New Inventory Sampler

Many of our clientele know from experience that we are definitely color lovers when it comes to Tahitian pearls! We look for intense midnight and teal blues, cherry reds, saturated aubergines, emerald and peacock greens… our focus on rare and unique colors sets us apart from the pack. When you shop for a Tahitian necklace at PurePearls.com, you know you’ll be able to find an unusual and colorful treasure that won’t ever be matched. Enjoy!

The Blue Nine - Sketch to the Real Thing

We were contacted last October about building a very special pendant that has since been named The Blue Nine.

Consisting of solid 14K yellow gold, three Akoya pearls (1 black 6.5-7.0mm and 2 white 6.0-6.5mm pearls) and a single .01ct diamond accent, this little treasure measures about 1 1/4-inches long by 1/3-inches wide, and is a true one of a kind design from the sketch to cast to mounting.

If you’re thinking of creating a completely one of a kind jewelry design for yourself or a special someone, contact us anytime!

2011 was a great year for us at Pure- we continue to build and improve on our site and our pearls at a steady and strong pace, and all of us are looking forward to the coming year with anticipation and excitement. We thought we’d set down a few of our 2012 Resolutions for you all to go over- let us know what you think!

1) Continue to maintain our high standards for pearl quality and customer care.

2) Continue to expand our pearl jewelry lines- from diamond accents to colorful gemstones and intricate gold work, you can be sure we’ll continue to focus on bringing you all the best- a gorgeous mix of classic style and exciting new designs to choose from.

3) Continue to focus on our social media platforms- we’d really like our Facebook page to be as fun and interactive as possible- filled with contests, deals and most of all, you!

Magic New Year 2012

Last but definitely not least, we’d like to extend a very special Thank You to each and every one of you! We’ve been honored to work with you- each pearl necklace and every pair of pearl earrings we sent out has a story and a lifetime to build upon; we hope our lovely pearls are treasured in their new homes, and that they provide many years of memories and enjoyment with you and your loved ones. 2011 was an excellent year- we’re positive that 2012 will bring new opportunities, new designs and many new relationships that are going to be simply amazing.

Psst, Fanning Sisters… we love your pearls! 

For blondes, or women with fair complexions featuring pink or reddish undertones it’s recommended to stick with lighter golden and champagne pearls. Champagne goldens feature a diffuse tawny/gold body color with lighter hints of rose and/or bronze overtones; the lighter colors attract and reflect light at a higher rate, making the pearls appear brighter and larger than they really are, while the muted hues counteract the warmer elements in your complexion and create a flattering glow. Some lightGoldenSouthSeapearls range the other way- cold! Their sparkling overtones can range from sunshine to lemon yellow and Aquamarine tones. Fair complexions with yellow or green undertones will do well with these bright and cheerful pearls.

Medium Golden pearls range from 14K to 18K hues and look stunning on nearly everyone. Ladies with tan or olive complexions as well as African American women can flaunt these pearls with impunity. Overtones typically range from subtle Rose to Green to Aquamarine as well as a deeper, neutral Gold over the natural body colors; if you have yellow undertones, liven up your pearls by selecting Rose and Golden overtones which will enhance their sparkle and depth.

Deep Golden South Seas can best be described as the 22K to 24K range of gold colors; their richness and depth make these pearls among the most rare and coveted of all cultured pearls, with true 24K tones fetching premium prices consistently. Very deep golden pearls can be enjoyed by ladies of all complexions, but for the fairer skin tones the trick is sticking to the warmer overtones of Rose and Gold. Greens, Aquas and Bronzes can easily tip these pearls into the cooler spectrum

Overview of Golden South Sea Colors

, and are more suitable for cooler complexions of olive, deep tan and dark browns. African American women in particular can carry off these sumptuous colors easily; the contrasts between the rich golden hues and their dark skin tones is often visually stunning.

Black Pearls Sample

We’ve seen a lot of confusion lately over the web regarding black pearls- which are which, which to choose  and how much to spend on them, so we thought we’d jump into the hubbub and provide some quick and easy to understand explanations and photos to clear up any lingering questions…

We posted this picture on Facebook yesterday for a quick and fun contest – the first person to correctly identify each pearl type in order would be the winner of a pair of 7.0-8.0mm Freshwater pearl studs, and there were a lot of interesting entries, and the winner did get very close indeed! The correct order is: Black Akoya, Black Tahitian, Black Freshwater, Black Freshwater and Black Tahitian. Yes, we threw a trick pearl in there to throw everyone off, but also to show everyone the range of hues black Freshwater pearls are commonly found in.

