[sweetfrock]

Hi everyone, what did you or would you get for your first golden SS pearl? Gold or champagne with silver overtones?

[Valeria101]

I am not sure what 'champagne' pearls are. Is 'champagne' something else than light brown?

[salem]

I think I would go golden, but I haven't tried any on yet. I just like the look of them.

[pattye]

What is your coloring, Sweetfrock?

Pattye

So many pearls, so little time

[Kevin Canning]

Dark golden colors are considered more valuable then light gold or champagne colors, so the latter will be cheaper.

My suggestion would be to the get the one you like the most.

[sweetfrock]

Sounds like it would be a good call to go with more gold than champagne, but I do agree that it's also important to get one that suits your skintone. I'm fair asian (with green veins) but I guess the best way to go is to try some out. My only concern is that everytime I walk into a pearl store, I come out, head straight for pearl-guide.com and have a huge craving to buy something online!

[Valeria101]

Am I right to say that 'light golden', 'golden with silver overtone' and 'champagne' are interchangeable names for the same thing - light yellow down to darker cream color pearls?

If so, between light yellow and deeper gold is a matter of taste and budget... and color treatment. For some reason, the deep golden color seems more 'formal' to me. The light yellow feels more wearable and casual. Or, at least, I am not living among ladies who don deep golden pearls for breakfast! The darker cream might even be called 'white' by some and to me look 'natural'... my favorite shade of white. Bottom line, I'd rather have natural color then a dye job. And feel more at home in light golden.

Among golden pearls, dyeing seems to be quite a problem - many label them 'natural color', but those that come with proof of really having natural color are so much higher priced than the average. Even the dyed deep golden are somewhat more pricey than the light color dyed golden... but not even on the same order of magnitude. Something's amiss!

Recently, some crazy golden pearls came up on this forum. You must have seen them already, but just in case: LINK



There is so much variation beyond the apparent color on a webpage (e.g. LINK) that it makes me wonder... After all, the earliest reports of dyed pears were for fake golden ones. ANd those are not the least expensive 'deep golden' pearls. Some are very obviously fake, of course... but not when only seeing a picture. And relying on price alone for comparison is obviusly not the solution.

Earlier on, one of the posters here came up with a comparison between dyed freshwater and dyed SS pearls - golden all. So that's another thing to look into. Obviously, these guys have described their pearls for what they were - dyed. How many do? If you'd go by sellers' pearl labels, dyed pearls do not even exist!

Of course, there is a good case for color enhancement for pearls as for anything else. Would rather know about the treatment, but apparently most do not ('cause disclosure just ain't there).

My 2c.

I would think you could contact sellers posting here asking whether they know if their pearls are dyed or not, and what there is in stock to choose from. Some websites have images of individual strands, some not.

Just one more thing. How about the strands with a mix of different shades of yellow and white? LIKE THIS



With such a piece, there is no question 'what shade of yellow'. You get an entire collection of them...

[boo]

I currently have a lovely pair of light golden earrings that I adore. Since I am slightly sallow, I worry that the deeper golds would be unkind to my skintone. Having said that, however, the next big ticket item that I am saving up for is a pair of mixed color earrings (a la this topic: Drop-shaped Black and White Pearl Earrings). I want one dark black Tahitian and one deep gold South Sea, in memory of two very special people in my life. Since I am focusing on the pearls reminding me of those individuals, I want the darker gold. Actually, finding the right words to describe the color is kind of tough. What I want is a bright gold - the buttons referred to above are more orange-y than I would like, but I don't want a champagne-y color. Hmm - I obviously need to work on my vocabulary before I make the phone call!

(P.S.- has everybody checked out PearlParadise's monthly special for April?)

[nlerner]

Hi All,

Coming from the diamond trade, I must add that the use of "champagne" or "cognac" to describe colors is just a marketing play to sell yellowish diamonds.

nora

[Kevin Canning]

I'm not sure I agree with you Nlerner(in reference to pearls that is), the color of champagne and the color of cognac is quite different and terms like these are used to give the customer a color they can relate to.

Simply stating it is light yellow is way too subjective, where as champagne doesn't really have a lot of variation.

Of course it doesn't hurt that they help to romantize the product but I don't believe its misleading. cigarette stain yellow just doesn't have the same ring to it.

Let us know what you end up going with.

[nlerner]

Kevin,

I was not speaking about pearls…….I was speaking about diamonds.

[jshepherd]

Did you see Amanda's Canary diamond and pearl combination? She is talking about building an entire line with black diamonds, pinks, browns, etc.
http://www.purepearls.com/detail.aspx?ID=353

[nlerner]

The earings are beautifull, I very much like combinations like the one Amanda made.

The idea is similar to those I sent you a while ago.


If the diamonds atached are fancy natural color, they have to have GIA or EGL certificate otherwise they are just dyed. As noted before, very low quality diamonds are color-treated in order to get higher prices.

[nlerner]

or those.

[Valeria101]

Originally Posted by nlerner

If the diamonds atached are fancy natural color, they have to have GIA or EGL certificate otherwise they are just dyed.

Hm... but those are really small, right? (methinks 5pts or so each the yellow, and the accents of the model earrings posted - way less).