Oscars, Baftas, the Golden Globe and Pearls

This year pearls continued to grace the red carpet. However, sadly not all have been the real McCoy.

To accompany their nude dresses Halle Berry and Michelle Williams use beautiful pearl stud earrings to add a timeless elegance to their outfits on the red carpet.

While earlier in the day, attending the Oscars annual lunch, Natalie Portman, nominated for her moving performance in the ballet-themed film Black Swan, was spotted wearing a stunning single strand Tahitian pearl necklace, as well as Jeff Bridges wife Susan wearing fabulous Tahitian pearl drop earrings.

We were rather distressed to see that fake pearls had managed to not only get into “The King’s Speech”, nominated for 12 Oscars including Best Picture, but also onto the red carpet.

Helena Bonham Carter, nominated for Best Actress, who plays the part of the late Queen Mother in “The King’s Speech” can be seen wearing a double strand of imitation pearls throughout the film. We were saddened that the costume department decided to use fake pearls rather than the real thing, we at Coleman Douglas Pearls would have been happy to make the necklace for them and then auction it for Charity.

Helena Bonham Carter wore fakes not only on screen but also to the Oscars annual lunch, a great sadness, as imitation pearls have no lustre, they cannot as they are made from either acrylic paint on plastic beads or concentrated fish slime on plastic. Lustre is the result of the light glowing on the pearls surface which is made up of many tiny layers of nacre. To understand the reasons behind the lustre in pearls we recommend you check the choosing pearls section in www.pearls.co.uk

Once you read this section you will see for yourself when comparing the beads Helena was wearing with an image of our South Sea pearls the enormous difference that lustre makes. As a fake bead row sits on the wearers neck with a dull iridescent sheen, whereas real or cultured pearls radiate their beauty and enhance the wearer’s beauty by making their face glow.