Colored Pearls: What Makes Pearls Different Colors?

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

Pearls grow in pink, peach, lavender, silver, gold, gray and black, and almost every one carries a second shade that shimmers across its surface. Some of those colors 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 colors, what gives a pearl its color, how colored pearls are made on pearl farms, every pearl color and where it comes from, natural versus treated color, and how to wear colored pearls.

Jump to:

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

Can Pearls Be Different Colors?

Yes. When most people hear "colored pearl", they picture a white pearl dipped in dye. Some are. But many colored pearls are entirely natural, and the rarest natural colors 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 Color?

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

• Body color: the main color you see, like white, cream, gold or gray.
• 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 colors that moves as the pearl turns, seen on pearls with fine, thin layers of nacre.

What decides those colors 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 color.

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

How Are Colored 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 color-making cells, farmers choose donors whose shells show the color they want to grow. It's one of the main ways farms influence pearl color 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 gray to near black.

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

What Colors Do Pearls Come In?

White and cream pearls

The most popular color, 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 color, 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 gray pearls

Silver and gray tones turn up in Akoya, South Sea and Tahitian pearls. Silver-blue Akoya pearls are a favorite, and part of their color comes from the way light passes through the nacre. Some gray 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 gray 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-color pearls

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

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

Which Pearl Types Come in Which Colors?

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 luster. 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 jewelry, as long as they're disclosed. The issue is when a dyed pearl is sold, and priced, as naturally colored.

A few signs of dye:

• Color in the drill holes. Look into the hole and at any small surface marks. Dye tends to collect there as darker lines or spots.
• Color that's too perfect. Natural color varies slightly from pearl to pearl. A strand where every pearl is the exact same vivid shade is likely dyed.
• Colors 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 colored gold, blue or black pearls are expensive. If they're cheap, they're probably treated.

For anything valuable, a gemologist 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: color from the beads, not a dyed pearl.

How Do You Wear Colored Pearls?

For men, the easiest way into color is white pearls with colored accents, rather than a full strand of colored pearls. It's how our colored pearl necklaces work: the Cobalt Blue Real Pearl Necklace pairs white freshwater pearls with deep blue beads, so the color comes from the beads, not from a dyed pearl. 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 color:

• Layer with a chain. A bold 8mm Cuban chain or a 5mm gold rope chain gives colored 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 color to your clothes. Blue with navy, white and denim. Mixed tones with patterned summer shirts. Gold accents with warm colors.

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

For more looks, see our men's pearl necklace styling guide and our summer necklaces guide. Dyed color 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 colors?

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

What makes pearls different colors?

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 color they want. Water, diet and how thick the nacre is shift the shade too.

Are colored pearls natural?

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

What is the rarest pearl color?

Natural blue and deep, even gold are among the rarest, along with natural pink conch pearls. Anything rare and naturally colored 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 gray 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. Colors that are too bright or too perfectly matched are another giveaway. A gemologist can confirm it with a lab test.

Do colored pearls fade?

Natural color is stable. Dyed color 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 color pearls suit men?

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

Where to Go From Here

Pearls come in far more colors than white, and most of the soft ones are natural. Their color comes from the mollusc that grows them, the tissue it's grown from and the water it lives in. Bright, perfect color 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 color 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.