Pearl Engagement Rings: Do You Have One in Your Future?

Pearl engagement rings have been around for a long time.  Do you possibly have one in your future? They weren’t very popular for the last half of the 20^th century, but as we progress into the 21^st century, more women are able to discover all of the gorgeous alternatives available (like pearl engagement rings!) by either seeing them on celebs on the red carpet or by just doing some browsing on the internet.  If you haven’t seen any of the gorgeous pearl rings available lately, you owe it to yourself to do some serious pearl ring shopping!

Pearl Engagement Rings – Where Do You Start?

Before you decide to get a pearl engagement ring you should know a few things about pearls in general. There are many different considerations that need to be taken into account, so definitely do your research before you buy a pearl engagement ring, or any pearl jewelry such as pearl strands or earrings, for that matter.

There are two very important distinctions for pearls.  These two distinctions are determined by:

• Where the pearl comes from
• How it is formed

First, where pearls come from determines whether it is a saltwater pearl or a freshwater pearl.  Saltwater pearls come from oysters or mussels found in oceans, bays, and gulfs.  Freshwater pearls are found in mollusks that live in fresh water, such as rivers, lakes and ponds.  Saltwater pearls are generally higher quality and therefore more expensive than freshwater pearls.  Freshwater pearls tend to be more irregularly shaped than saltwater pearls, so the gorgeous, smooth round pearls you see in pearl strands, earrings and rings are probably saltwater pearls.

Freshwater Cultured Pearl and Diamond Ring from Amazon.com

The second distinction for pearls is how they are formed.  You can get a natural or cultured pearl for your engagement ring.  A natural pearl engagement ring will be extremely pricey, since natural pearls are hard to come by.  Many of the natural pearl beds that once provided thousands of pearls annually have been harvested out, and so the remaining ones cannot produce as many as are demanded each year.  If you know anything about supply and demand and what that does to prices, you can see why the prices of natural pearls are so high.  Cultured pearls provide an excellent alternative.  They are genuine pearls, grown in an oyster, mussel or mollusk.  They are started by inserting a small ‘seed’ of pearl material into an oyster, and letting nature take its course.  The pearls grown in this manner are gorgeous, and result in the same beautiful organic gems we all know and love.  The time to grow them is greatly reduced from the time it takes to grow a natural pearl because of the seeded nucleus.  It will typically take just 3 years for 1mm of nacre to form.

So, you can have one of these four types of pearl: Saltwater natural pearl, saltwater cultured pearl, freshwater natural pearl, or freshwater cultured pearl.  As discussed above, natural pearls are extremely expensive.  Most pearl jewelry available in jewelry stores are cultured pearls at this time, so unless you are prepared to spend thousands of dollars for your pearl engagement ring from a jeweler who specializes in natural pearls, you will probably get a cultured pearl engagement ring.

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