What is going on here?

[airdancer]

I think Raisondetre put up a picture of her gem quality strand....let me try to find the thread. Opps, Heidi already did. Go for quality than size you will never regret it. The other way round you will always wonder about the nicer strand.

I wear my freshadama strand every work day and I find that the luster of my strand, bought a strand 6 mths ago in Dec 07 is completely gone. (Yes I clean it properly after wear). The strand now looks blurry and uninteresting. (I think we had a thread earlier briefly discussing this but I can't find it.) Would akoya be better at retaining luster - does anyone know? If so, you might want to buy akoya instead.

 

[Mervione]

I think Raisondetre put up a picture of her gem quality strand....let me try to find the thread. Opps, Heidi already did. Go for quality than size you will never regret it. The other way round you will always wonder about the nicer strand.

I wear my freshadama strand every work day and I find that the luster of my strand, bought a strand 6 mths ago in Dec 07 is completely gone. (Yes I clean it properly after wear). The strand now looks blurry and uninteresting. (I think we had a thread earlier briefly discussing this but I can't find it.) Would akoya be better at retaining luster - does anyone know? If so, you might want to buy akoya instead.

What? That totally putted me off about buying expensive freshwaters... I thought they were famous for lasting a long time?

 

[Caitlin]

Oh dear!

I have worn my freshadamas every time I go out for over 2 years now and they still look perfect. (Pattye saw them this last February) They are the most knock your eye out strand(s) I have ever seen. They are comparable to the best strands Sea Hunt took out of their safe! I compared them side by side..

I have not been able to take good photos of it. Below is a photo I took when I first got it.

 

[Caitlin]

And here is a photo I took today. The eggy pearls are from Pearllunar.

I have never been able to take a good photo of this strand

 

[Raisondetre]

Airdancer, interesting about the freshadamas. May I ask what skincare products you apply on your neck, and what cleaning process do you apply to the pearls? Not doubting your words, but if you wear sunscreen religiously, especially a combination of chemical and physical sunscreens, the pearls will wear out faster. In Singapore sweat and acidic body oil secretions are greater and will also serve to take away the luster of the pearls especially if you clean them after at least 8 hours' wear. I'm sorry but that is the climate of the place. If you just wipe them off without any cleaning agent in sterile water it will only remove surface dirt that you can see, not the chemical residue that is within. The Pearl Doctor package will probably do alot better. I find that my pearls accumulate muck alot quicker in Singapore than in Australia so I try not to wear them that often. My mom wears her freshwater pendants daily and the luster has not gone even after a few years.

As for Akoyas retaining luster, I quite doubt it. The nacre is thinner than in freshwaters and if they are treated at all the surface will be more porous and brittle once the treatment effect wears off.

 

[airdancer]

Hmmm...thanks for the great nugget Raisondetre. I think I'll get a cleaning package for my other pearls.

I don't put on any sunscreen (or perfume) on my neck and I'm in air-conditioning a lot. (Really hot weather, here.) I bought a strand of freshadama strand & earrings and a baroque fw at the same time. The freshadama earring and strand is worn daily. Noticing that the luster for the more expensive pearls start to fade after about 2 months of daily wear, I stopped wearing the baroque fw to lengthen it's use. I can't afford to buy a strand of akoya to test the difference, but I noticed my akoya earrings looks 'degraded' after approx 1-2 years of serious 'abuse' (swimming, twice daily shower). Not sure why - perhaps it's the ball in the akoya reflecting the light?

Btw, can pearls be polished to look pretty again? I would like it to look nice again.

Caitlin, may I know if you wear yours daily as well? I don't have other strands to rotate so I wear mine 5 days a week.

 

[Caitlin]

I don't wear it quite daily, but almost. I quit wearing any other pearls since I got these except for a couple of almost matching ropes of much smaller ones that I wear with them. I haven't even had much of an urge to keep buying either. I am so satisfied with these, I expect I will wear them for years. They have wiped out my klonk cravings too. I am a goner for these purple freshadamas.........

I do also wear some bracelets- though only one is purple metallic. I wore one strand of lavender/pink 10 or 11mm pearls for a month and did not take them off for anything. Baths, dishes. They also still look great.

I live in Arizona which is hot and dry. We have been running the swamp box cooler for about a month or so. That does put some moisture into the air while I'm inside.

 

[jerin]

Hi Airdancer,

I am very sorry to hear that about your Freshadamas but the Akoyas as well seem to lose their luster. I have pearls of all kinds so I can rotate them often, so far I have only noticed that some of my studs get dull where the pearls come into contact with my ear, so probably this is very unfortunate, you could have some agressive bodyoils (or chemical make-up) and in combination with the aircondition, which might account for drying out your pearls, this is the result. That is no expert opinion just my own thoughts. I believe that only really untreated pearls might be able to keep their natural luster but as practically all pearls are treated in some way (polished, bleached), it just happens sooner or later. And I am worried that the more luster treatment pearls get, the more they will lose it.

