Certified jewellery lovers always have a place for pearls on their list as one of their most wanted accessory pieces. Popular for their simple elegance and sheer radiance, pearl pieces are perfect as gifts or even for pure investment only. However, pearls are also one of the most expensive stones so it is no longer surprising that fake pearls are sold in the black market with lower prices. For people who care so much about the quality and authenticity of pearls, it is important for them to categorize which are the original pearls and which are the imitations. Basically, there are two classes of genuine pearls namely the natural and the cultured. The natural pearls are the ones that came from different varieties of saltwater and freshwater molluscs while the cultured pearls are also naturally made but already had some treatments in them like faceting and coatings.

As for fake pearls, they also have three categories that are the glass beads, the plastic beads, and the mother-of-pearl beads. Glass beads are imitations covered with many coats of pearl essence with each coat being hand-polished to give off the look and shine of a real pearl. Plastic beads, on the other hand, are made just like the same as glass beads except that they are lighter than the glass ones. As for the mother-of-pearl shell beads, they also use the same coatings as the glass and plastic pearls but there are types that are not coated and simply sold on their original nature because they contain some characteristics of the authentic pearls.

There are different types of tests that can help you identify whether the pearl jewellery is a genuine or not. One method is to have the stone x-rayed by a gemmologist. Since cutting a pearl open is unadvisable, the x-ray can show whether the stone has layers of nacre with differing density for each layer. An authentic pearl should also show the absence or presence of a parasite which have triggered the formation of the pearl and some drill holes which are also common in natural pearls.

Another simple jewellery test is the sun test. This involves holding out the pearl under the sun or using a very bright indoor lighting. Real pearls can be characterized by the different variations of colour caused by the bouncing of light on their surface. Since faux pearls are simply covered with layers of pearl essence, the overtone of their surface is the same. Looking at the magnification of the stone mounted on the jewellery is also a good test. Just like in diamonds, real pearls have irregularities and ridges on their surfaces while the fake ones have noticeable grainy smoothness. Other visual cues that can help you identify the real ones are the size and shape of the pearl. Most genuine natural pearls possess concentric circles on their middles. Authentic ones are also rarely perfectly round since molluscs do not shape them naturally that way. Lastly, real pearls also tend to go warmer on the skin at a faster rate compared to faux ones.

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Category: Womens Interest
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