Identifying Real Or Imitation Pearls

Cultured pearls have become more and more affordable over the last decades, rivaling natural pearls both in quality and price tag. However, there is still the risk of buying fake gemstones for staggering prices. Authentic pearls are easy to identify if you bear in mind several guidelines. As a rule of thumb, you should steer away from vendors that don’t accept returns or that don’t come with a guarantee certificate. Always shop from trustworthy sources in order to avoid unpleasant surprises.

Check the temperature

One of the easiest tests you can use to distinguish real pearls from fake ones is to touch them and feel their temperature. If they are real, the gemstones will feel cold to the touch for a few seconds before they’ll start warming up to your body temperature. On the other hand, if you are dealing with plastic pearls, you’ll notice that they have the same temperature as the room they are in. There will be no coolness to the touch, unless they are made of glass beads. In this case, they will feel cool, but they will take longer to warm up than real pearls.

Look for tiny imperfections

Contrary to popular belief, real and cultured pearls are neither flawless nor perfectly spherical. In fact, no two pearls in the world are identical. Even if it’s not easy to spot them without a magnifying glass, each pearl should have small irregularities like bumps or tiny cracks. A strand of real pearls will never have perfectly smooth and equally sized jewels. If you notice the pearls have identical size, color and shape, you are probably looking at a fake piece of jewelry. You should also keep an eye out for how the gems reflect light. Fake ones will usually have an unnatural luster that is not difficult to spot.

Check the overtone

An important characteristic of natural and cultured pearls is that they both have an overtone. This is the translucent color that seems to dance on the surface of the gems when you rotate a strand of pearls. Lack of depth or a uniform color in the pearls usually indicate that they are fake.

Shape, surface texture and weight

Pearls are renowned for not requiring cutting or polishing. They are ready to be worn as soon as they come out of the oyster of mussel. This means their shape is never perfectly round. If it was, they would cost an arm and a leg. Likewise, their surface feel is never smooth or glassy. Real pearls, both natural and cultured, will have a textured surface. The test for this one is to feel the pearls against your teeth. They should feel gritty, which will point towards their authenticity. Also keep an eye out for their weight. If they are real, the pearls should be heavy. If they are made out of beads or glass, they will be lighter.

Drilled holes

Another clue to help you determine when you are dealing with imitation pearls or not, is taking a close look at the drilled holes in the pearls. While the holes will be very small in real pearls, fake ones usually have larger holes. Use a magnifying glass to see if the coating around the holes is thin. If you can spot flakes around the shiny paint, you are definitely looking at fake pearls.