Everyday elegance
7–8mm freshwater or Akoya studs balance presence and ease.
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The pearl guide
Know your pearls
Not sure which pearl gives you the best value? Here is a short guide to where each one comes from, how large it grows, and what it is best for.
Pearl types
The four pearl families
01 · Everyday
Freshwater
Soft · versatile · everyday
Grown in lakes and rivers, most often in China, freshwater pearls are the most versatile of the four. They come in soft natural pastels and a wide range of shapes, which makes them the easiest way to begin, and the easiest to wear every day.
- Origin
- Lakes & rivers (often China)
- Size
- 3–10 mm
- Best for
- everyday wear, first pearls and colorful styles
02 · Classic
Akoya
Crisp · luminous · classic
The classic round white pearl. Akoya pearls are grown in saltwater off Japan by the Pinctada fucata oyster, and are prized for their crisp, mirror-like luster. They are the traditional choice for bridal strands and first fine pearls.
- Origin
- Saltwater (Japan)
- Size
- 2–9.5 mm
- Best for
- classic bridal strands and crisp, mirror-like luster
03 · Statement
Tahitian
Dark · peacock · expressive
Naturally dark pearls grown in the lagoons of French Polynesia by the Pinctada margaritifera oyster. Their body colors run from charcoal and silver to peacock green and aubergine, which makes them a striking, modern choice.
- Origin
- Saltwater (French Polynesia)
- Size
- 8–15 mm
- Best for
- bold statements and modern dark tones; popular with men
04 · Heirloom
South Sea (white & golden)
Large · rare · luxurious
The largest and rarest of the four, grown by the Pinctada maxima oyster. White South Sea pearls come mainly from Australia and Indonesia, golden ones mainly from the Philippines, each with a deep, satiny glow.
- Origin
- Saltwater (Australia, Indonesia, Philippines)
- Size
- 9–16 mm+
- Best for
- heirloom pieces with a luxurious white or golden glow
Pearl colors
Five natural colors
Body color and overtone
Body color comes from the mollusc and the water it grows in. Every saltwater pearl we sell is its natural color, never dyed: white and rose from Akoya, silver and gold from South Sea, and the dark greens and aubergines of Tahitian.
Pearl sizes
The decision clients take longest over
Size
Pearls are measured across their widest point, in millimetres. Every pearl below is drawn to the same scale, so you can compare sizes side by side.
One millimetre sounds small, but a pearl is a sphere, so it adds up quickly. As a rule of thumb, two millimetres roughly doubles how large a pearl looks. Compare the 8 mm and the 10.5 mm above.
- Akoya
- 7.0–7.5 mm
- The classic proportion for a strand or studs. 8.0–8.5 mm is a close second for more presence.
- Freshwater
- 7.5–8.0 mm
- Sorted in half-millimetre steps. A tightly matched 7.5–8.0 mm strand looks rounder and brighter than a looser 7.0–8.0 mm one.
- Tahitian
- 8.0–11.0 mm
- Where most Tahitian pearls fall. Strands are often graduated, smaller at the clasp and larger at the front.
- South Sea
- 10.0–14.0 mm
- The largest saltwater pearls, and the range that still feels wearable every day. Above that, a true statement.
Grading standards
There is no official pearl grade. No laboratory issues the letters AA, AAA or AAAA, and no authority checks them, so every seller writes its own scale and the same letters can mean different pearls in different shops. A grade is only as good as the standard behind it. Here is ours, and how to check it for yourself.
01
The factors we judge
Every pearl we buy is judged on the same seven things, in roughly this order of weight.
- Luster
- How sharply the pearl reflects light. Fine luster shows a hard, defined reflection; lower luster looks soft and milky. It is the factor we weigh most.
- Surface
- How much of the pearl is free of pits, spots and ridges, judged with the naked eye under neutral light, turning the pearl fully.
- Nacre
- The depth of the pearl layers over the nucleus. Thick nacre gives depth of glow and a pearl that lasts; thin nacre looks chalky and wears through.
- Shape
- Judged against the shape the pearl is sold as. A well-formed drop or baroque is graded as a drop or baroque, not as a failed round.
- Color
- Body color first, then the overtones that move across it as the pearl turns. Described per piece, never by grade.
- Size
- Measured across the pearl in millimetres. Larger is rarer within a type, but size is a preference, not a quality.
- Matching
- For pairs and strands: how closely the pearls agree in luster, color, shape and size progression. Judged across the finished piece.
02
Our grades
The grade on every piece is ours, written and applied by us. We publish it so you can hold us to it.
