A real pearl will feel rough and gritty on your tooth. Faux pearls will feel almost perfectly smooth.
Both natural and cultured pearls have textured surface due to their layered nacre structure. So when you rub the pearls lightly against each other or on your front teeth, they feel a little gritty. Fake or imitation pearls, however, usually feel smooth or glassy.
THE TOOTH TEST
Rub a pearl lightly along the biting edge of your upper front teeth. If it feels slightly rough, sandy or gritty, it's likely a cultured or natural pearl. This texture you feel is the layers of nacre that have formed over time. If the pearl feels smooth or glassy, it is likely an imitation.
One very simple way to tell if a pearl is real is by lightly rubbing it against the biting edge of a tooth. A real pearl will feel gritty, sandy or slightly rough. A fake pearl will feel smooth and glassy.
Looking closely, you'll see small ridges on real pearls resembling fingerprints. These ridges give each pearl its unique character and make authentic pearls slightly rough to the touch. Therefore, if you can't feel the ridges on the surface of "real" pearls because they're completely smooth, they probably aren't real.
Baroque pearls are pearls with an irregular, non-spherical shape. Shapes can range from minor aberrations to distinctly ovoid, curved, pinched, or lumpy shapes.
The cleaner the surface of the pearl, the more valuable it is. Look for an absence of disfiguring spots, bumps or cracks on the surface of a pearl, also known as "cleanliness." Notice that the highest quality pearls have a sharp, mirror-like reflection.
Pearls are naturally not as smooth and may contain some imperfections in their surfaces, such as tiny scratches, spots of colors, or bumps called “pearling.” The more perfect the pearl, the less likely it is to be real. Additionally, fake pearls will often have a rough, chalky texture with visible flaws on the surface.
Simply lightly rub the pearl on the front of tooth – if it feels smooth and glassy, then it is an imitation. If your pearl has a slightly gritty feel to it, then you are looking at a real, natural beauty.
Appearance and Location. Enamel pearls most commonly present as spheroid in shape, but can also be conical, cylindrical, oval, teardrop, and irregularly shaped. They vary in size with an average diameter of 1.7mm.
If you bite a real pearl and scrape it slightly with your teeth, you can feel and hear the sandy, grainy surface of the pearl. But a fake pearl will be slippery with no sound.
Unfortunately, because pearls are delicately formed layers of calcium, they can flake if they're damaged. To prevent your precious pearls from peeling, keep them away from harsh chemicals or cosmetics and don't allow the pearls to rub against each other.
Real pearls wear out and age, what is visible in getting mat, cracking, peeling, chipping off, and finally scattering into a fine powder. The life of a natural pearl is estimated at about 100-150 years, but there are few specimens up to several hundred years.
Bumps or welts are pearl flaws that you can easily see with your naked eye. They are irregular bumps that appear when a lot of nacre is secreted to form a pearl.
Natural pearls grow in the wild without human intervention. They are very rare, and most natural pearls in the market today are antique. Cultured pearls are grown in pearl farms, and are the direct result of human intervention. The vast majority of pearls in the pearl/jewelry market are cultured pearls.
Worn often and properly cared for, pearls can look as good in 50 years as they did the day they left the store. Pearls are not the most durable of gems. Most everyday items at home and in the office are tougher than pearls, so careless contact can cause damage them over time.
NEVER USE DETERGENTS, HOUSEHOLD CLEANERS, COMMERCIAL JEWELRY CLEANERS OR TARNISH REMOVERS ON PEARL JEWELRY. Never use your pearl cleaning brush for anything else, and store it where it will not become dusty or soiled. Pearls will naturally darken slightly with age and wear.
It is very important that you take your pearls off before going to bed or before participating in any sports. It is also important that you limit its contact with water, and remove them before showering or going to the pool. This will prevent the pearl from falling off prematurely and degrade the mother of pearl.
Freshwater pearls are cheaper because they are easier to extract, making sea pearls more valued. Why? Sea pearls are larger, more beautiful in shape, luster, smoother surface and, of course, much more expensive than freshwater pearls.
The lip determines the pearl color. While the white pearls are also priced by jewelers, the gold pearl variety is the most coveted color. The gold South sea pearl's color can range from creamy white to deep gold, and the darker the color, the more expensive it becomes.
Naturally colored blue pearls are the rarest pearl colors in the world (with one or two exceptions, which we will get to below). The color has existed in pearls for decades, but only recently have naturally colored blue pearls gained popularity in the modern pearl jewelry markets.
Pearl is ranked 2.5 on the Mohs hardness scale, which means it's very soft and easily scratched or abraded. But with reasonable care, pearl jewelry can be a lasting treasure.
Natural Pearls
Their value is determined by size, shape, color, surface and symmetry. Natural pearls are graded differently than cultured pearls; they are graded by carat weight and not by millimeters. The larger the pearl the more valuable it is.