Thought this article was well worth mentioning...you will always know what you are purchasing with Two Blonds & Co. We are cost-conscious shopping gals and always looking for the best of everything...for less!

Jewelers seek ways to make pearls more expensive

by Joanna Douglas, Shine Staff, on Tue Dec 14, 2010 1:28pm PST

Many women own or would like to possess a strand of pearls or pearl earrings, and yay, the cost of the precious baubles have dropped drastically in recent years. China has been producing massive quantities of cultured freshwater pearls, so now a necklace made of real pearls costs what we used to pay for fakes—as low as $20. Affordable luxury items? We are not mad at that! But the New York Times says high-endjewelers are freaking out and trying to devise ways to up the price tags.

Natural pearls are fished from oysters living wild in the ocean—most by a few companies off the coast of Australia, rather than in farms—so retailers claim they are more rare and more attractive and thus justifying a higher price tag. "Natural pearls have a much quieter luster, which is really appealing," jeweler Viren Bhagat told the Times. Back in April, Christie's sold a collection of natural pearls for $7.1 million. "It goes to show the appreciation buyers have for things that are no longer produced," said Rahul Kadakia, Christie's head of jewelry to the Americas.

But these days freshwater pearls can be tinkered with to resemble natural ones so well that even jewelers have been fooled. (Does every market have counterfeits these days?) Since freshwater pearls are still real pearls, and in our opinions, equally lovely, we don't see a reason to splurge big bucks for overpriced natural ones. We may even gift some freshwater pearls this holiday season!