The black-lipped oyster found in French Polynesian waters naturally secretes a dark pigment which, depending on the quantity, gives the resulting pearl a basic color ranging from steel gray to black.

Cultured Pearl is the birthstone for June. Cultured pearls are the beautiful and affordable alternative to scarce natural pearls. Both are organic in nature and derive their beauty from their iridescent aura. In fact, the only sure way to distinguish cultured pearls from natural pearls is to x-ray them. Nearly all cultured pearls are treated to enhance their colors through bleaching, dyeing or safely irradiating them.

Absolutely not! Whatever the color, it is 100% natural. The pearl may end up being white though most normally, it varies from shades of gray to black, bronze and even greenish or purplish.

They are cultivated in pearl farms found primarily in the lagoons of the Tuamotu and Gambier Archipelagos -- a sprawling group of atolls and islands in French Polynesia.

A Tahitian Cultured Black Pearl is a pearl that is obtained by means of a grafting operation performed by a skilled technician on the "Pinctada Margaritifera" or "Black Lipped Oyster" of French Polynesia.

Because it is created in the womb of the special black-lipped mollusk found in French Polynesia waters known as the Pinctada margaritifera, or black-lip mother-of-pearl, for short. This mollusk naturally secretes a black pigment, which, depending on the quantity, gives the resulting pearl a basic color ranging from black to gray.

Strictly speaking, natural pearls are those created without any human intervention whereas cultured pearls require human intervention.

The pearl producers represented by Perles de Tahiti produce and export only 100 percent naturally colored cultured pearls.

They result from the decomposition of light as it passes through the pearl layers, which act as a prism. The layers break up the light the same way a raindrop does when light passes through it creating a rainbow.

Alexandrite: Because of the price and often limited availability of genuine Alexandrite, this mfr. uses Green Tourmaline to represent the green color of Alexandrite. (Alexandrite is a color-change stone.) Green Tourmaline however is more of a medium to medium-dark olive green color. Opals or Cultured Pearls: Opals are cabochon-shape stones... they are domed with no facets so when set they look different when compared to a faceted stone when viewed from the top and the side.

Tahiti and Her Islands lie halfway between California and Australia in the Eastern South Pacific. We are 3,852 miles from Los Angeles and 3,541 miles from Sydney. (See map of French Polynesia).

A "pearl" is typically a dry powder that can be added to a multitude of paint products. Pearls come in dozens of colors, and they are the consistency of baby powder. Spraying a white base, followed by a blue pearl, and then clearcoat, will give you a white finish that has a pearl-blue haze/hue when seen at certain angles.

The island of Tahiti consists of two ancient eroded volcanic cones, Tahiti Nui and Tahiti Iti (the Taiarapu Peninsula) , connected by the Isthmus of Taravao. Apart from a fertile coastal plain, the terrain of Tahiti-Iti is jagged and mountainous. On Tahiti Iti Mt. Roniu rises to 4,340 feet (1,323 m) The island is fringed by coral reefs and lagoons. Natural vegetation includes coconut palms, pandanus, lantan, tiare, hibiscus and tropical fruit trees.

Color is the perception of the power spectrum that is striking our retinas. Cells called cones are responsible for our perception of color. There are three distinct types of cones and each type covers a different region of the spectrum. The cones are typically labeled as red, green, and blue, which gives the incorrect impression that each responds to a distinct frequency. In fact, there is significant overlap between them, especially in the case of red and green.