What is the best way to tell if pearls are real?
There are real pearls and then there are fake pearls. If you are buying pearls, you may be able to identify fake pearls by their name: simulated, faux, glass, plastic, resin, artificial, manmade. Genuine pearls come in a variety of ‘flavors’. There are natural pearls and cultured pearls. Real pearls may come from freshwater or saltwater and from a variety of molluscs (not just oysters). To further confuse things, there are also shell pearls and genuine pearls which have had treatments applied to them, such as coatings or faceting. Before you buy or sell pearls, you need to know whether they are real or not. Here are some ways to tell them apart. After the list, I’ll tell you more about the tests, including how reliable they are. I cannot begin to count the number of times I have known jewelry stores to incorrectly identify pearls as real or faux! Do not assume that a person at a jewelry store can identify your pearls. If you really need to ID your pearls, take them to a certified profe
