A glass or plastic pearl can look right in a photo. In your hand it usually gives itself away. None of the checks below needs tools, and none of them harms a real pearl.
First, a word on what "real" means. Almost every pearl sold today is cultured: a person starts it, and a mussel or oyster grows it, layer by layer, over a year or more. That is still a real pearl, made by a living animal from nacre, the same material as the shine inside a shell. A wild pearl found with no help is called a natural pearl. Those are rare and priced accordingly. A fake, also called imitation or faux, is a bead of glass, plastic or shell coated to look like nacre.
Six checks you can do at home
1. The tooth test
Wipe the pearl clean, then rub it lightly along the edge of your front teeth. A real pearl feels slightly gritty, a little like fine sand. That is the overlapping layers of nacre. A glass or plastic pearl feels smooth and slippery. This is the most reliable check you can do without a lab.
2. Rub two pearls together
If a piece has more than one pearl, rub two of them together gently. Real pearls feel faintly rough against each other, and may leave a trace of fine powder that wipes away. Fakes slide past each other. Go gently: the point is to feel, not to scratch.
3. Look for small differences
Nature does not repeat itself. Real pearls, freshwater ones especially, are rarely perfectly round, and in a cluster or pair the shape, size and shade vary slightly from one pearl to the next. Under a bright light you may see tiny dimples, rings or marks on the surface. A row of pearls that are identical in every way is a warning sign.
4. Watch the light
Turn the pearl slowly under a lamp. Real pearls have lustre, a soft glow that seems to come from inside, and often a faint tint of pink, cream or silver at the edges. Fake pearls tend to look either glassy, with a hard shine on the surface, or flat and painted.
5. Feel the temperature
Hold the pearl against your skin. A real pearl feels cool at first and warms slowly. Plastic feels room temperature straight away. Glass is cool too, so this check only rules out plastic.
6. Check the drill hole
If you can see where the pearl is drilled, look at the edge of the hole. On a fake, the coating often chips or peels there, showing glass or plastic underneath. On a real pearl the edge is clean. In set jewellery like ours, the hole is usually hidden in the setting, so skip this one if you cannot see it.
What not to do
You may read about burning a pearl with a lighter or scratching it with a knife. Do not. Both can damage a real pearl, and neither tells you anything the tooth test does not. Weight is not a reliable guide either: plastic is light, but glass pearls can be heavier than real ones.
If you need certainty, for an expensive strand or an inheritance, a gemmological lab can confirm it with X-ray. For everyday jewellery, the tooth test and a close look will answer the question.
What about the silver?
A real pearl on a cheap metal base will still turn your skin green. Look for a 925 stamp, which means the metal is 92.5% pure silver, the standard called sterling. If there is no stamp and the price seems too low for silver, it is probably plated brass. Our FAQ explains what 92.5 means and why a little copper is added.
Our pearls
Every Nakoda Silver piece is set with cultured freshwater pearls in 92.5 sterling silver. Try the tooth test on any of them. You can see the variation from piece to piece in the Pearl Cluster Studs, where five pearls sit side by side, and in the Twin Baroque Pearl Cuff, whose pearls are baroque, meaning irregular in shape on purpose.
Real pearls are softer than most stones, so they need a little care. Our care guide covers it in two minutes. When you are ready, see all ten pieces, or start with gifts under ₹2,500.