The Pandora New Season Collection

Well it’s finally out and apologies for being a little late for blogging about this fantastic new collection. It looks like the theme of the new collection is Spring, Flowers and cuteness all round which makes sense as I guess, as it’s the start of the Spring season in Europe. A bit weird since it’s Autumn here in Sunny Australia, but I guess Autumn is as good as any season for flowers and a bit of Spring cheer, and there’s a really cool Easter bunny charm that I think is the highlight of the new charms! You can see the whole collection here, but I’ll go through some of the themes and special new designs that I picked up on, as well as my personal favourites. Get ready, it’s a great collection this time around! Drop Charms The collection of charms this time around seems to be abundant with drop and dangle charms and pendants. Dangle charms are a great accessory and gives a bit of variance to bracelets. I’ve even seem some really cool bracelets with a whole dangle theme to them, though it might be hard to pull off with just Pandora charms. This collection features something that I think is particularly exciting and beautiful – Murano glass drop charms! As you might know I’m a hard core fan of Murano glass beads and charms and these dangle variations have captured my heart. A must buy! Spring Flowers in Bloom According to this press release this new range of jewellery from Pandora is about ‘the enduring beauty of cherry blossoms in Spring’. Half the collection is centred around the theme with cherry blossom earrings, pendants and charms, but if you’re a really into the theme of the cherry blossom then the show stealers here are the Murano glass cherry blossom charm that in a really subtly tinted charm which mimics that softs pink petals of the cherry blossom and the silver multi-layered ring with a pearl and pink enamel bouquet of cherry blossoms that would look absolutely perfect with a simple summer dress and sandals, or even a few fancier evening gowns. Fairy Tale Charms This range of charms also features some really special fairy tale pieces with characters straight out of the picture books. These are perfect first charms for younger girls who might only have one or two spacers of their bracelet, but with the detail and craftsmanship I think they make a great addition to any bracelet with more feminine themes. The ones that really caught my eyes from these new charms are the castle and nightingale charms which have that delicacy and intricate details that make me fall in love with charms all over again. Personal Favourites – The Cutest Charms Yet! I’ve got a real weakness for cute, furry little creatures on my bracelet and this spring collection has given me a whole new set of silver charms to fawn over and save up for. The Easter bunny will definitely be the first purchase out of the new collection, but I’m having trouble deciding on the Scottish dog and smooth elephant. What do you think? All images taken from http://www.pandora.net/en-au/

Pandora Bracelets And Charm Bracelets: Choosing Your Bracelet When people think of European style charm bracelets or just any charm bracelet in general they are usually thinking about the charms on the bracelets first and foremost. However the little considered bracelet itself can lend a lot to the overall look and feel of your charm bracelet. Pandora bracelets are just the same, the variety of material that includes all kinds of coloured leathers instead of the usual gold and silver bracelets. There are many things to think about as the bracelet material defines your charms and the overall look and style of your bracelet. Here are a few factors to help guide you in choosing the bracelet that’s right for you.

Material Of Your Bracelet

For charm bracelets Pandora has a whole range of materials to choose from: leather, silver, textiles and gold and the principle materials that I’ve seen make up a Pandora bracelet. Usually the leather and textile versions will have a silver or gold clasp to add in a bit of shine if you’ve only starting out with a few charms. The most obvious factor is budget: leather and textile are obviously going to be much less pricey than any of the precious metals, though silver is much more reasonable that the gold bracelets and some are only $20-30 more than the simple leather bracelet materials. There are also yellow-gold and silver-grey leather bracelet colours that will mimic the precious metals very well, though without the natural brilliant shine of the metals. The other thing you might want to keep in mind is you charms. If you have a theme in mind or a set of charms you want to work towards then think about how your bracelet acts underneath them and whether it will draw the eye to the charms. At times a darker bracelet like silver with and oxidised silver or black woven leather actually complements a set of charms better than more expensive gold and other varieties. Using the various coloured materials can also help certain charms standout, such as a bright green to go with a St. Patricks day charm or pink on a Valentines theme. It is known that choosing neutral colours allows for more space for eyes to get drawn to you charms, which are usually the centrepiece of the European charm bracelet.

Layers And Design Of The Bracelet

Though the gold and silver bracelet have little variations, the leather and textile bracelet ranges have weaves, double layers and fashioned from multi strands of material. Leather is already a bit more casual a material for a charm bracelet and variations with of bunched individual strands and doubled layers of material would go better with more low key everyday outfits than some more of the classier dresses that might work with precious metals a bit better.

Cleaning And Care

Not so much as a big issue that should dictate your choice in charm bracelet as it is a piece of advice, but different bracelet materials will require different levels of cleaning and different cleaning methods. Silver and especially gold don’t require as much maintenance as leather might as it doesn’t absorb the oils of your skin and won’t fray or crack, though you’ll want to go over it with polish and rag to clean off dirt and to keep the same brilliant shine as it was when new. The leathers are a bit more temperamental in need of soaps and disinfectant to keep out bacteria and you should be more careful when wearing it every day to not rip of start any fraying along the material. Hope this helps and Till next time take care!

