The Journey Begins
Last spring, I flew 10,000 kilometers from Vancouver to a small city in China called Zhuji.
You've probably never heard of it. But eight out of ten freshwater pearls worn by women around the world start their journey right here.
I wasn't there as a tourist. I was looking for an answer.
Back in Vancouver, I walked into jewelry stores. The pearls in the windows were beautiful — and so were the prices. Hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars. But I knew what those pearls actually cost when they left the farm.
The difference? Distributors. Wholesalers. Brand markups. Retail rent. Every hand that touched the pearl added a layer of cost.
Something felt wrong. So I bought a plane ticket. And I went.
Where Pearls Are Born
Zhuji is nothing like you'd imagine.
There are no fancy showrooms. No salespeople in suits.
There are rows of lotus ponds, their surfaces glinting green under the sun. The farmers who tend them have weathered skin and dirt under their fingernails. They don't speak English. They don't know what a "brand story" is.
They only know one thing — how to spend years growing a single good pearl.
I walked into their workshops, filled with the smell of wet stone. Women sat on small stools, sorting pearls by hand — matching colors, checking luster, threading them one by one. Each strand gets turned three times under the light before it's approved.
"See? It reflects your face."
I asked one of them: "How do you know a pearl is good?"
She picked one up, held it to the light, and said: "See? It reflects your face."
Right there, I understood.
Pearls don't need a story. They are the story. A grain of sand that spends years underwater, slowly becoming something that shines.
An Idea Is Born
When I flew back to Canada, my suitcase was full of pearl necklaces.
Not to sell. To show my friends.
"How much?" they asked. When I told them, they didn't believe me.
"That's impossible. I saw the same thing at the mall for three times the price."
And that's the problem. It wasn't that the pearls were too expensive. It was that there were too many hands in between.
So I thought — what if there was a pearl brand with no middlemen? What if Canadian women could buy real Zhuji pearls at honest prices?
Ilovepearl
That's how Ilovepearl was born.
No investors. No office. No inventory.
Just me and my friends in Zhuji — when you order, they pack and ship directly from the source.
Every pearl comes from those lotus ponds I walked past. Every necklace passes through the hands of that woman who held it to the light. Every package flies from Zhuji straight to your door.
No middlemen. No markups. Just love.
I love pearl, you love me.
It's not just a name. It's my promise: pearls I chose with my own heart, for someone who deserves to shine.