Your pearl gift will loom large in her life!

First of all, great job! You’ve had an awesome gift idea, and shown how sensible you are. Pearls are a long-lasting, personal and beautiful gift, and a great choice. Your second great idea was getting advice about buying them! If you know you want to buy pearls for your sweetheart, we’ll help you with where to start.

White and Black Pearls

Tahitian baroque pearls

If your female friend doesn’t currently own any pearl jewelry, either white or black pearls are a good place to start. The best color for her will depend on her complexion - you can check out our article on choosing the best pealr colors for different complexions for further help there.

By Body size

Petite pearls suit petite women, larger pearls suit taller or more solid women. Don’t think that you’ll be flattering her by buying the smallest possible pearl string for her, though … it will look out of place on her, and is likely not to get worn.

Types of jewelry

Pearl earrings are always a nice starter piece. If your lady leaves her earrings in when she goes to bed, pearl studs will be fine, as long as they are not too large. If you have a woman that changes her earrings as often as she eats, hoop earrings are a good choice.

Bracelets are good for women that don’t work with their hands (although this does include typists!), or are good as evening wear. If you’re looking for evening wear pearls, you’ll want higher quality ones, which brings us to another guideline!

Pearl Quality

Pearl quality is judged according to several different factors.

• Nacre - the thickness of the pearl’s outer shell. Nacres larger than 0.4mm are good quality.
• Surface - whether there are any imperfections on the surface. This will be judged light, moderate or severe.
• Luster - descriptions of luster vary, but common categories include good, very good, and excellent.
• Shape - Round pearls are valued more than off round pearls, however off round can be just as beautiful. Most ’round’ pearls are actually near round.
• Color - Pearls can be all different colors, and be the same value, as long as the color is consistent over the surface of the pearl.

Casual pearls are a gorgeous gift, and need not be as high quality as evening wear pearls. Check out pearl discounters online - don’t pay retail!

Your pearls WILL get dirty - whether you're conscious of it or not!

You almost won’t notice your pearl jewelry getting dirty - they are one of those gemstones that with a natural glow that it is hard to dampen. But you’ll definitely become painfully aware of the layers of you-know-what you were carrying around with you when you see how nicely they come up after a bit of spit and polish!

You’ll need a clean pair of pantyhose - they don’t have to be new, just clean, or a piece of fine voile. One of the best cleaning agents is a mild hair shampoo. Grab an organic brand, or at least one that says it has no petrochemicals - this will dissolve the stuff you don’t want, while keeping the stuff you do. A chamois, used for drying and buffing cars, is also useful … but you may want to keep one specifically for this purpose, and tell your husband to buy his own. A wooden ruler over the knuckles is a good deterrent … always worked on me as a child, anyway

The rest of the process is fairly self-explanatory - add the shampoo to a sink full of warm, not hot, water while it is running to create suds. Put the pearls inside the pantyhose and immerse in the water. Gently rub them through the cloth - one by one, starting at the clasp, is a good way to ensure each of your pearls gets individual attention. Repeat until they are shining like pearls again!

When you are finished, dry them with a towel to ensure any excess moisture is removed. You can also place them in a sealed bag with a couple of silica sachets (like the ones you get in pita bread and vitamin bottles sometimes), to drag the moisture away from the string inside the pearls. This will help prevent it rotting.

A couple of notes of caution:

• You really will want to use the gentlest shampoo you can. It is preferable to wash twice, that to accidentally wreck your pearl’s lustre.
• Be aware of how much stress you are putting on the string as you wash - try to minimize this.
• You may want to remove your pearls from the string to clean them every so often, to better clean the sides.

What sort of jewelry would you buy if you were unhindered by price? I bet your box would look quite a bit different to how it does now . Well, that’s the position celebrities find themselves in … but not only can they afford to buy whatever jewelry they like, they get given all sorts of cutting edge pieces to wear as a human advertisement.

But this post isn’t about why you should take acting classes - it’s about pearls! The classic look they create is a fave with so many celebs. We look at how you can copy celeb style, without having a million-dollar budget.

Ralph Lauren Long Pearl Necklace

Ralph Lauren Pearl Necklace ... or is it?!

We’re actually going to recommend pearls with a significant different difference to the celeb style ones in this case - because the Ralph Lauren number pictured actually features glass pearls! No, these aren’t pearls from the famed ‘Glass Sea’, or even with a hi-tech glass treating … they’re just glass baubles, pretty much :-). If you love the style, you can get the ‘real’ version at great prices - look for long pearl ropes, like the 36″ one pictured, and wrap them around your little brain-box.

Long Freshwater Pearl Rope

Mikimoto Million Dollar Pearls

Mikimoto Million Dollar Pearls - Are they worth it?