Cleaning And Caring For Your Charms: What You Need To Know

As a proud Pandora charm bracelet owner I take great care in choosing the charms that go on my bracelet every day and get to show them to quite a few people whose eye it catches. How embarrassing it would be to have bits of dirt, skin cream and makeup on my charm! Having owned Pandora bracelets for quite a while I’ve devised a fairly good casual maintenance plan to go along with the twice-yearly cleaning as recommended by Pandora themselves here. There are some serious do’s and don’ts that I’ve come to learn over the years, and sometimes the hard way, so even though I might not be the foremost authority on precious metal cleansing I’ve got a few tips that might make your life easier and even save the lives of your precious charms.

Prevention Over Cure

Well the best way to have a clean bracelet is quite obvious: don’t get it dirty! If you’re going to encounter some mud, dirt or grime that put that bracelet away somewhere safe. It might seem totally obvious, but the odd scrape against our charms can cause damage that’s totally irreparable.

The over thing is to store you bracelet in an appropriate the place. Gold generally keeps much better than silver as it’s not as reactive a metal, so most people are concerned with silver tarnishing. Tarnishing happens when silver reacts with various chemicals and oxygen in the air. The metal will look different from its colour as the outmost layer of jewellery undergoes a chemical reaction. While this process might help to protect the metal below the outer layer you want to let the silvers shine so it’s best to watch out and clean away any tarnish that appears.

Cleaning Silver Tarnish

First of all check that the tarnish on your silver isn’t there on purpose! Pandora has many silver charms where the silver is oxidised to create a contrast between the light and dark tones. Pandora uses processes to oxidise their silver charms very precisely, but even your cloths can ruin the desired effect of the darker layer. To clean you can shop around for any kind of paste or solution that you can rub into the tarnish to take it off or a special silver polishing cloth which will have some solution inside to help take off the darkness. Follow the instructions of the cleaner, but generally when cleaning charms and bracelets you’ll want to give a simple rub down in hot water and a soft cloth to remove dirt and oils.

Storing Your Bracelet

As part of care, storing your bracelet is very important. Basically, to avoid tarnishing your bracelet and charm you’ll want a space that it free of air flow. Pandora does have special soft cloth bags to store your charms in (the box you get with the bracelet isn’t actually the best for charm and bracelet storage). Even something as simple as a zip lock plastic baggy can keep out air is better for your charms than a padded and fancy box, but of course you can keep your plastic bag of charms in there if you want to look a little stylish!

Charm Of The Month: Duotones

Happy new year to all of you and hope you had amazing time around the countdown. We all have resolutions of course, and mine was to do monthly reviews of charms, and just my favourites! This month I’m going to look at duotone charms that make up a big part of Pandora’s charm collection. The word duotone is usually used in the context of photography, a technique where the photo’s colours are split between differing shades of only two colours. The result is a picture with high contrasts and can be used to highlight a certain colour in a shot. Duotone jewellery and charms are no different in what they use the duotone effect is used for. The two tones in question here are silver and gold and the aim is usually to add a bit of gold to a silver piece to highlight certain parts of the charm. There are some really fantastic charms out there that use gold to add a special touch to a classic design. It seems one of the favourite things to highlight is a heart as seen below! You can’t blame the designers though, the effect really makes the heart stand out and glow in a cute way.

And if hearts aren’t your style then there are some really intricate charms that use the duotone effect to great effect in some really intricate styles. A lot of the flower and rose duotones are make a great mix of gold and silver with the rose petals in the shining gold to really make it pop against the silvery background. Or the dove charm with gold doves flying off, leaving their imprints in the silver metal.

Styling Tips For Duotone Charms

Looking at the wide range of duotone charms I think that a whole bracelet theme can be made out of these charms. A silver bracelet with lots of duotone charms using pure silver spacers will provide a great canvas for the intricate bits of gold to shine through the bracelet. Maybe throwing in a few gold charms will create a nice alternating effect between silver and gold. Whatever you do, I think it’s best to keep the theme nice and simple to let the gold tones pop as much as they can and draw attention to them. *All images taken from Pandora Australia.

Pandora Gift Ideas

Well it’s that time of the year again and we are all frantically searching for gifts for our loved ones. As for myself I had a great shopping list to go through with a huge family like mine! I decided that getting charms bracelets or charms weren’t possible for every one of my nieces, aunts and girlfriends as I’m not made from gold. But it did get me thinking about buying charms and charm bracelets for loved ones and how to get a perfect gift without giving your surprise away. You can’t just wrap tape measures around wrists without looking suspicious! And what if it’s for somebody you don’t quite know? How are you supposed to know what colours, metals or jewels are their favourite. Do you risk getting whatever and just including a receipt so the giftee can get an exchange? I know its common practice but it’s just not my style. There’s nothing better to give the perfect gift and seeing the look on a person’s face of pure joy. So here are a few tips I was thinking about that might help steer you in finding the perfect gift for your special someone. Getting Measurements There’s nothing more disappointing when giving a jewellery gift to get the perfect style that somebody loves, but in the wrong size. You’ll have to go through the hassle of going back to the shop and exchanging it, which might not even be possible if they’re out of stock. To get somebody’s measurements without giving yourself away, the most accurate way is to get their favourite piece of jewellery and sneak it away to get measurements from that. If it’s a bit of an emergency and you can’t get a their favourite piece, most shops have sizing charts from which you can draw an estimate from, or you get jewellery with an adjustable clip or safety chain or just stick to charms that will fit their bracelet. The Perfect Style Knowing what kind of charm a person would like is a much harder task, especially if the gift is for an acquaintance who’s a charm fanatic and might already own the charm you’ve got in mind for them. Try to get a peek at their collection and get a feel of what kind of charm they like. Cute and cuddly bears and little animals? Elegant pearls and detailed silver beads? A Murano lover? Ask them about their collection and share your own charm knowledge. Maybe they are working on a theme you can add to or they’ve got something in mind already you can get for them! If all else fails look at the latest charms from the Christmas Charm Collection that they’ll most likely not have or go with some less common pendant necklaces by Pandora or their birthstone jewel. Whatever you do, they’ll surely love it. Good Luck Gifting and Happy Holidays! -Deborah

