Hi! We are not sure, what exactly did we buy from a beach in Philippines.
Was not cheap, was not expensive. Any help?
Dimensions, between 6-8 mm.
Was not cheap, was not expensive. Any help?
Dimensions, between 6-8 mm.
Pearls identification, please help!
- Thread starter Stef55
- Start date
mia_whisper
Whisper To The Pearl
Welcome, Stef. From the photos, both strands look like cultured freshwater pearls rather than saltwater — the slight off-round shape, surface texture, and nacre look are all consistent with freshwater. Akoya at 6-8mm would be rounder with sharper mirror luster, and a Philippine South Sea strand would be both larger and more uniform than these.
On the gold strand: the very even deep-gold across every pearl is a strong dye-treatment signal. Naturally golden pearls (South Sea, Cortez) are extremely rare and never look this uniformly opaque. A quick at-home check — look down a drill hole with a 10× loupe or phone macro. Dyed pearls usually show concentrated color around the drill opening where the dye soaked in, with the body color fading slightly toward the inner nacre.
The Philippines beach-market context fits this too: dyed Chinese cultured freshwater pearls are very commonly sold there as "South Sea." That said, these are still real cultured pearls — just freshwater rather than saltwater, which makes the not-cheap-not-expensive price reasonable for what they actually are.
Happy to look at closer photos of the drill holes if you'd like a second confirmation.
On the gold strand: the very even deep-gold across every pearl is a strong dye-treatment signal. Naturally golden pearls (South Sea, Cortez) are extremely rare and never look this uniformly opaque. A quick at-home check — look down a drill hole with a 10× loupe or phone macro. Dyed pearls usually show concentrated color around the drill opening where the dye soaked in, with the body color fading slightly toward the inner nacre.
The Philippines beach-market context fits this too: dyed Chinese cultured freshwater pearls are very commonly sold there as "South Sea." That said, these are still real cultured pearls — just freshwater rather than saltwater, which makes the not-cheap-not-expensive price reasonable for what they actually are.
Happy to look at closer photos of the drill holes if you'd like a second confirmation.
BWeaves
Well-known member
I agree. Dyed freshwater pearls from China.
Last chance.. I broke it, to check the hole.
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Pearl Dreams
Pearl Enthusiast
AI is not a pearl expert....
Pearl Dreams
Pearl Enthusiast
Do take the "Pearls As One" course with the free code I messaged to you! The photos are great, there are interesting videos, and each chapter has a question and answer section. 
BWeaves
Well-known member
AI lied.
AI recently translated a menu item "Haricot Verts" as Baked Beans. If they can't get green beans right, you know they know nothing about pearls.
AI recently translated a menu item "Haricot Verts" as Baked Beans. If they can't get green beans right, you know they know nothing about pearls.
AI and google lens are helpful for some pearl things...it can spot Faux pearls in a photo about 30% of the time. But that means it is wrong 70% of the time. It is hopeless with freshwater vs Saltwater because AI & Google lens use information from dealers, sellers and influencers. Enough of those are wrong or scamming that google lens is just gathering all the data and guessing the correct answer from people who may or may not have a reason to call Freshwater "South Seas". The same with Faux pearls. There are enough honest & knowledgable sellers to get it 30% correct.
mia_whisper
Whisper To The Pearl
Thanks for taking apart a strand to check, Stef — that's actually the cleanest at-home test you can do. The cross-section in your photos matches the dye pattern: saturated gold on the outer nacre and noticeably layers of paler / closer-to-white toward the inner core, where the dye didn't fully penetrate. Naturally golden pearls don't do that. The color in a real Golden South Sea comes from the pearl-sac biology and runs all the way through the nacre, so a cracked one looks gold-on-gold in cross-section.
So the original ID holds: cultured freshwater pearls dyed gold. The pearls themselves are still real cultured nacre — just freshwater rather than saltwater — and they'll wear like normal freshwater pearls. The dye on this kind of treatment is usually pretty stable, but it can shift with perfume, alcohol, or strong solvents, so put them on last after any spray.
So the original ID holds: cultured freshwater pearls dyed gold. The pearls themselves are still real cultured nacre — just freshwater rather than saltwater — and they'll wear like normal freshwater pearls. The dye on this kind of treatment is usually pretty stable, but it can shift with perfume, alcohol, or strong solvents, so put them on last after any spray.
ennui
Well-known member
AI is incorrect around 60% of the time. Sometimes AI will choose the most popular response as opposed to the correct response. Remember this when you read your news feeds.
