Pure Pearls Glossary
Imitation Pearl
A glass or plastic bead with a pearlescent coating. No nacre, no mollusc, no pearl.
Imitation pearls are beads dipped in a solution originally made from fish scales, now usually synthetic. The coating is a film, not a grown structure.
Two quick checks: rub the pearl gently against a tooth edge. Real nacre feels faintly gritty; a coated bead feels glassy and smooth. And look at the drill hole, where a coating tends to chip and flake.
Under scrutiny they are uniformly perfect, lightweight for their size, and reach room temperature immediately instead of feeling cool.
When you are buying
The tooth test takes two seconds and settles the question in a shop. Do it before you discuss price, not after.
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Shell Pearl
A bead ground from shell and coated to look like a pearl. Not grown by a mollusc, so not a pearl.
Tooth Test
Rub a pearl gently against the edge of a tooth. Real nacre feels faintly gritty; an imitation feels glassy smooth.
Nacre
The material a pearl is made of: microscopic aragonite platelets glued in layers by conchiolin. Thickness determines both lustre and lifespan.
Cultured Pearl
A real pearl grown in a farmed mollusc after a technician places an irritant inside it. Essentially every pearl on the market is cultured.
Not sure what you are being sold?
Paste any pearl description — another shop’s listing, a message from a jeweller, an old certificate — and we will break it down term by term.