Pearl buying guide

Jewels of the seas with authentic colors.

Acquiring a Tahitian pearl is a personal process, as each pearl is unique. Consider shape, surface quality, color, overtones, and size.

Shape

Tahitian pearls come in a variety of shapes going from the most classic shapes such as the round, drop and semi-round (aka near round) to the neo-classic shapes such as the button and oval shapes to the baroque shapes such as the baroque, semi baroque and finally the circled pearls or ringed pearls.

ROUND
NEAR-ROUND
OVAL
BUTTON
DROP
CIRCLE
SEMI-BAROQUE
BAROQUE

Size

Pearl sizes are measured in millimeters by an instrument called palmer or a pearl gauge. For pearls of high value that are not perfectly round their minimum and maximum size is indicated within a 100th of a millimeter. The size of Tahitian cultured pearls are usually between 8 mm and 16 mm, the pearls that are larger than 15mm are extremely rare, but the truly exceptional ones can reach 20 mm. To this day the largest cultured pearl harvested is one of 23mm! In 2005, we harvested a 19mm pearl during the first graft, which is extremely rare, knowing that these kinds of pearls are harvested after the 3rd graft. It is nowadays displayed in our Bora Bora store.

8 MM
10 MM
12 MM
14 MM
16 MM

Quality

Classified in 4 categories :

AAA+ quality: no imperfection on the surface
AAA quality: infimes inclusions located on 3% to 5% of the surface
AA quality: very small inclusions located on 6% to 20% of the surface
A quality: small inclusions located on 21% to 60% of the surface.
A- quality: important inclusions located on more than 60% of the surface.

AAA+
CLEAN
AAA
INFIMES INCLUSIONS
AA
VERY SMALL INCLUSIONS
A
SMALL INCLUSIONS
A-
IMPORTANT INCLUSIONS

Shine

EXCELLENT
BRIGHT, SHARP
AND DISCTINCT
GOOD
BRIGHT
NOT SHARP
POOR
DIM
AND DIFFUSED

Color

The body color is the dominant color of a pearl and is composed of hue, tone, and saturation. The orient is the depth of the luster, like a light that seems to emanate from within the pearl.

For this matter, Tahiti Pearl Market has organized 5 categories of colors:
- 1 Dark: Very dark color mainly very dark gray with some tints.
- 2 Grey: Light gray to dark gray color.
- 3 Light: White, off-white color with cream tones.
- 4 Pastel: Lighter colors : light blue, light green, pistachio, light pink, gold.
- 5 Multicolor: Green, eggplant, peacock, blue, and a mixture of all these colors

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Pearl buying guide

Shape

Size

Quality

AAA+

AAA

AA

A

A-

Shine

EXCELLENT

GOOD

POOR

Color

English & french version PDF