An advice?

[Arkteia]

So I saw that golden SS were on sale at PearlParadise and I wanted to ask the professionals here...

From my limited experience, the quality of PP pearls is very good. They are now having golden SS of different types on sale. I wanted to ask you whether 24K color makes a huge difference vs lighter colors. It does seem to make a difference in price. Also,
AAA vs AA+/AAA - is it eye-noticeable?

All advices will be appreciated. I am a bright color person in general, but with tons of expenses on my kid, price has become an issue.

 

[Siameseroo]

1) yes GSSP come in a range of shades from champagne to deep 24k gold. All things being equal, the deeper, intensely gold pearls are more valuable/expensive. But you should work out what shade looks best against your skin. 24k gold doesn't suit everyone.

2) I don't have any SSP but can comment on the quality of PP's AA+ v AA+/AAA grade Tahitian strands. My AA+ strands are much more blemished than my AA+/AAA strand. Definitely noticeable. Going forward I will only purchase AA+/AAA or AAA pearls from PP.

 

[Arkteia]

Thank you! This is very helpful.

I am of European descent - average fair, pale, unimaginative skin against which wrinkles stand out especially well Dark-blonde or light-brown hair. Maximum that I have tried were white and white with a little bit of gold SS pearls - I would say that anything off-white and blue looks better than pure white. Orange stones look well on me as well as YG. Don't know what it means in terms of 24K golden pearls.

 

[cmd2014]

Does high carat gold look good on you? The darker GSS pearls approximate the saturation of 10K, 14K, 22K, and 24K gold. Light GSS can be quite pale. I'm fair and the lighter colors just fade/blend into my skin. Gold doesn't suit me, but if it did I'd go darker rather than lighter.

I definitely can see the difference between AA/AA+ and AAA pearls. Pearl Paradise has their grading system on the website. It's pretty accurate IMO. My eyes zero in on blemishes, so I stick to AAA and save up a bit more to buy them. But ymmv. Also, if the luster is high enough, you may notice the blemishes less from normal viewing distance (not up close).

ETA: here's the grading system. https://www.pearlparadise.com/pages/how-to-grade-gold-south-sea-pearls

PP has a great return policy. You could buy a strand and see how it works for you. Or you could call them and they are happy to pull stock that might not be listed if there's something particular you're looking for. Theyll give you the sale price on no listed stock. They'll send you pictures in different light too, which always help. Erin has even neck modeled strands for me. It helps to get a ense of scale/color against skin.

 

[Arkteia]

Does high carat gold look good on you? The darker GSS pearls approximate the saturation of 10K, 14K, 22K, and 24K gold. Light GSS can be quite pale. I'm fair and the lighter colors just fade/blend into my skin. Gold doesn't suit me, but if it did I'd go darker rather than lighter.

I definitely can see the difference between AA/AA+ and AAA pearls. Pearl Paradise has their grading system on the website. It's pretty accurate IMO. My eyes zero in on blemishes, so I stick to AAA and save up a bit more to buy them. But ymmv. Also, if the luster is high enough, you may notice the blemishes less from normal viewing distance (not up close).

ETA: here's the grading system. https://www.pearlparadise.com/pages/how-to-grade-gold-south-sea-pearls

PP has a great return policy. You could buy a strand and see how it works for you. Or you could call them and they are happy to pull stock that might not be listed if there's something particular you're looking for. Theyll give you the sale price on no listed stock. They'll send you pictures in different light too, which always help. Erin has even neck modeled strands for me. It helps to get a ense of scale/color against skin.

Thank you for telling this to me. My last experience - when I was buying white SS pearls - was different as they said that all they had was on their website. (I was a little bit surprised as everyone told me that they had way more, and it was important for me to buy a better one since I am planning to invest into an expensive pendant). I was even contemplating flying down to CA, since now I have a very good reason to do so, and could go to LA on my way. But let us see how this one will work out. If not, I shall wait till I (eventually) get down to CA.

And actually, it is great information. In fact, YG looks better on me than white one. Everything that has some warm, red or orange tones looks well.

 

[cmd2014]

Thank you for telling this to me. My last experience - when I was buying white SS pearls - was different as they said that all they had was on their website. (I was a little bit surprised as everyone told me that they had way more, and it was important for me to buy a better one since I am planning to invest into an expensive pendant). I was even contemplating flying down to CA, since now I have a very good reason to do so, and could go to LA on my way. But let us see how this one will work out. If not, I shall wait till I (eventually) get down to CA.

And actually, it is great information. In fact, YG looks better on me than white one. Everything that has some warm, red or orange tones looks well.

I think like all businesses their stock fluctuates. There have been a few times that supply has been limited (or gone) when I've called - especially if there's been a sale going on, or a run on things. For a while white metallics were flying out the door and hard to come by, and the Tahitian harvest strands were hot items too. But it never hurts to ask, even if the best they can do is to give comparison pictures between listed items that you're interested in.

 

[NacreLover]

Your coloring sounds like mine but I choose to wear my hair the color it was as a child.
I bought the 22k (shown) and have the 14k also.

 

[marionberry]

Lovely strand, Nacrelover!