Sorry, we aren’t sure which celeb has the pleasure of wearing these … but Mikimoto, pearl-ophile extraordinaire, is really a celbrity in his own right.  No pearl has a diameter of less than 15mm, and all are AAA+ grade. While you won’t see a million dollar necklace for next to nicks, even on the net, you can get the next best thing - same quality and grade of pearls, same area, and only  a little smaller, as shown below, at about a 95% discount :-).

White South Sea Pearls

Michelle Obama’s Single String

Michelle Obama and her Pearlescent Personality

Michelle Obama’s signature string of pearls is not a budget-buster. They are the regular old freshwater variety, in keeping with the presidential family’s down to earth character. She usually wears larger diameter pearls, for a vintage chunky look - if you love Michelle Obama’s pearls, you’ll love this 9-10mm, 18” long freshwater pearl necklace.

Just Like Michelle Obama's Pearls

Pearls of the Bush

Sure, Pantone’s selection of 14-0848 Mimosa as the color of the year really just sounds like an excuse for a press release. Who cares whether it’s 14-0848, or 15-0939, really? Well, just take a look at the color before you make any cynical judgments!

Pantone's Color of the Year - Mimosa

If it looks familiar, it is because it is surprisingly similar to the color of Michelle Obama’s inauguration dress that caused so much controversy (a saddening event for people like myself who thought that a new President should be the focus of the day … but que sera ;-)). Pantone says that Mimosa embodies hope and reassurance in a climate of change … and coincidentally, that is just what we think the golden yellow of pearls can do! We look at our favourite golden pearl items, inspired by the colour of the year. All hail 14-0848!

We love the sunshine feeling that you get from golden pearls - they have the same subtlety and shine as that beautiful celestial body that brings us all light and hope … no, not Brad Pitt, the Sun! These golden pearl earrings are in the smaller size, making them a little more affordable - golden pearls are normally sourced from the South Sea, where the best quality pearls come from. You’ll save over 75% buying these ones, though.

Golden South Sea Pearl Necklace

Fancy paying $50,000 for a string of pearls? Really it isn’t much - one of Mikimoto’s latest creations went for $1,000,000. We don’t fancy paying that much - but we do love the idea of getting a $50,000, AAA grade, 11-13mm golden pearl string from the South Sea for only $11,000. The pearl color is light champagne, to celebrate getting such a bargain :-).

Presidential Grade Multicolored Pearls, including Golden colored

These presidential grades pearls are not only golden, but do incorporate the color of the year into their unique, elegant body. This necklace is of the smaller size pearls, and is well within the reach of the common gal … myself included! The 18 inch strand sits nice and high, for showing off purposes…

Plenty of pearl buying guides will tell you all about what region to buy pearls from, how much to spend, whether to get salt water or fresh water pearls … and will then leave you completely on your own when it comes to color, like a toddler looking at a sea of legs in a shopping center, but none of them belong to his Mom… We wouldn’t blame you for wailing at the top of your lungs!

Sure, pearl color choice is a personal decision. But what about when you’re buying for a gift for somebody … and they’re meant to be a “SURPRISE!!”. We give you some advice on which pearl colors will suit which people.

White Pearls - These look great with olive skin tones, and also with dark eyes and hair, like most Asian complexions. That doesn’t preclude everybody else though! Anybody that enjoys having a classical look will love white pearls. If you’re giving a pearl gift that will be designed for evening wear, white pearls are one of the best choices.

Black Pearls - Ironically, these look beautiful on both very pale people, and very dark African-American complexions. Black pearls are another traditional choice, and convey a little more luxury than do white pearls. Dark colors like black are also said to suit Scorpios and Sagittarians best.

Lavender Pearl Set

Lavender Pearls - Lavender, as a color, looks great with Oriental complexions, and also with standard white complexions with brunette hair. Lavender pearls say that you’re a unique, individualistic sort of person, but not necessarily bold and brash. Pastel colors like lavender are said to suit Cancers, Libras and Capricorns best.

Peach/Pink Pearl Earrings

Peach/Pink Pearls - Peach and pink pearls have a sweet, warm, childlike atmosphere. In fact, these are a great color of pearl to give if your gift is for a child. As with lavender pearls, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn gals are said to enjoy these pastel colors, and complexion wise, peach and pink suit Oriental and tanned, Caucasian complexions. They do tend to make pale blonde girls look a bit washed out, and are out of place on very dark skins.

Multicolored Pearl Necklace

Multicolored Pearls - Multicolored pearls say that you know what everyone else does - and you don’t want a bar of it! The elegance and simplicity of pearls gets its own funky, modern twist with multicoloured strands, and they are surprisingly cheap. Vibrant, varying colors like these are great on Gemini chicks ;-), and Aquarian girls will love the ‘I’m different to you!’ statement that they make. Brunette Caucasians, tanned Caucasians and chocolate brown girls look beautiful with multicoloured pearl strands.

