Nacre is also called mother-of-pearl and can be found on the external surface of a pearl or the internal lining of shells. The thicker the nacre gets, the more mature pearls become, then the internal beauty unique to pearls can be seen. The “nacre thickness” is the most important factor to grade pearls. The nacre is formed inside the mother oysters. Therefore, generally speaking, the longer a pearl stays inside, the thicker the nacre becomes.

“Luster” of pearls has a lot to do with “nacre thickness”. “Luster” specifically means the internal beauty unique to pearls, not just the luster on the surface. When the nacre becomes thick, a pearl can have a rich and deep glitter. So they are highly valued. “Luster” comes from the nacre thickness and the crystal component forming the nacre. The ones with high quality always reflect figures as well as mirror, but furthermore, you can see how fine the reflection is. The brighter a pearl is, the better quality it has.
All HELAS jewelries use at least strong bright of luster.

“Blemish” is a swell or a dent on the surface of pearls. Pearls are formed by a creature, so it’s common that there is a swell or a dent on the surface.
On the premise of excellent luster and color, HELAS selects pearls can rarely view the blemish with the naked eye in the distance of 0.5m.

Common pearl colors are white, pink, black, gold. To categorize it even further, there are “body color” and “overtone”. When you look at a pearl closely, you see different colors on its center and surface. The color on its center is called “body color” whereas the one on the surface is called “overtone”. “Overtone” is a color formed by the layer of nacre. “Overtone” is classified into 2 colors, pink and green.
HELAS offers customized service on choosing pearl colors according to your preference.

Saltwater pearls harvested from Akoya oysters are commonly found in different sizes. The size of pearls is determined by the size of nucleus inserted in Akoya oysters and the thickness of nacre layered on it. If the nucleus is small, we get a small pearl. Likewise, if the nucleus is large, we get a large pearl. A nucleus is a source of pearl. If the quality is the same, larger ones have higher value.
HELAS uses various sizes of pearls to create masterpieces according to the needs of designs.