AA+ AAA AAAA Luster Bright, edges slightly soft Bright and sharp Mirror-like Surface 85–95% clean At least 95% clean At least 98% clean Shape Near-round, or true to its stated shape Round, or true to its stated shape Round, or true to its stated shape Nacre Medium Visibly thick Thick Matching Good Very good Excellent For Tahitian and South Sea pearls we describe the surface rather than score it. They are grown in far smaller numbers, so a matched strand almost always carries a few marks, and a percentage cannot tell you whether a mark matters. A faint pinpoint on the back of a pearl and a deep pit on its face are not the same thing, so we tell you which it is.
03
What a certificate can and cannot tell you
Two kinds of independent paperwork exist, and they answer different questions. The certificate we offer for pearl pieces comes from an independent gemological laboratory, as an add-on at extra cost; our AA+ to AAAA grade is our own and is not a laboratory grade.
- Hanadama
- A Japanese term for the finest white Akoya of a harvest. Several Japanese laboratories certify it, each to its own standard, so the laboratory's name matters more than the word. A certificate confirms a strand is within a range, not where in that range it sits.
- GIA reports
- GIA describes a cultured pearl by seven factors: size, shape, color, luster, surface, nacre and matching. It does not issue letter grades. Where a piece carries a GIA report, the report describes the pearl and our grade is our own opinion alongside it.
- Nacre on Tahitian pearls
- French Polynesia required a minimum nacre thickness for export until 2017. Thin-nacre Tahitian pearls have been legally exportable since, so the seller's selection is now the only check. We assess nacre on every strand.
- Our own names
- Every grade on this site, and the word signature on our signature pieces, is a Holly Zhang designation. Unless a laboratory report comes with a piece, we assigned the grade.
04
How to judge pearls yourself
This works on any pearls, from any seller. Judge the piece as worn first, in daylight or ordinary room light at arm's length, before you look closely.
- Luster across the strand
- A fine strand looks bright and alive along its whole length. Direct sun and bright shop lighting flatter every pearl, so step away from both.
- Color, then overtone
- Settle on the body color, then watch the overtones shift as the piece turns. In Tahitian and South Sea pearls this is where much of the value sits.
- Movement and neighbors
- A well-matched strand flows evenly with no pearl pulling the eye. Each pearl should agree with the ones beside it in luster, color and shape.
- Then, up close
- Hold a small light near the pearl. High luster gives a reflection with a crisp edge; low luster gives a soft, spreading one. Turn each pearl fully and look for marks, and for unevenness under a clean surface.
- Minor or meaningful
- Faint, isolated marks that vanish at normal distance are not the same as deep or distracting ones. Judge at arm's length first.
- Nacre
- Chalky or dull nacre is a visible warning. Thickness cannot be judged at home, which is why the seller's selection matters, and why you have 14 days after your order arrives to return a piece for a full refund, and 30 days for store credit, so you can look in your own light.
Choosing a necklace
01
Start with the pearl type
Each type has its own character, so this choice comes first.
- Freshwater
- Solid nacre, soft natural pastels and the gentlest price. Our usual suggestion for a first strand.
- Akoya
- The classic round white strand from Japan, chosen for its sharp, mirror-like luster.
- Tahitian
- Naturally dark, from silver and charcoal to peacock green and aubergine. Often graduated, larger at the front.
- South Sea
- White, silver and golden. The largest saltwater pearls, with a softer, satin glow. A statement rather than a first strand.
02
Then choose a size
A couple of millimetres changes a lot: about 2mm makes a pearl look roughly twice as large. These are the sizes most clients settle on, though none is a hard rule.
See pearl sizesPearl Classic size Akoya 7.0–7.5mm, or 8.0–8.5mm for more presence Freshwater 7.5–8.0mm Tahitian 8.0–11.0mm South Sea 10.0–14.0mm 03
Pick a length
Shorter strands read more relaxed, longer ones more formal. 16 and 18 inches are the most worn by far, and anything from about 35 inches can be doubled or knotted.
Falls just below the collarbone. The classic first strand, and our default length.
04
Knotted by hand, restrung with care
We knot on silk between every pearl, so they never rub and a break never scatters the strand. Silk relaxes with wear, so check out our restringing service when your strand needs it; there is a fee.
Restringing
Sustainability
A pearl is grown, not mined. It forms inside a living oyster or mussel, one thin layer of nacre at a time, in water that has to stay clean for the animal to live. A gem mine depends on what lies in the ground. A pearl farm depends on the health of the water around it.
01
Grown, not mined
- Made by a living animal
- Nacre is calcium carbonate laid down by the oyster, the same material as the inside of its shell. A cultured pearl is still a real pearl: the farmer starts it, and the oyster makes every layer.
