The simulated pearls were presented for more than thousand years ago. It was recorded in the book of Wang Chhung for the method of creations; how heating, proper timing, andright mix of chemical could combine to generate simulated pearls. At the time for this record, the natural pearls were rarely found and came withhigh price. Therefore, attempt for pearl generation has been recorded since the oldest time.
The experiments for simulated pearls were continued throughout the year to mimic the beauty of natural pearl to simulated one. In the 16th century, the venetians found the way to create a beautiful iridescent glass instead of pearls. Later one, a man named Jacquin found the way to create the simulated pearl using essence d’orient (solution extracted from fish scales) and coated on glass beads for the items that look similar to pearls. However, to create simulated pearls by this way, thousand of fish scales will be needed. Therefore, the method was not popular in used. For today, there are many way to create simulated pearls; either from plastic beads, glass covered with essence d’orient or pearl film for the high quality simulated pearls.
There are actually many types for simulated pearls waiting for you in the market. You will see the labeled like fake, faux, simulated, artificial, imitation or man-made pearls available in the market. There is nothing wrong with these material types, but you need to check whether the materials in your hand are real or not. This is to inform yourself about the pearls that you have for yourself.
The best way to test whether the pearl is natural pearls or simulated pearls is using your teeth. You can perform the test by run a pearl over your teeth, just for a lightly feeling with the touch. Natural pearls should have a gritty feel whole simulated pearls will give a relatively smooth feeling. However, this method is really hard to differentiate between cultured pearls from man-made type, which might give a wrong impression whenever you have applied this method on.
The next method is using sunlight, natural pearls have more depth and color variation when you hole them to the sun. Simulated pearls will show little shinny compare with the real thing. You can inspect the sample under magnification, to see the ridges, grooves or other surface imperfection from naturally made pearls, but not from the simulated pearls.
There are also other ways to test the natural pearls from simulated pearls. With the look, they are quite similar and you can get all attention using simulated pearls in the similar way as natural pearls. They are the same thing, to complete your look on special occasions. But you need to check about its quality to make sure that you have paid for simulated pearls for the reasonable price.