 

[NacreLover]

Artieka, The vault has lots of pearls which do fluctuate, but, not all the pearl in the vault are listed on the site.
Marionberry, Thank you, I really love the color of the 22k better than the 14k. The other strand I turned into a tin cup to get it away from my blonde hair, which it matched.

 

[baby nurse]

Have you made any progress with your search, Arkteia?

I have an extensive pearl collection and I found narrowing down which shade of golden South Sea Pearl looked good on me to be the most challenging. Someone suggested to me that if high carat yellow gold was flattering with my skin tone, deep gold SS likely would be as well and they were right. I think it's a good guideline, or at least a good starting point. Also, if you look good in orange stones, there's a good chance deep gss will be flattering (particularly goldens with pink overtones).
My recommendation would be to try some on in a store-- I think you mentioned possibly visiting Pearl Paradise? And if you're not able to see them in person, take advantage of their current gss sale and buy a deep gold strand (22 or 24 kt) as well as a lighter colored strand to see how you feel about them.
Good luck!

 

[baby nurse]

For reference, my hair is dark brown and my complexion is light with red undertones. I have two gss strands, one a deeper shade of gold than the other.

This strand would be considered about 22kt gold.

 

[baby nurse]

And this one is 24kt.

 

[Arkteia]

I think 22K would look better on me. It has some reddish colors, and I know from experience that anything with red-orange undertones looks good on me. I ended up not buying the strand because of other expenses. My new white pearls look good on me.
Thank you for helping me out!

 

[baby nurse]

Glad that you're enjoying your new white pearls : )

 

[Arkteia]

With the white ones, I decided on a clasp with two pink-red spinels. It was probably AA/AAA, my white strand, and while it feels great on the skin, and is lustrous, and I like irregularities in the pearls (not necessarily all has to be round), some pearls are pitted, and pits I see very well. (Some are great, though). I see how difficult it is to sell a strand, even on ebay, so I shall probably end up buying a couple of better pearls from PP and replace the ones I don't like when my clasp is ready. So in the future I shall zoom on AAA strands I think. This being said, their pearls look very well and are affordable, I wish I bought rose ripple strand but instead I purchased all over the inet and ended up with products of different quality.

 

[Arkteia]

Your coloring sounds like mine but I choose to wear my hair the color it was as a child.
I bought the 22k (shown) and have the 14k also.

The strand is perfect!

(And my skin does look like yours. I was blonde as a child, too).

 

[baby monster]

For reference, my hair is dark brown and my complexion is light with red undertones. I have two gss strands, one a deeper shade of gold than the other.

This strand would be considered about 22kt gold.

Wow, what a gorgeous strand, baby nurse. Have you posted it before? Please do a thread with more pics and details.

 

[pregcurious]

And this one is 24kt.

Wow, that is gorgeous.

 

[katbran]

For reference, my hair is dark brown and my complexion is light with red undertones. I have two gss strands, one a deeper shade of gold than the other.

This strand would be considered about 22kt gold.

This is your Eiko strand ? It's amazing.

As for the shades of gold SS pearls...I would suggest you go to a B&M store and try on some of the shades.
With GSS , the darker the 'gold' the more pricey they can be .. of course the other factors all come into play as well...size, shape, lustre etc True dark gold SS are very deep in colour and the GSS shades go right down from 24kt to a Champagne pale gold. To complicate things , sellers all seem to describe their GSS colours differently , so one persons 24k might be someone else 22kt etc. Quite like pearl grading...one sellers AAA is another AA + etc. You need to see them against your skin and then judge which shade suits so go try some on and see what works for you !

 

[Pearlescence]

Also watch out, a lot are dyed. And there are increasing numbers of dyed freshwaters which are very good imitations

 

[Arkteia]

Also watch out, a lot are dyed. And there are increasing numbers of dyed freshwaters which are very good imitations

Yes, it is quite possible. I think that some drilled pearls are sold cheap because they are drilled, but if they are dyed freshwater (quite possible), then they are not cheap at all. One vendor on Etsy told me honestly that all "Tahitians" were coming from China (after I bought some pearls advertised as "Tahitians" from the said vendor). So I assume nothing is like it seems any longer.

 

[Arkteia]

This is your Eiko strand ? It's amazing.

As for the shades of gold SS pearls...I would suggest you go to a B&M store and try on some of the shades.
With GSS , the darker the 'gold' the more pricey they can be .. of course the other factors all come into play as well...size, shape, lustre etc True dark gold SS are very deep in colour and the GSS shades go right down from 24kt to a Champagne pale gold. To complicate things , sellers all seem to describe their GSS colours differently , so one persons 24k might be someone else 22kt etc. Quite like pearl grading...one sellers AAA is another AA + etc. You need to see them against your skin and then judge which shade suits so go try some on and see what works for you !

I went to Costco in CA during this weekend and was pleasantly surprised by their prices for the Tahitians. Also, their akoyas were cheaper than in any other place, and looked..."akoyish".

I tried some baroque SS locally and the color was amazing (I think they were 22K), but the price at the local B@M was shamefully high.

 

[Arkteia]

For reference, my hair is dark brown and my complexion is light with red undertones. I have two gss strands, one a deeper shade of gold than the other.

This strand would be considered about 22kt gold.

I love both strands that you posted, but this one has exactly the color I like. Awesome!