I'm joining the thread because I
pearls...but don't know that much about them yet!
My parents gave me a black pearl earring and necklace set for my 21st birthday which I absolutely love. I also have pink-ish studs and that's about all I know.
My question is this: is it worth it to go from AA to AA+ or AAA?
I've been looking at pearlparadise.com and I want to get an Akoya set, but don't know how high in quality I should go.
TIA!
Okay, are you talking about black pearls or white pearls?
For black pearls, it depends, because black freshwater and black akoyas are dyed. I've gotten AAA quality black akoya earrings (they were really deep, almost navy and very reflective) but I hated them because they looked so "dead." (Since they don't have natural orient). It's
very tricky with dyed pearls, because everyone has different perceptions of what they want.
For natural pearls, you have to outweigh size (I'm guessing, right?) versus quality.
Example: $100 for 6-7mm AAA
or $110 for 7-8mm AA+ (or whatever the difference is)
Here's the rule of thumb:
Buy the absolute best quality you can afford before you start increasing the size. But that's not neccessarily true, it just depends on how often you'll wear it.
For example, I really wanted some fun, larger pearls, so I got some AA+ multicolor pearls 10mm-11mm just for kicks and giggles. It wouldn't have made sense to spend the extra to get AAA because I don't wear them all the time.
If you're going for everyday pearls,
absolutely get the highest quality. The really high quality pearls look so stunning in person. I love my pink freshadamas (one of my daily strands) because the orient in them is breathtaking.
Also, IMHO akoyas are so overrated, especially if you're looking at AA+ instead of AAA or hanadama. I'd look at the freshadama line from pearl paradise, as you can easily get a strand for much cheaper than the akoyas.