Coloured Pearls: What Makes Pearls Different Colours?

Picture a pearl and you'll probably picture white. Nature had other ideas.

Pearls grow in pink, peach, lavender, silver, gold, grey and black, and almost every one carries a second shade that shimmers across its surface. Some of those colours are completely natural. Others are dyed. Knowing the difference tells you a lot about what you're looking at, and what it's worth.

White freshwater pearls, each with its own soft overtone, set between blue beads.

Below we'll cover whether pearls can be different colours, what gives a pearl its colour, how coloured pearls are made on pearl farms, every pearl colour and where it comes from, natural versus treated colour, and how to wear coloured pearls.

Jump to:

• Can Pearls Be Different Colours?
• What Gives a Pearl Its Colour?
• How Are Coloured Pearls Made?
• What Colours Do Pearls Come In?
• Which Pearl Types Come in Which Colours?
• Natural or Dyed: How Can You Tell?
• How Do You Wear Coloured Pearls?
• FAQs

Can Pearls Be Different Colours?

Yes. When most people hear "coloured pearl", they picture a white pearl dipped in dye. Some are. But many coloured pearls are entirely natural, and the rarest natural colours can be worth far more than white.

Even a white pearl is rarely just white. Look at a strand in daylight and you'll see hints of cream, pink or silver moving across the surface. That subtle mix of shades is part of what separates a real pearl from a coated bead, which our guide on how to tell if pearls are real covers in detail.

Look closely at white pearls and you'll see hints of pink, cream and silver.

What Gives a Pearl Its Colour?

A pearl's colour is really three things layered together:

• Body colour: the main colour you see, like white, cream, gold or grey.
• Overtone: a second, translucent shade that seems to float on the surface, like pink on a white pearl or green on a dark one.
• Orient: a shimmer of rainbow colours that moves as the pearl turns, seen on pearls with fine, thin layers of nacre.

What decides those colours is mostly the mollusc. A pearl is made of nacre, the same material that lines the inside of the shell, so a pearl usually takes after the shell it grew in. The black-lipped oyster, for example, has a dark rim on the inside of its shell and grows dark pearls. The gold-lipped oyster grows golden ones.

A few other things shift the shade:

• Species and tissue. Natural pigments in the nacre vary from species to species, and from animal to animal.
• Water and diet. Water temperature, minerals and what the mollusc feeds on all play a part.
• Nacre thickness. Thin nacre lets the bead nucleus show through; thick nacre gives deeper, richer colour.

Gold settings bring out the warm, creamy overtones in white freshwater pearls.

How Are Coloured Pearls Made?

Almost every pearl sold today is cultured, meaning it's grown on a farm. A pearl farmer opens a living mollusc and places a small piece of mantle tissue from a donor animal inside it, sometimes with a shell bead as a nucleus. The mollusc covers it in layer after layer of nacre until a pearl forms.

That piece of donor tissue matters. Because it carries the donor's colour-making cells, farmers choose donors whose shells show the colour they want to grow. It's one of the main ways farms influence pearl colour naturally, without any dye at all.

The rest comes down to which mollusc is used:

• Freshwater mussels, mostly the triangle shell mussel (Hyriopsis cumingii) farmed in China, grow white, pink, peach and lavender pearls, often several in one mussel.
• Akoya oysters, farmed mainly in Japan and China, grow the classic white and cream pearl, often with a pink or silver overtone.
• Silver-lipped and gold-lipped oysters in Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines grow South Sea pearls, from white and silver to champagne and deep gold.
• Black-lipped oysters in French Polynesia grow Tahitian pearls, from pale grey to near black.

No two pearls on a strand are exactly the same shade. That's the sign of natural colour.

What Colours Do Pearls Come In?

White and cream pearls

The most popular colour, and the most versatile. White pearls come mainly from Akoya, freshwater and white South Sea pearls, and they're rarely pure white: look for pink, cream or silver overtones in the glow. Many white pearls are gently bleached after harvest to even out their colour, which is an accepted industry practice.

Pink, peach and lavender pearls

These pastel shades grow naturally in freshwater mussels in China. Pinks range from soft blush to peach, often with rose, gold or green overtones, while lavender runs from pale lilac to silvery purple. Natural pastels are soft and slightly uneven. Very bright pink or purple is a sign of dye.

Golden pearls

Golden South Sea pearls are among the largest and most prized cultured pearls in the world. They come from the gold-lipped oyster in the waters around the Philippines, Indonesia and Australia, and range from pale champagne to deep, rich gold. The deepest, most even golds are the rarest.

Silver and grey pearls

Silver and grey tones turn up in Akoya, South Sea and Tahitian pearls. Silver-blue Akoya pearls are a favourite, and part of their colour comes from the way light passes through the nacre. Some grey freshwater and Akoya pearls are darkened by treatment instead.

Black pearls

Black pearls have fascinated people for centuries. Tahitian pearls from French Polynesia and Sea of Cortez pearls from Mexico are the best-known naturally dark farmed pearls. Tahitian "black" pearls are rarely jet black: they range from charcoal grey to deep black with green, blue, purple or "peacock" overtones. Black freshwater and Akoya pearls are almost always dyed or treated.

Blue pearls

Naturally blue pearls are among the rarest of all, from soft sky blue to deep midnight tones. They can occur in Akoya, South Sea, Tahitian and Sea of Cortez pearls. Bright, even blue is almost always dyed.

Chocolate pearls

Chocolate pearls don't occur naturally. They're usually dark pearls, often Tahitian, treated to bring out warm brown body tones from milk to dark chocolate, with gold, rose or bronze overtones. They became popular in the 2000s.

