Pure Pearls Glossary
Pearl Restoration
Lightly polishing away a damaged outer nacre layer to reveal fresh nacre beneath. Only possible on thick-nacre pearls.
A skilled polisher can remove a very thin surface layer, taking scratches and dulling with it.
It only works where there is nacre to spare. On a thin-nacre saltwater pearl, polishing risks going straight through to the bead.
This is one of the underrated advantages of solid-nacre freshwater and keshi pearls: they can be refreshed decades later.
When you are buying
Before writing off an inherited strand as dull, ask a pearl specialist whether it can be polished and restrung. It is often far cheaper than replacing it.
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Nacre
The material a pearl is made of: microscopic aragonite platelets glued in layers by conchiolin. Thickness determines both lustre and lifespan.
Peeling
Nacre lifting or flaking away from a pearl, exposing the bead beneath. Terminal, and caused by thin nacre or chemical damage.
Yellowing
The gradual browning of old pearls as the protein binding the nacre oxidises. Usually irreversible.
Restringing
Replacing the thread a strand is built on. Routine maintenance, not repair, and overdue on most pearl necklaces.
Tissue Nucleated
Grown around a scrap of mantle tissue instead of a bead, so the pearl is solid nacre throughout. The freshwater method.
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.