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If you’re looking for a perfect gift for your loved one or you wish to enrich your jewelry collection with something truly unique, a beautiful strand of Akoya pearls or dazzling Akoya pearl earrings might just be your best choice. Akoya pearls are a classic pearl variety that is favored by both women and a huge number of retailers, so you can never go wrong with them.
If you want to learn more about these gorgeous pearls, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s everything that makes Akoya pearls some of the most wonderful gems on the planet.
Coming from Japan, Akoya pearls are saltwater pearls cultured from the Akoya pearl oyster – otherwise known as the Pinctada Fucata Martensii. For over 100 years, there have been cultured in Japanese pearl farms, where experts in the industry tirelessly work on producing these astonishing pearls day in and day out. This has helped perfect the process allowing for pearls be go from royalty only to affordable luxury.
What makes Akoya pearls unique is their perfectly round shape that’s unlike any other pearl. They’re also known for their impeccable smoothness and beautiful mirror-like luster.
When you place Akoya pearls next to any freshwater pearl, you can clearly see the difference between them. You can instantly see that Akoya pearls have a perfectly round shape, are much smoother, and that they actually have a larger shape.
You will also immediately notice that they are much more lustrous. Akoya pearls are so lustrous that you can actually see your clear reflection within the pearl. Other high-quality pearls are shiny, but definitely not as much as Akoya pearls.
Those characteristics are precisely what makes Akoya pearls much more valuable than their freshwater counterparts. After South Sea pearls and Tahitian pearls, they are the third most valuable cultured pearls in the world.
This is partly due to their high quality, and partly due to their rarity. Akoya pearl oysters cannot produce more than two pearls per harvest, which takes between 18 months and two years. It takes a while for them to develop the thicker inner shell layer, or nacre layer, that protects them from bacteria and parasites.
Akoya pearls are famous for their white color and rose overtone, which is precisely what makes them elegant and sophisticated. White pearls also display different color overtones. Generally, there are three main combinations of overtones for white Akoya pearls: green (sometimes called silver), Pink (sometimes called rose), and both pink and green. However, Akoya pearls can be color-treated. When sold as strands they are sometimes awarded the distinction of Tennyo (Goddess) or one step lower as Hanadama (Cherry Blossom). These certifications come from the Pearl and Science Laboratory in Japan. Kyllonen Luxury carries these high-level pearls and pearls with levels we deem to be even higher.
They can also be blue with pink and silver overtones, but those colors are exceedingly rare. When you buy blue-silver Akoya pearls there are separated into two categories: blue and dark blue. Dark blue being the rarer of the two. When these pearls are sold as strands, they are sometimes certified in Japan as Madama pearls, which is the highest level awarded by the Pearl and Science Laboratory of Japan. Madama means blue flowers similar to its white counterpart, Hanadama.
Finally, you have yellow Akoya pearls. Yellow Akoya pearls a similar to that of yellow diamonds. If a white pearl has a little tinge of yellow, it is considered to be a pearl of lower value. However, if you have a pearl that is very yellow is it quite beautiful and rare! This is just like fancy colored yellow diamonds which price and rarity exceeds the price of tradition colorless diamonds.
Akoya pearls can also be color-treated. You may have seen black Akoya pearls, but those are not natural. The only natural black pearl is the Tahitian pearl. Additionally, many suppliers carry blue Akoya pearls which have been dyed to reach this color. Finally, most Akoya pearls undergo a bleach process to maintain their uniform white color and other Akoya pearls are then “pinked” to achieve the pink or rose overtone. These pearls are easy to spot because the body of the pearl seems a bit pink rather than just the inner color. If your looking for pearls that have not been pinked, look for Kyllonen’s Akoya strands which are never pinked or dyed.
If you find Akoya pearls enticing and you think they are the perfect gift for either your loved one or yourself, check out Kyllonen’s large selection of Akoya pearls. Kyllonen Luxury has extraordinary Akoya pearls for sale which incorporate 18K gold. Additionally, each and every one of our pearl designs is one-of-a-kind.
Check out our lovely selection of Akoya pearls for sale today, and feel free to contact us if you’re in need of any custom pearl designs.