Golden South Sea Pearls

Golden Pearls - Golden pearls make for a rich, classical look, even though the color is not a standard one for pearls. If you have a lady that likes to be different, but just a little bit, golden pearls are a great choice. Golden pearls suit most complexions, apart from pale blondes and Oriental skin tones. Gold is the traditional color of Leo, but suits Capricorns and Geminis just as well.

Pearl ropes - those long, flowing, silky pieces that only those not affected by the World War were able to wear at their height of fashion, in 1948, are on their way back into our jewelry boxes, hearts and minds!

Ashlee Simpson is helping re-popularize the pearl rope

1948 was a year of class and elegance, and pearls as well as diamonds enjoyed huge popularity (among those who could afford them, of course), back then. Pearl necklaces were the most popular form, and the several-strand pearl bib necklaces were popular at the beginning of the year. This eventually gave way to two opposite, but equally classy styles - the choker or collarette style of pearl necklace, and the pearl rope. These were usually teamed up with gloves with ruffled or feathered cuffs (divine!), a wicker basket bag, a small, close-fitting hat and fabric stoles. Enough to make any woman feel that she needed a cup of tea in her sitting room!

Michelle Obama's Pearl Rope at the Inaugural Ball

Pearl ropes are now coming back into fashion - Michelle Obama has helped put them back in the spotlight, with her layered pearl rope necklace at the Governor’s Ball at the White House recently, teamed up with a Peter Soronen with plenty of understated sparkle. Doesn’t Barack look so proud and happy in the picture?! Don’t you just want to fish Michelle out, and slip straight into that very classy get-up (with a presidential husband) ?

Pearl ropes are usually of 37 inches or longer, and even though they look like you might have to toss up between paying your mortgage this month, and buying one, they are actually quite inexpensive. Especially if you choose a strand with smaller diameter pearls (which are slimming anyway!). Black and white are equally beautiful, in my pearl-biased eyes!

54" Freshwater Pearl Rope

Pearl ropes are also an extremely versatile piece of jewelry - in fact, when you buy one, you can actually be buying three or four pieces of jewelry! You can have a jeweler insert several box clasps along the strand, allowing you to take the rope apart into bracelets, or several shorter necklaces.

So really, they are a bargain item! And no, the shiny pieces of plastic that sort of look a bit pearl-ish at the supermarket will not really do as evening wear .

If you’re feeling a bit flummoxed by the Tahitians, the South Sea, the Akoyas and the Mabes … and considering just buying a nice new saucepan as a gift instead, we’re here to give you a bit of insight! We’re also here to save you from having that saucepan thwacked over your head (no lady wants another excuse to be confined to the kitchen!). Here’s a quick rundown of the difference between freshwater and salt water pearls.

Can you tell whether they are salt or fresh water pearls?

Basically, the difference between freshwater pearls and salt water pearls is that in one, the pearl mussel or oyster is a salt water creature, and a fresh water resident in the other! There you go - end of explanation .

However, in terms of jewelry buying, there are quite a few differences between fresh water pearls and salt water pearls.

One of the main reasons that people feel that salt water pearls are of higher quality than fresh water, is that salt water pearls are more often natural pearls, and less often cultured. It is more difficult to control the circumstances under the ocean, and oysters are often lost to environmental occurrences. People that are ‘farming’ pearls prefer safer, freshwater environments. However! Not all freshwater pearls are cultured, and not all salt water ones are natural. In fact, only a small percentage of salt pearls are natural - in many places in the world, ‘hunting’ oysters for the chance of finding a natural pearl is illegal. Wild oyster harvesting is tightly regulated.

A cultured salt water pearl is still a joy to behold, and there are a couple of major differences between salt and fresh water pearls, whether God put them there, or we tweaked nature’s work along a little bit:

• Salt water pearls generally have a more brilliant shine than fresh water pearls
• Salt water pearls are usually round, freshwater pearls are usually off-round, which is sometimes called ‘Baroque’. Sounds better than ‘looks like someone sat on it’, anyway!
• Salt water pearls come in a narrower range of colors. Fresh water pearls usually take on the hue of the mussel’s shell, but can also be dyed by naughty, interfering humans
• Saltwater pearls almost invariably come from the mollusc family Pteriidae. Remember that next time you’re playing Trivial Pursuit!

An example of 'looks like someone sat on it', or Baroque pearls ;-)

As to the different names of salt water pearls, they almost always refer to the region they were grown in. Regional differences can make some slight variations in pearl appearance. Akoya pearls originally came from the Akoya region near Japan, South Sea pearls are caught in the southern hemisphere, including Australia, and Tahitian pearls come from the North Pole. Ha! Caught you :-).

Or, if you want an extremely simple way to tell the difference - salt water pearls almost always cost more than freshwater pearls!