These are indeed more of a silver gray. I was happy about that because I was trying to match other black pearls of that color. The "pearls" are fake. They don't have that grit-between-the-teeth feel. They feel like plastic. But at a distance, these make a nice complement. You won't find good pearls at this price so I didn't expect them to be real. They made a nice gift. I thought the hinges would look clunky but it wasn't so bad.