There are four main varieties of pearls that are commercially cultured today. The Akoya pearl is cultured in saltwater through a process of bead nucleation, and primarily produced in Japan and China.

The Akoya saltwater cultured pearl is the most popular type of luxury pearl sold today. Akoya pearls have an exceptional and complex lustre that is unmatched, paired with a desirable perfectly round shape, it makes the Akoya a timeless classic.

'Farmed in Japan' means these pearls were cultured in Japan by Japanese pearl farmers - they were not just brokered there.

Because most Akoya saltwater pearls do not come out of the shell with a desirable bright white body colour, Akoya pearls are most often processed the same way their Freshwater counterparts are.

The pearls undergo a chemical wash called maeshori to clean and disinfect the pearls, as well as sharpen the lustre. Then the pearls are bleached to brighten and remove any surface stains on the nacre.

Finally, the Akoya pearls are chemically colour treated to give the appearance of overtone that the bleaching has stripped away. 'Pinking' is the process that gives the pearl a pink blush, and silver nitrate is used to add a silver overtone.

Overtone is a subtle play of colour that can be seen playing across the surface of a pearl.

Akoya pearls can naturally have overtones that appear as ivory, silver, or rosé. Most often Akoya pearls are bleached and stripped of natural overtone, then 'pinked' (dyed) to put the appearance of a natural rose overtone back in.

We only sell unbleached, natural colour Akoya pearls. The image above shows how subtle the presence of overtone is in the natural colour, untreated Akoya cultured pearl.