I did not own a single pearl until this spring. Sixty-one years old, and my jewelry box held one plain gold band from Walt and a couple of pairs of drugstore hoops that left my lobes pink by the end of an afternoon. Then Kelly mentioned that the women at her office had started wearing little pearl studs again, and I went looking.
The pair I landed on was the PAVOI 14K gold plated freshwater cultured pearl studs, 5.5mm, push backs. Seven months in now, and they have quietly become the pair I reach for whenever the day calls for something a little nicer than my everyday earrings. Here are ten reasons they earned that spot, in the order I actually noticed them.
The pair I bought in April and have not taken out of rotation since
PAVOI freshwater cultured pearl studs, 5.5mm, 14K gold plated, push backs. Mine came from Amazon with my own money and they have done every dressy day since.
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I am not a person who builds outfits. I wear a knit top, dark pants, and a pair of flats, and I have done that for most of my adult life. What I needed was an earring that did not argue with any of it. Pearls do not argue. They sit there and look finished. I have worn these with a navy blouse on Sunday, with a striped tee at Thursday lunch, and with a plain black dress to a funeral in June, and they were right for all three. That is more than I can say for the hoops.
5.5mm is the size that reads as jewelry, not as a statement
I looked at bigger pearls first, because bigger seemed like more for the money. Donna set me straight. She said, Marlene, that size makes people ask if you are headed to a gala. The 5.5mm is about the width of a pencil eraser. It sits on the lobe and shows up, but it does not announce itself from across the room. At a church coffee hour they look like jewelry. In a photograph they look like jewelry. Nobody has once asked me where I was going.
They are real freshwater pearls, and it shows beside the fake ones
The listing says freshwater cultured, 5.5mm, button shape, high luster, very good uniformity. What that means in real life is that each pearl has a little character to it. Mine are not identical twins, and I have decided I like that. Donna wears a pair of faux pearls, and hers are perfectly matched because they came out of a mold. Held side by side, hers look a touch flat and mine look a touch lit from inside. Neither of us is wrong. Hers cost less. Mine are the pair I would wear to something I actually cared about.
Push backs come off in one second at the end of the day
My everyday earrings have a little hinge, and my fingers fumble it every morning before I have had my coffee. These do not have a hinge. They have a straight post with a push back, the kind you slide on and slide off. I put them in after my lotion and hairspray are dry, and I take them out before bed. In seven months I have not once dropped a back on the bathroom floor. For a woman with sixty-one-year-old eyes and sixty-one-year-old fingers, that counts for a good deal.
My lobes have not gone red
I want to be careful here, because I am not a doctor and I never saw one about my ears. All I know is that the drugstore hoops used to leave my lobes pink and itchy by late afternoon. The PAVOI studs are 14K gold plated over a 925 sterling base, and since April my ears have been quiet. That is my experience with one pair, not a promise about yours. If your ears react badly to jewelry, that is a question for a dermatologist, not for me.
One pair does the work of three
I used to think a jewelry box needed a dressy pair, a church pair, and an everyday pair. These are all three. Sunday morning it is the pearls. Thursday lunch with Donna it is the pearls. If something comes up that requires me to look like I tried, it is the pearls. The huggies still get my ordinary mornings and I still love them, but I have not bought a second pair of earrings since April, which for me is close to a record. When the day tilts dressy, the swap takes two seconds.
They cost about what a nice lunch out costs
I bought mine with my own money on Amazon in the first week of April. Kelly had shown me a pair at a jewelry store counter that I will not repeat the number of, and I am not a person who spends that on earrings. These were in the range of a nice lunch with Donna, and I have worn them maybe sixty times since. When you divide anything by sixty, it stops being a splurge. That math is how I talk myself into most things, and this is one where the math actually held up.
Care is a dry cloth, and that is the whole routine
Pearls are not like gold. They do not want to be soaked, and they do not want toothpaste or a dip. Mine get wiped with a soft dry cloth after I take them off, and maybe once a month I use the same cloth barely damp with plain water, then let them air dry on a folded towel. Then they go back into their little soft pouch inside my tray. That is the entire job. If you are the kind of person who will not maintain a thing, know that this one asks almost nothing of you.
They make a plain outfit look like you meant it
I noticed this by accident. I had on a gray t-shirt and jeans, nothing to write home about, and I put the pearls in out of habit. Walt looked up from his paper and said I looked nice. He does not say that about the t-shirt. There is something about a small bright thing near the face that pulls an outfit together, and pearls do it without any metal clanking or sparkle. If you want one pair of earrings that makes people think you have your life organized, this is a reasonable candidate.
They are the first piece I would replace if the tray walked off
I have five pieces now that I actually wear, and I have thought about which one I would buy again without hesitating. It is these. The necklace is lovely and the bracelet is fun, but the pearls are the piece that works on a Tuesday and a Sunday, with a t-shirt and with a dress, on me and on Kelly. Seven months in, nothing has dulled, nothing has come loose, and I have not had a single morning where I put them on and changed my mind.
What I'd Skip
I would skip the very large pearls, and I would skip the very cheap ones. The oversized sizes look like costume to me now that I have worn a modest one, and the plastic faux pairs look flat next to a real pearl. I would also skip buying a second pair before you have worn the first pair for a few months. I nearly did, and I am glad I waited, because what I actually needed was the one pair already sitting in my tray.
Seven months, maybe sixty wearings, one dry cloth, and my lobes have stayed quiet the whole time.
The one pair that works on a Sunday and on a Tuesday
5.5mm freshwater cultured pearls, 14K gold plated, push backs. Mine came from Amazon in April and have not left my rotation since.
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