Pure Pearls Glossary
Surface Blemish
Pits, bumps, creases and dull patches on a pearl's surface. Some marking is present on essentially every pearl.
Blemishes are the record of the pearl's growth: interruptions, debris and irregularities in how the nacre was laid down.
Grading counts how much of the surface is affected and how visible it is, not whether any marks exist at all. A clean pearl means clean to the naked eye at normal distance.
Where a blemish sits matters as much as its size. A mark near the drill hole disappears once strung. The same mark facing outward on a solitaire pendant does not.
When you are buying
Never trade lustre away for surface cleanliness. A slightly marked pearl with excellent lustre outperforms a spotless dull one in every lighting condition you will actually wear it in.
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Lustre
How sharply a pearl reflects light. The single most important quality factor, and the one you can judge without any training.
Pearl Grading
The A to AAA scale used to rate a pearl on lustre, surface, shape, colour matching and nacre. There is no global standards body enforcing it.
AAA Grade
The top of the standard pearl scale: sharp lustre, near-clean surface, well matched, and shape true to its type.
Matching
How consistently the pearls within one piece agree on size, colour, lustre and shape. A grading factor in its own right.
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.