How to Buy Pearls

Pearls are an enduring classic of romantic beauty and sophistication suitable for almost any occasions or celebrations. Pearls may be worn with formal eveningwear, with a business suit, or casually with a sweater and jeans. The official June birthstone provides an ideal choice for brides, young women looking for a touch of elegance, or a cherished gift for birthday, Christmas, graduation, sweet-sixteen, anniversary, or just to say I love you.

Once rare and expensive, modern cultured pearls have become an affordable luxury. To choose consider six factors contribute to the value of a pearl: luster, nacre thickness, shape, surface texture, size, and color.

Luster- the Essence of Pearl Beauty
Pearls gain their unique beauty from the play of light reflecting through layers of fine crystalline nacre gradually deposited by an oyster. Nearly transparent nacre gives the deepest luster and the highest reflection. A high-quality pearl will have a brilliant even reflection with a fine warm glow or radiance. Lower quality pearls have a dull sheen.

High-quality Akoya pearls have a higher luster than South Sea or Tahitian pearls, which tend to have a softer, more diffuse reflection.

Color and Overtones
The dominant color of a pearl comes from the main reflection from the pearl surface. The deeper reflected light draws the inner color from the pearl, called the overtone.

Light colored pearls are available in shades of white, cream, and golden. White with pink or silver overtones are generally the most valuable. The most desirable dark colored pearls are black with green or blue overtones.

Color matching is also important when buying pearl jewelry. Perfectly matched pearls in color and size are more valuable than poorly matched pearls.

Shape and Surface Texture
The highest quality pearls are perfectly round with smooth surface, very few surface imperfections, and even coloration. Lower quality pearls may be nearly round, or show

The classic and most common pearl necklace length is the 17-19 inch princess. It is a good choice for a first pearl necklace because it can be worn with many things.

Decide Pearl Types (There are four types of pearls)

1. Classic Akoya Pearls
Akoya pearls are cultivated using Pinctada Fukata oysters. Although most Akoya pearls are cultivated in Japan, they are also cultured in the tropical waters off the coast of Korea and China and southward as far as Sri Lanka. Akoya pearls are from two to ten millimeters in size, and their shape is typically round or off-round. Colors range from pink to white and yellow. Typically pearls are harvested after about eighteen months to three years of cultivation, reaching about 0.5 mm in diameter after eighteen months in the host oyster. Akoya pearls are renowned for their high luster and rich color.

2. Large Exotic Black Tahitian Pearls
Tahitian Black pearls are cultivated from Pinctada Margaritifera oysters (black lip oysters) found in French Polynesian waters. Black South Sea pearls come in a wide range of colors from silver / gray, blue, and red / eggplant to dark green, with peacock being the most valuable. Cultivation time averages about two years. Tahitian pearls have long been highly prized by many cultures for their exotic colors and brilliant luster.

3. Large Golden or White South Sea Pearls
Large, exotic, and intensely beautiful... Black South Sea cultured pearls, better known as Tahitians, are native to French Polynesia. The finest White South Sea cultured pearls come from the tranquil waters of Australia, and the elusive Golden South Seas, the rarest

Inexpensive Decorative Freshwater Pearls
The above four types of pearls are all cultured pearls. Akoya pearls, Tahitian pearls, and South Sea pearls grow in ocean saltwater so they are also called saltwater pearls.
Akoya pearls are the most popular type for their appealing high luster, luxury and affordability.

4. Decide Pearl Quality
Pearls usually have four grades: A, AA, AAA, and AAA+ quality. AAA and AAA+ quality are the highest quality.

AAA and AAA+ quality pearls are the most desired pearls for gifts. They have high luster and very clean surface skins.

AA quality pearls have medium luster and slight to medium surface imperfection. They are ideal gifts for someone who will be happy to own a piece of fine pearl jewelry.
A quality pearls have low luster and medium to heavy blemishes. They are not popular for gifts due to their low quality