One of the most commonly asked questions we get here at Pure Pearls is how to tell the difference between traditionally cultured pearls and man-made synthetics.

This article will briefly go over some of the easier ways to tell the difference between the two so you'll know how to buy pearls with confidence.

Today, about 90-95% of all commercial pearl jewelry comes from cultured pearls, with natural, wild pearls mostly residing in collector’s markets and estate jewelry shops. There’s a stunning variety of VERY realistic-looking synthetic pearls out there too, many of them marketed under names like Majorica or “Shell Pearls.”

Cultured pearls are pearls that come from a mollusk, whether saltwater or Freshwater varieties. These pearls are nucleated with either a small mother of pearl bead nucleus or a square 1mm piece of mantle tissue, which irritates the mollusk into forming a pearl sac, and then subsequently coating the "seed" with crystalline nacre layers, eventually forming a pearl .

Because the resulting pearls are a product of a natural process, they will invariably have small inclusions, variations in nacre depth, luster, color/overtone and shape.

This means that each and every single pearl harvested is a totally unique, individual gemstone with its own character and personality. Like snowflakes, no two pearls are totally, completely the same.

This gives us all a wonderful opportunity to enjoy jewelry that becomes yours and yours alone through the pearls' identifying characteristics. It's a lovely thought, in my opinion.

If you have a pearl necklace (or pearl earrings, bracelets, pendant, etc.) in front of you, your very first and most formidable tool is simple observation. Place the jewelry on a plain white sheet of paper and begin examining the pearls inch-by-inch.

Well, maybe not THAT close - 3 to 6-inches away from your eyes should be just about perfect for pearl evaluation.

Questions to ask yourself while you're examining the pearls up-close and personal are:

Remember:  Cultured pearls are a product from nature - the mollusk always leaves its fingerprint on the gem during its creation, so you’ll usually be able to find some kind of imperfection somewhere if you look hard enough.

Synthetic pearls are usually either coated plastic, glass or crystal beads, and generally are visually perfect with very little to no variation in shape, size, luster or color/overtone.

The Tooth Test entails gently rubbing or scraping the surface of the pearls against your teeth.

Do this Very Gently, pearls are soft. - rating no more than a 3 on the Moh’s Hardness Scale - which is equivalent to Talc, so you really want to avoid scratching the pearls’ surfaces.

What you’re feeling for with your teeth is a gritty texture, somewhat like a fine-grain sandpaper; this texture is the result of thousands of microscopic layers of aragonite (crystalline) platelets layered on top of each other, creating a microscopically rough top layer.

Synthetic pearls will feel smooth, like plastic, because man-made gems lack these crystalline plates. The Tooth Test is not 100% definitive, but it will point you in the right direction and spot most fake pearls.

The attributes that almost all synthetic pearls have in common are smooth, somewhat plastic-looking surfaces.

• Unnatural colors that can be anything from ruby red to pitch black, lime green, sapphire blue and royal purple are often seen.
• The pearls will exhibit little to no overtone because they don’t have layers of crystalline platelets, however some will feature an artificial iridescence that is fairly easy to spot that will look "oily" to the eye and overly intense.
• Where cultured pearls feature soft iridescence, synthetic pearls’ iridescence can appear over-saturated in color.

There are three major types of synthetic pearls commonly found on the market at the moment (although new, hard-to-spot fakes, and "off-brand" synthetics are always being experimented with and introduced). The ones you should know about are:

• Majorica Pearls
• Shell Pearls
• Swarovski Crystal Pearls

Let's take a look at each and see if you can learn to spot them in real life.

Majorica pearls  are considered fine synthetic pearls that are often found in high-end departments stores like Barney's or Nordstroms. Most traditionally seen in white, black, grey and gold, these pearls maintain a "realistic" palette of colors, and are VERY convincing - especially the newest versions featuring circled Baroque shapes.

Majorica pearls have been in production since the late 1800's on the Spanish island of Majorca. These man-made pearls are created by repeatedly dipping a solid glass orb (to give the "pearl" a realistic heft or weight) into a substance called "essence d' orient". 

The exact recipe is a heavily guarded secret, however it is commonly known that the pearl-like substance is a liquified mix of ground up fish scales, powdered mother of pearl and oil. The "pearls" are dipped approximately 30 times to give them a nice, thick coating over the bead and then hand-polished to remove blemishes, bumps or uneven areas of coating.

The Tooth Test works really well on these pearls. Another dead give-away is their plastic-looking shine versus the softer glow of most cultured pearls.

Shell pearls also exhibit perfect uniformity in shape, color and reflectivity. These synthetic pearls are typically created in South Sea pearl sizes - 10.0-14.0mm ranges are the norm - and pastel colors traditionally seen in luxury pearl types: white, black, grey, gold, pistachio, brown/chocolate, and soft pinks - the better to fake you out, my dears.

Shell pearls can be made in two ways:

• The first and most common method is by crushing the interior mother-of-pearl found in mollusk shells into a fine pearlescent powder. This mother-of-pearl powder is used to coat a bead nucleus, very similar to the process used in creating Majorica pearls.
• The second method creates rounded beads out of a saltwater pearl oyster's shell using the thickest part near the hinge. These pieces are smoothed and rounded out into perfect spheres and then dyeing them in various colors. The shell pearls are then baked at high temperatures to ensure the coloring is permanent and then given a high polish.

The Tooth Test won't be effective with Shell Pearls due to their composition (ground up mother of pearl or solid shell), and these pearls can also exhibit surface irregularities, making the evaluation even tougher.

Focusing on the "luster" and colors will be most helpful in determining whether the pearls you're looking at are genuine or Shell Pearls.  

Shell Pearls will display very uniform rates of light reflection, and their colors will all be solid, uniform hues with little to no natural shading/variation. 

Swarovski Crystal Pearls  are always labeled as synthetic pearls by the manufacturer, and are easy to spot due to their plastick-y looking shine and perfect uniformity in color and size.

These pearls are created using a Swarovski crystal core or bead, which is then coated with a powdered mother of pearl substance available in a rainbow of colors.

Swarovski Crystal pearls are extremely durable in terms of daily wear and tear, and an excellent alternative to real pearls for costume jewelry or clothing purposes - the pearls can even be dry-cleaned without damaging the outer layers.

They're also a fabulous choice for beginning beaders who want to learn how to string and play around with creating unique fashion jewelry without investing too much.