Disclosed are a pearlescent pigment and a preparation method therefor, wherein the pigment has a multilayered structure including a low-refractive index material layer between high-refractive index material layers on a glass flake substrate and thus has high color intensity, various colors depending on the viewing angle, and an improved sparkling effect. The pearlescent pigment according to the present invention comprises: a glass flake substrate having a D10 value of 40-80µm, a D50 value of 160-250µm, and a D90 value of 350-600µm and a thickness of 500 nm or more; and a metal oxide layer coated on the substrate, the metal oxide layer having a structure of a first metal oxide layer/an intermediate oxide layer containing MgO·SiO2/a second metal oxide layer.