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I have a crystal glass bowl along with a crystal tortoise. feng shui says having some water in the bowl with the tortoise is good. But, what has happened is over a period of time is that the bowl and the tortoise have slowly started to have some dust collection/rust or greasy (sorry don't know the exact term).

I have tried to clean with soap water, using hard brush etc. But nothing seems to make the crystal shine again. Can you please suggest what I should do.? Thank you all.

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    This could be residue left by "hard water" that flows to many homes. Hard water has a lot of minerals in it, and they can get left behind on your crystals and stones. You may be able to remove it by Googling "remove hard water deposits". (It is also called hard water stains, lime scale, mineral deposits, or mineral build-up.)
    – BrettFromLA
    Commented Jul 29, 2018 at 14:29
  • Some kinds of soap (in bars such as for washing hands) leave an oily residue that does not rinse off entirely. A dish washing detergent will rinse clean without leaving such a residue. Alternately, an oily residue can be removed with alcohol.
    – Stan
    Commented Jul 30, 2018 at 15:51

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Add some vinegar to your water and soak, and this will allow you to scrub off the stains easily. For particularly hard mineral stains, take paper towels and soak them in vinegar and apply them directly to the mineral stain and let them sit for at least an hour. Repeat as necessary.

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    Many crystals are attacked by acid. Using vinegar would degrade the surface and remove any shine in the crystal. I would be very careful about using this technique.
    – Judith
    Commented Aug 20, 2018 at 8:11
  • I also would propose vinegar because most of the time this is calcium carbonate. But you should also follow Judith's comment. Whenever you try out a new cleaning method you should test it at a hidden spot of the surface of the object you want to clean and check if it does not damage the surface of your object.
    – miracle173
    Commented Aug 20, 2018 at 15:51
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    Agreed - I suggested vinegar because the OP mentioned this was crystal glass.
    – Julie Sigwart
    Commented Aug 20, 2018 at 16:22

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