When cleaning them you should always give the pearls some humidity back so you at least can slow down the process. Perhaps you also can help the situation by trying to wear tops, where the pearls come into physical contact with the fabric rather than your skin.

It is a pity if you just haven?t enough pearl necklaces to change them on a regular basis. But I am sure this will be changed in the future, when you can afford to buy some more necklaces. As I said, I have this problem with my stud earrings. Akoyas probably will lose their luster even more fast as their nacre is much too thin to stand up to dryness, chemical things and so on. I also do believe (have no scientific proof though), that the quality of each harvest a certein given year might have something to do with it, perhaps the mollusks health does change the normal conditions for the pearls and it is not necessarily that the farmers/factory even can see this until the customers much later start to complain about luck of luster or other things

 

[Raisondetre]

Singapore is actually very humid. If I don't wear them I think the luster keeps better in Singapore than in Australia. However, wearing them is another story due to the body oils. I also use alot of sunscreen on my neck and have a hard time getting it off, so I never wear my pearls the entire day. Even with precious stones you get the muck accumulating around the settings. My jeweller in HK used to say you can soak diamond jewellery in almost boiling water and dry it with a hair-dryer to get the oils/cosmetic off. But not to be used for pearls or colored stones unfortunately.

 

[Heidi]

I wonder if you're onto something regarding untreated pearls... I have a strand of little keishis and matching nuggety stud earrings that I have worn literally countless times for 26 (ack!!) years. In and out of the shower, etc.. There is a tiny loss of luster on the part of the earring that touches my ear, but the pearls still exhibit orient and good luster on the majority of their surface. I know that they were unbleached as the jeweler I bought them from personally sources all her gems and is super knowledgeable. It goes almost without saying that it's temperately humid here. Perhaps remembering to let your pearls hang out while you take a bath or shower is good too. I do that out of laziness more than design.

 

[airdancer]

Great discussion! I recall that this was talked about in some other thread (can't find it now). I also remember from another discussion that Freshadama is treated, so I suppose fading is to be expected. I was hoping for its luster to maintain. Btw, does anyone have any experiences with the fading luster of exotics PearlParadise sold some time ago? They are sold as untreated.

From what I gather about Tahitians, they don't receive polish treatments - only dried and oiled. Any ideas if they wear out faster? I don't wear them everyday so I won't be able to tell.

 

[Amrita]

This is actually a great discussion that ought to go under the "Pearl Care" thread, I think! This is great stuff for anyone looking for information about how pearls behave over the years in terms of luster and color, in different kinds of weather and environments....

 

[Raisondetre]

I haven't had a problem with the exotics - I had one from PP and another one I bought in Shanghai. Those take quite alot of abuse as I have to use brute force to get the sunscreen off them, but no, they have not faded.

 

[Mervione]

Airdancer, I think I remember that thread, it said that the white ones were bleached, but I guess they?re polished too... Sadly.

 

[jshepherd]

Great discussion! I recall that this was talked about in some other thread (can't find it now). I also remember from another discussion that Freshadama is treated, so I suppose fading is to be expected. I was hoping for its luster to maintain. Btw, does anyone have any experiences with the fading luster of exotics PearlParadise sold some time ago? They are sold as untreated.

From what I gather about Tahitians, they don't receive polish treatments - only dried and oiled. Any ideas if they wear out faster? I don't wear them everyday so I won't be able to tell.

The Tahitians should never fade and even the freshadama should not change as you've described. We routinely have stock that stays in our vault for extended periods of time, especially the loose pearls. It sounds like some sort of damage. It may not even be damage caused by you, but some sort of prior exposure.

Send the piece back to us. We will replace it with a new one.

 

[Mervione]

Wow, great costumer service!

 

[Reiah]

I think that's AMAZING customer service.
I want freshadamas in every color and every size with this kind of service.

 

[jshepherd]

As for Jeremy?s offer to replace them - that I call a real vendor?s behavior as there would be no many offering such generiousity - on the other hand it might be interesting to get that strand so perhaps some "internal investigation" might take place.

How right you are .. how right you are!

 

[airdancer]

Wow that's amazing. Some investigation would be great. i would really like to know what i did wrong - or is it aggressive (insert Josh's sig here) body oils. I'll take a picture of my strand it this evening and post it here.

Raisondetre, Caitlin and Jerin, thanks for sharing your experience. If I have the funds available, I'll buy a strand of exotics for everyday use.

 

[Pearl Dreams]

For what it's worth, I wear my round exotics more than any other of my pearls (I have them on now) and they still look as good as when I first got them. In fact, none of my CFWP from Pearl Paradise show any wear or loss of luster at all.

However, I don't wear them when I have sunscreen on my neck-- I decided not to expose them to the chemicals. When wearing sunscreen I wear my other necklaces instead.

Strictly speaking, the exotics were not entirely untreated-- but they had "no treatment except polish", per Jeremy (post #152 on the "Did you get your exotics yet?" thread.) I wouldn't think the polishing would decrease their durability, though; why would it?