin, how it works with different necklines and how easily it layers with other pieces. A necklace that constantly flips, twists or lands in the wrong place becomes something you fiddle with all day.
Seed2Stone's Muse Necklace was designed with adjustable lengths, smooth edges and precise setting angles that help the diamond face forward rather than constantly turning away from you.
Those details may not be the first things you notice when you buy a necklace. They're often the reason you end up wearing it.
I want to wear the good stuff now
Maybe this is partly an age thing.
At 62, I'm not terribly interested in saving the good china, the good shoes or the good jewelry for some theoretical future occasion. If I love something, I want it on my body all the time.
One Seed2Stone customer described her Muse as her favorite piece of jewelry and said she never takes it off—even with workout clothes. Another described wearing hers layered at different lengths and repeatedly catching herself checking out the sparkle in the mirror.
That's much closer to my definition of luxury now.
I want the diamond necklace with the T-shirt. I want it on when I'm running errands, working out and going out for dinner. And apparently I also want it present while I conduct a minor chemistry experiment on my neck skin every morning.
See necklaces that thrive under pressure