Styling Your Charm Bracelet For Christmas

So I was looking over some Christmas jewellery ideas on some other blogs like, finding some really adorable pins that I am definitely going to look around for. It got me thinking about what kind of Christmas themed Pandora charms and jewellery that I can create with my current collection and what styles and themes would work best with the Christmas colours and outfits I had planned. While messing around in Pandora’s bracelet designer tool for some inspiration I came across a few helpful tips and hints for personalising your bracelet for the holiday season even if you do not yet have anything from the latest Christmas Collection. Go For Darker Colours This Season When we think of Christmas the first colours to come into mind are usually bright cherry reds, the vibrant greens of holly and pure white snow. After all, it is what Santa decorates himself and his little elves in right? Well this might be true, but you don’t really want to go into parties looking exactly like a costumed helper at your local shopping centre. Some people try to simply throw in some Holiday cheer through bright red and green accessories like a cute headband, some shoes or a clutch along with casual wear, but this just comes off as a token effort. If you want to celebrate the holidays with elegant style and a dress that you’ll be able to reuse for other occasions effortlessly, then look at some darker silk colours like a rich bronzish gold, deep violet satins and flowing ivy green and crimsons. These alluring colours are a break from the clichés that are thrown around so much at the work and family parties and still reflect a sense of joy with class and style. To style your bracelet accordingly think of gold, silver and crimson bracelet material and try to add some contrast in with the above colours. It’s important to be subtle, but just a few hints of colour can really add to your bracelet, turning it into a complete theme. You can try to match with your dress to give a complete feel to the outfit or go with a contrasting colour to draw more attention to your charm bracelet.

All Images Taken For The Charms Section Of The Pandora Website.

Pandora’s New Christmas Charm Collection

Everyone knows in the jewellery business the Christmas time is the peak season for new designs, usually with a Christmas theme like stars, red and green colours and a lot of silver to remind us of the iconic Christmas snow (even if we live in Australia!). This year Pandora has come out with several new charms and jewelleries that are a little out of the norm and super cute as well! There are the usual bright red and green charms that go great with any pieces of silver that you have to create a festive feel, or if you have a nice green or red dress the charms will definitely bring the outfit to a new level of elegance.

The real exciting pieces for me, however, come from some of the charms that might get overlooked in the extensive new range of pieces. The newest addition to the Pandora line is charms with the ‘Pavé’ which is kind of like a mosaic style consisting of small gems that cover the metal’s surface so that none of very little of the charm’s metal is visible. You’ve probably seen this style in other types of jewellery and it kind of remind you of the home style plastic bead accessories that women commonly make and hang from their mobiles and handbags. Pandora takes this concept to the highest standard and from the previews (the collection isn’t out in any of my local stores) the style really gives the Christmassy sparkling feeling. I love the silver Pavé Star charm, if you look closely you can see the small star patterns inside the star indent of the charm, a really nice touch and characteristic of Pandora’s attention to detail!

The next thing that caught my eye was the super cute Christmas theme charms with a stocking, gingerbread man and polar bear for this year. The must-buy for me is by far the Gingerbread man dangle which is coloured with a kind of see-through enamel that does a high-class job of moulding a tiny gingerbread man. This is a definite Christmas item, but I feel like it can go on my bracelet any time of the year and still look super cute and fitting for a theme. I can’t wait to see the silver stocking charm in store as it seems to have the little details like small toys stuffed inside the top of the sock. I think this will be most popular charm bought as a gift for friends and family, the more I look at it I think it will be perfect for my sister or friend’s bracelet!

The last piece of the collection that set off my charm cravings was the stud earrings with a deep bluish black pearl set in. Pandora isn’t known really well for its earrings, but these look absolutely gorgeous and totally Christmas appropriate with a navy dress or a more theme appropriate dark green. You can even wear a few holly leave in your hair to make these look like little berries.

Anyways, that’s my take on Pandora’s Christmas collection, overall a really cool new set of styles and a few charms that I’m absolutely crazy about for this year! Share your thoughts about the new charms and collection below!

Till next time,

Deborah.


*All pictures belong to and are taken from the Pandora Website.