Black Akoya pearls are most often dyed; their surface colors tend to range from blackish-blue to blackish-green, and are almost always very dark in tone. The dye process saturates the nacre from the outside in, and tends to strip away iridescence leaving the surface a uniform color and an almost plastic-looking shine. Their most common sizes range from 5.0mm up through 9.5mm.

Black Freshwater pearls can either be dyed or irradiated; PurePearls.com offers the irradiated pearls almost exclusively as they’re more colorful. Irradiated black Freshwater pearls can be intensely multi-hued peacock to denim-blue and violet/purplish colors to the intense blue-green colors with shifting iridescence on the surfaces. The two Freshwater pearls in the middle (intense blue-green and peacock/green-rose) are the ones that did such a great job tricking our contestants. Often, there will be little black “specks” visible on the surface of the pearl where the irradiation treatment did not completely cover the surface. Dyed black Freshwater pearls look strikingly similar to dyed black Akoya in terms of color, size and luster- the easiest way to tell the two apart is differences in the shape: Akoya pearls are perfectly round, while the Freshwater pearls will feature slight off-round to oval-ish shapes.

Black Tahitian pearls are the two largest pearls in the photo. Known for their naturally occurring dark shades and big sizes (8.0mm up through 15.0/16.0mm or so), Tahitian pearls are the only cultured naturally-black pearls available on the jewelry market with any regularity. Their body colors range from light Dove Greys all the way through Jet Black, however their most common tones are Dark Charcoal Greys with overtones that are typically Silver or Steel, classic Peacock Green, Aquamarine, Rose and Aubergine. Their lack of any color enhancing treatments means that their surfaces shimmer with subtle to intense rainbow iridescence and display a beautiful, touchable luster.

For more tips, advice or answers to your questions relating to pearls, feel free to visit our Pearl Education Center, or contact the experts at PurePearls.com.

Golden-Pink Kasumi Pearl River photo

These one of a kind treasures have an extremely limited yearly harvest; while the cutting-edge cultivating technology of using a cultured pearl as a nucleus has been experimented with since the 1960’s in Lake Kasumigaura, Japan (hence the name Kasumi-Style), only recently has any kind of a regular production of fine, jewelry quality pearls been available to pearl dealers and collectors. Spotting a Kasumi pearl necklace is relatively easy, it’s telling the difference between high-dollar Japanese Kasumis or the relatively affordable Chinese Kasumi-Style lookalikes that get really tough- even for dealers!

True Japanese Kasumi pearls regularly fetch between $7,000-$15,000.00 per strand due to their rarity and origin; Chinese Kasumi-Style pearl strands are priced much more affordably at $500 for commercial qualities to $1,500.00 or so, and look nearly identical to their Japanese counterparts. Their rippled, metallic foil-like surface texture and large, off-round shapes make Kasumis very easy to spot, and are definitely a stand-out choice for anyone looking for jewelry that is completely unique and one of a kind.

While we specialize in pearls, our services encompass all types of gemstones. Creating such beautiful works of art for clients is what I love the most about working at PurePearls.com! If you’ve got a beautiful treasure that you’ve been dreaming about, give us a call and let’s get started!

Japanese Akoya Pearl and Diamond Earrings

These exclusive earrings are a part of our brand newPearland Diamonds Collections, and not totally available to all our clients- Yet! The earrings should be available to all our clients later this October, just in time for the early holiday shoppers out there…

The lucky bride is sure to be totally surprised with these unforgettable earrings, and again I’d just like to say how thrilled we are to have been asked to participate. I’ll continue to keep all our readers updated on the show, and hopefully post our segment on YouTube and Facebook!

Tahitian and Diamond Rondelle Necklace

We finished an absolutely stunning 20-Inch Blue-Green Tahitian pearl necklace today, accented with 6 pieces of 14K yellow gold and diamond rondelles, and I just had to post a picture of it to show off to all our readers. The pearls graduate from about 8.0mm up to 10.7mm in the center, and we’ve highlighted the gorgeous and highly iridescent 3 middle pearls between two of the rondelles, moving out into 5 pearl intervals and finishing the necklace off with a matching high-polish 14K yellow gold clasp.

I think the results are very lovely- rich, highly saturated colors, bright sharp luster and diamonds sparkling throughout- and all for less than $2,600.00!