- No digging
- There is no pit, no blasting and no waste rock. Oysters hang in nets or on lines in the water and are lifted out by hand at harvest.
- Finished by nature
- A pearl is never cut or faceted. It is washed, sorted and drilled, and its luster is the one it had in the shell.
02
Clean water is the farm
- Oysters feed by filtering
- Pearl oysters and mussels draw in water and filter out plankton to eat. They grow fine nacre only in clean, well-oxygenated water at the right temperature.
- The pearl shows the water
- Poor water shows in the harvest: thin nacre, dull luster and more oysters lost. A farmer who wants fine pearls has every reason to look after the bay or lagoon.
- Work for coastal places
- Many farms sit in remote bays and island lagoons, from Ago Bay in Japan to the atolls of French Polynesia, where they are a source of skilled local work.
03
Pearls and mined gems
Both can be beautiful, and both can be sourced well or badly. They are made in very different ways.
Compared Pearls Mined gems Where it comes from Grown by an oyster or mussel on a farm Dug from rock, riverbeds or open pits How it is gathered Lifted from the water and opened by hand Excavated, often with heavy machinery What it depends on Clean, healthy water A deposit in the ground After harvest Washed, sorted and drilled; never cut Cut and polished from rough stone Renewal A farm can harvest again, year after year A deposit, once mined, is gone Pearl farming is not free of impact. Floats, lines and nets have to be maintained and recovered, crowding too many oysters into one place strains the water, and most Akoya pearls are lightly bleached after harvest. These are the questions worth asking of any farm, and we will always tell you how a pearl was treated.
04
Where our pearls are grown
The pearl farms we partner with are in Australia and Japan, where South Sea and Akoya pearls grow in the open sea. Every pearl family comes from its own water. Our Akoya pearls are grown off Japan, our freshwater pearls in lakes and rivers in China, our Tahitian pearls in the lagoons of French Polynesia, and our South Sea pearls off Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Ask about any piece and we will tell you where its pearls were grown.
Compare pearl types05
Made to last
- Thick nacre
- We check nacre on every strand. Thick nacre keeps its luster for decades; thin nacre wears through.
- Repair over replacement
- A strand on silk can be restrung again and again. A worn clasp can be replaced and the pearls kept.
- Timeless design
- A pearl strand does not go out of style. It is worn for years, then handed down.
Pearl history
Pearls are among the first gems people wore. They needed no cutting or polishing: they came out of the shell already finished. For most of history they were found only by chance, one rare pearl among a great many oysters, which is why they belonged to queens, emperors and the very rich, and why they were handed down.
01
About 8,000 years ago: the oldest pearl
In 2019, archaeologists on Marawah Island, off Abu Dhabi, announced a natural pearl found at a Neolithic site and dated to around 5800 to 5600 BC, the oldest yet found. Pearl diving in the waters of the Gulf continued for thousands of years after it, and was the main trade of its coasts into the 20th century.
02
Rome: the first place among things of value
Writing in the first century AD, the Roman author Pliny the Elder gave pearls the first place among all things of value. He also told the story of Cleopatra, who wagered Mark Antony that she could give the costliest banquet ever held, then dissolved one of her pearl earrings in vinegar and drank it. Whether or not it happened, the story shows what a single pearl was worth.
03
China: the first cultured forms
Pearls appear in some of China’s oldest writings. By the 13th century, growers near Huzhou were slipping small figures of the Buddha inside freshwater mussels, which slowly coated them in nacre. It was an early form of the idea behind every cultured pearl: start the pearl, and let the mollusc make it.
04
The 16th century: pearls from the Americas
After 1500, pearls from the coasts of Venezuela and the Gulf of Panama reached Europe in numbers never seen before. One of them, La Peregrina, was given to Mary I of England and passed through the Spanish crown before Richard Burton gave it to Elizabeth Taylor in 1969. In the same century, Elizabeth I was painted in rope after rope of pearls.
05
1893: Ago Bay, Japan
In 1893, Kokichi Mikimoto harvested his first cultured pearls, half-round, from Akoya oysters in Ago Bay. Within a few decades, Japanese growers were culturing round pearls, and by the 1920s cultured Akoya strands were reaching Europe and America. For the first time, a fine pearl strand was within reach of many more people.
06
Today
In the second half of the 20th century, farms in Australia, Indonesia, the Philippines and French Polynesia began growing the large South Sea and Tahitian pearls, and China became the great grower of freshwater pearls. Natural pearls are now very rare, and almost every pearl worn today is cultured. It is still a real pearl, grown layer by layer by a living oyster, and it is still the gem a family hands down.
