With the advent of ‘cultured pearls’, people sometimes think that pearl colour can be dictated in the production process. The word ‘cultured’ is actually quite misleading and suggests a large human influence - in reality pearls still have to be produced by oysters and the colour of the pearl depends very much on the type of the oyster.

Different oysters produce differently-coloured pearls. The most common type of oyster produces white pearls - this is why white pearls are the most common and therefore affordable. Black pearl oysters are rarer - they form pearls in exactly the same way but because there are less of them, black pearls are not as common. Some types of oyster produce silver, pink or even gold pearls and the cost of these depends entirely on the rarity of the oyster.

We have a fantastic selection of black pearl earrings in 18 carat white gold to really show off the lustre of the gemstone. Each pair of earrings comes gift-boxed with free UK delivery.