Multi-colour pearls

"Multi-colour" doesn't mean one pearl with every colour in it. It describes a design: a strand that mixes pearls or beads of different colours on purpose, often freshwater, Tahitian and South Sea together.

The Ocean Beaded Necklace mixes tones on purpose. That's a multi-colour design.

Which Pearl Types Come in Which Colours?

Colour	Where it comes from	Natural or treated?
White and cream	Akoya, freshwater, white South Sea	Natural, often lightly bleached to even out
Pink, peach, lavender	Freshwater mussels	Natural in soft shades; bright shades are dyed
Gold and champagne	Gold-lipped oyster (South Sea)	Natural; very bright gold is sometimes dyed
Silver and grey	Akoya, South Sea, Tahitian	Natural or treated
Black and peacock	Tahitian, Sea of Cortez	Natural in these; other black pearls are dyed
Blue	Rare in Akoya, South Sea, Tahitian	Natural tones are rare; bright blue is dyed
Chocolate	Usually Tahitian	Treated
Vivid red, green, purple	Usually freshwater	Dyed

One outlier worth knowing: conch pearls. These pink pearls come from the queen conch, a sea snail, and aren't made of nacre at all, so they have a porcelain-like surface with a flame pattern rather than a lustre. They're natural, rare and can't be farmed commercially.

Natural or Dyed: How Can You Tell?

Treating pearls isn't a problem in itself. Bleaching, dyeing and other treatments are common and perfectly fine in fashion jewellery, as long as they're disclosed. The issue is when a dyed pearl is sold, and priced, as naturally coloured.

A few signs of dye:

• Colour in the drill holes. Look into the hole and at any small surface marks. Dye tends to collect there as darker lines or spots.
• Colour that's too perfect. Natural colour varies slightly from pearl to pearl. A strand where every pearl is the exact same vivid shade is likely dyed.
• Colours that don't exist in nature. Bright red, electric blue, lime green and deep purple pearls are dyed.
• A price that doesn't fit. Naturally coloured gold, blue or black pearls are expensive. If they're cheap, they're probably treated.

For anything valuable, a gemmologist or pearl lab can test for treatments. And if you want to know whether a pearl is real in the first place, start with the tests in our real pearls guide.

The Cobalt Blue Real Pearl Necklace: colour from the beads, not a dyed pearl.

How Do You Wear Coloured Pearls?

For men, the easiest way into colour is white pearls with coloured accents, rather than a full strand of coloured pearls. It's how our coloured pearl necklaces work: the Cobalt Blue Real Pearl Necklace pairs white freshwater pearls with deep blue beads, so the colour comes from the beads, not from a dyed pearl. On this store you'll also find the Forest Green Real Pearl Necklace, which does the same with green beads. For a fully mixed look, the Ocean Beaded Necklace uses mixed-tone ocean beads in place of pearls.

Mixed-tone beads suit a patterned shirt and a summer tan.

A few ways to style colour:

• Layer with a chain. A bold 8mm Cuban chain or a 5mm gold rope chain gives coloured pearls a harder edge. Stagger the lengths so they don't tangle.
• Add a pendant. A Compass pendant or the Vitruvian Man pendant on its own chain makes the look personal. Our guide to the compass necklace meaning explains that symbol.
• Finish with an earring. A single Dagger earring is a modern pairing with a subtle strand.
• Match colour to your clothes. Blue with navy, white and denim. Mixed tones with patterned summer shirts. Gold accents with warm colours.

White pearls and gold: the easiest colour combination to wear.

For more looks, see our men's pearl necklace styling guide and our summer necklaces guide. Dyed colour can fade with strong sun and chemicals, so it's worth knowing how to clean and care for pearls.

FAQs

Do pearls come in different colours?

Yes. Natural pearls and cultured pearls come in white, cream, pink, peach, lavender, silver, grey, gold and black, often with a second shade shimmering on the surface. Brighter colours like vivid blue, red or purple are usually dyed.

What makes pearls different colours?

Mostly the mollusc that grows them. Each species lays down nacre with its own natural pigments, and farmers choose donor tissue from animals with the colour they want. Water, diet and how thick the nacre is shift the shade too.

Are coloured pearls natural?

Many are. Pink, peach and lavender freshwater pearls, golden South Sea pearls and dark Tahitian pearls can all be naturally coloured. Very bright or perfectly matched colours are more likely to be dyed.

What is the rarest pearl colour?

Natural blue and deep, even gold are among the rarest, along with natural pink conch pearls. Anything rare and naturally coloured should come with a lab report if it's priced as such.

Are black pearls real?

Yes. Tahitian pearls from the black-lipped oyster grow naturally dark, from grey to near black, often with green or purple overtones. Black freshwater and Akoya pearls are usually dyed or treated.

How can you tell if a pearl has been dyed?

Look at the drill holes and any small marks, where dye tends to gather in darker lines. Colours that are too bright or too perfectly matched are another giveaway. A gemmologist can confirm it with a lab test.

Do coloured pearls fade?

Natural colour is stable. Dyed colour can fade with sunlight, heat and contact with cosmetics or cleaning products, so keep dyed pearls out of strong sun and clean them gently.

What colour pearls suit men?

White is the classic and the easiest to wear. Grey and black pearls look sharp with dark clothing, and pearls with coloured beads are an easy way to add colour for summer without going bold.

Where to Go From Here

Pearls come in far more colours than white, and most of the soft ones are natural. Their colour comes from the mollusc that grows them, the tissue it's grown from and the water it lives in. Bright, perfect colour is usually dye, and there's nothing wrong with that as long as you know.

If you're choosing your first pearl necklace, start with white and add colour through beads and accents. Explore the full Men's Real Pearl Necklace Collection, and read why men wear pearl necklaces for the story behind them.