What are fake pearls and what are they made of?

There are different methods by which you can find out whether the pearl you are about to buy is real or fake. Every pearl is different from another and you cannot find exactly same type of pearls. It’s like they have their own personality. But fake pearls are of same shape and size and look alike. You cannot find exactly perfect round shaped pearls. But fake pearls have perfect round shape. While holding a pearl you can easily find uneven texture but a fake one can easily slip from your hand. You can also rub two pearls together and find that the real one will not get damaged. You can also use a magnifier glass to find which one will be a real one. If you take a string of pearls from your pearl necklace and just drop it then if it’s a real one it will have a soothing sound but a fake one would give thin sound. 

Real pearl jewellery can be found from freshwater and salt water. They are of two categories either natural or cultured. Natural pearls are formed naturally and are very rare, so they are very expensive. Almost of the 99% of pearls that are being sold are formed by cultured only. They are cultured in freshwater and saltwater.  Usually the freshwater pearls are thicker and have dense nacre and you can almost find lots of pearls inside a shell. But saltwater ones are quite expensive than freshwater ones.

The fake ones look exactly like any original pearl. You can easily be conned while buying any pearls like a pearl earring and later on realize it’s actually fake. Most of the fake pearls are made of:

1.       Waxed glass beads imitation: These are usually light and can be found out easily.

2.       Solid glass beads imitation: these solid glass balls are coated with pearl of semen. In order to find it out you just have to put a needle to it and it will break into pieces but not in powder form.

3.       Plastic beads imitation: in this case plastic balls having coating of pearl of semen. The texture of it is also not so smooth and it's quite difficult to distinguish it with the real ones. But these are very much light.

4.       Shell powdered beads imitation: It is made from shell powder.

There will be something or the other to find if it is fake or real. So be careful while buying a pearl necklace or earring.