1712 Bibliotheca Anatomica II. 163/2 Cataracts differ according to their Colours, in that some are of a Sky-colour, others White, which are more common; under which are comprehended these several sorts, as Snow White, Plaister White, Pearl White, [etc.].

1794 T. Holcroft Adventures Hugh Trevor I. xiii. 174 There was a kind of bloom spread over her countenance, contrasted with a delicate pearl white, such as I had never seen in the finest cherry cheeks of our village maidens.

1851 H. Melville Moby-Dick cxxxiii. 606 The bluish pearl-white of the inside of the jaw was within six inches of Ahab's head.

a1911 D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) I. xxii. 432 More than a hint of color sense showed in the harmony of the pearl gray in the big feather,..and the pearl white of her skin.

2005 Star Press (Muncie, Indiana) (Nexis) 22 Mar. 1 b One thing that makes it easy to love are..the 30 purebred Siberian Huskies that have blue in their eyes and shades of pearl white in their coat.

1712 J. Browne tr. P. Pomet et al. Compl. Hist. Druggs I. ii. 333/2 The Magistery of Bismuth, which some improperly call the Spanish or Pearl White, is Tin-glass dissolv'd in Spirit of Nitre, and precipitated into a white Powder, with a little common Salt, and afterwards well wash'd and dry'd.

1822 J. M. Good Study Med. I. 162 The white oxide..of bismuth, now more generally known as a cosmetic under the name of pearl-white.

1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products Pearl-white, a colour; a powder made from nitrate of bismuth, and sometimes used by ladies as a cosmetic.

1875 M. D. Landon Eli Perkins 82 There's no use of my trying to dress without rouge. I do wish they would learn how to put on pearl white here—why, every wrinkle shows through.

1969 R. Mayer Dict. Art Terms & Techniques 286/1 Pearl white, a name given to two obsolete pigments, bismuth white, and pulverized mother-of-pearl waste. The latter was used in the 19th century as a delicate watercolour white, but has since been abandoned as overprecious and superfluous.