Hi and welcome to the forum!
It's great that you will be able to visit PearlParadise to select your pearls! What better way to get a strand that complements your skin tone? I hope you will post photos later-- we love to admire one another's pearls!
I have read here that a pearl strand may fail the tooth test if highly polished. It might be a good idea to take your questionable strand along with you when you visit PP and have Jeremy verify whether it is imitation.