Saltwater pearls like the South Sea Pearls, Tahitian Pearls and Akoya Pearls are usually more valuable than freshwater pearls due to their beautiful lustre, thick nacre with rich overtone colours.
South Sea Pearls
South Sea Pearls usually comes in white, silver, champagne or dark golden colours with rich overtone color.
Tahitian South Sea Pearls are the only naturally black tone pearls while black akoya and freshwater pearls are usually dyed.
Tahitian pearls usually comes in round, near round, baroque or circles.
Tahitian pearls are grown in the French Polynesia. Tuamoto Archipelago and Gambier Islands off Pacific Oceans are responsible for the most productions of the Tahitian pearls supply in the world.
Akoya pearls come in white very rich rose, cream or silver overtone and some black dyed ones. The oyster used to grow Akoya pearls is known as Pinctada fucata martensii. The oysters are seeded with a round bead, made of mother of pearl. This is why akoya pearls are predominantly round in shape.
Freshwater Pearls
Freshwater pearls are more common. They can grow in rivers, lakes, reservoirs and ponds from Asia, Australia and USA. Though cheaper than saltwater pearls, there are some freshwater pearls that are high in lustre and overtone that can sometimes costs more than the normal freshwater pearls.
The natural colours of freshwater pearls are usually white, peach and lavender and black that is usually dyed.
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