Sources: Pliny the Elder, Natural History, Book 9; Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism, the Marawah pearl (2019); Gemological Institute of America, pearl history and cultured pearls.
How to choose
Bridal classics
Akoya offers crisp, classic luster that photographs beautifully.
Shop bridal pearls
Modern statements
Tahitian pearls in peacock or silver overtone make a confident impact.
Shop statement pearls
Meaningful gifts
South Sea pearls in white or golden carry timeless weight and value.
Shop giftsPearl care
A pearl is the only gem made by a living animal: layers of calcium carbonate held in an organic binder. That makes it softer than most gems and sensitive to acids, but it does not make it fragile. Pearls are harmed by what touches them, not by how often they are worn. Worn well, they last for generations.
01
What harms a pearl
- Acids
- Perfume, hairspray, sunscreen, lotion, cleaning products and perspiration all dull nacre over time, and lost luster does not come back.
- Scratches
- Nacre is about 2.5 to 4 on the Mohs scale, so almost every other gem and metal will mark it.
- Drying out
- The binder holds a little water. Years sealed in a plastic bag or left near heat can dry a pearl and dull it.
- The drill hole
- Moisture, dirt and skin oils get in here first, so fading often shows around the hole before anywhere else.
02
Wearing them
- Last on, first off
- Apply perfume, hairspray, lotion and make-up first and let them dry, ideally for half an hour. Pearls go on last and come off first.
- Wipe at the end of the day
- A soft cloth, lightly damp if needed, lifts perspiration and oils before they settle in.
- Take them off for water
- Swimming, showering, exercise and housework. Chlorine, hot-tub chemicals and salt water are harsh on nacre, and warm soapy water loosens knots and stretches silk.
- Wear them often
- Pearls do better on a person than in a drawer. Skin contact keeps them from drying out.
03
Cleaning
Almost always, a soft cloth is the whole answer. For routine care, wipe with a soft, lint-free cloth, lightly dampened if needed, and lay the piece flat to dry. For heavier cleaning, use lukewarm water with a very small amount of mild soap on the cloth, not on the pearls, rinse the cloth rather than the strand, and dry flat. Dullness is damage to the nacre itself; no cleaning will restore it.
Never, with no exceptions
- Ultrasonic cleaners. The vibration can strip nacre, loosen a pearl from its bead or shatter it.
- Steam cleaners, for the same reason.
- Jewellery dips and tarnish removers.
- Bleach, ammonia or vinegar.
- Toothpaste, baking soda or anything abrasive.
- Soaking a knotted strand.
- Chlorinated pools and hot tubs.
04
Care by pearl type
- Akoya
- Dense nacre over a shell bead, with the sharpest mirror luster. Nearly all Akoya are bleached and lightly pinked after harvest, so the surface deserves the most care. A soft cloth only.
- Freshwater
- Solid nacre with no bead, so the most durable of the four. The surface is a little more porous, though, so oils and cosmetics soak in more readily. Wipe more thoroughly.
- Tahitian
- Substantial nacre over a bead, naturally dark. Thin nacre is hard to spot from outside, which is why we check it on every strand.
- South Sea
- The thickest nacre of all, built over two to four years. Golden South Sea pearls need extra care, because abrasives damage their natural color.
- Dyed or coated pearls
- Alcohol and solvents can lift a coating, dye can bleed at the drill hole, and heat threatens both. If a pearl's history is unknown, use a dry cloth only.
05
Storing them
- In cloth, on their own
- A cloth pouch or lined box, away from other jewelry. Rings and diamonds will mark nacre.
- Flat, not hanging
- A strand hung on a hook stretches its silk. Lay it flat.
- Not sealed for long
- A zip bag is fine for a trip. For months, use cloth, so the pearls can breathe.
- Away from heat and sun
- Windowsills, cars and drawers above radiators all dry pearls out.
06
Restringing
Our strands are knotted on silk between every pearl, so the pearls never rub and a break never scatters them. Very small or graduated strands are sometimes knotted at the clasp only, which is normal. Silk relaxes with wear and absorbs skin oils, so with frequent wear a strand wants restringing about once a year, far less often with occasional wear. Never wash the thread; water stretches the knots.
Time to restring when you notice:
- darkened thread, especially near the clasp
- thread visible between the pearls
- a strand that hangs longer than it did
- pearls that turn or slide
- flattened or frayed knots
We offer restringing for a fee. Bring your strand to the gallery or send it by insured post.
Restringing and repair