When buying a pearl, there are many decisions to make - between freshwater and seawater, between farmed and organic natural and between the colour of the lustre. A small farmed, freshwater pearl could be £50, whereas a natural seawater pearl with a particular lustre could be hundreds of thousands. The most expensive pearl ever was sold by Sotheby's for $32 million in 2018.

A farmed pearl still is grown organically in the water and is a beautiful thing and definitely a "pearl" as opposed to some pearl lookalikes today which are synthetic. At Augustine Jewels, we do not use any synthetic pearls or gems.