Agate – is a variety of mineral that has banded layers of colors. These colors can be bright, but most often are muted in tone. The cobalt blue and shocking pink varieties are chemically dyed to achieve these ‘fluoro’ colors. Any stone that is dyed chemically alters the nature of the stone; alter the nature and you alter the energy.
Alexandrite – the stuff that is commonly sold is purple with a color change to blue in sunlight. This is actually synthetic sapphire and many traders don’t know the difference. Genuine Alexandrite is green and changes to red in sunlight. It belongs to the same family as Emerald and is rare enough that top gem quality costs upwards of $1000 per carat.
Amber – is the natural resin fossilized, of the pine tree Pinus Succinifera. Yellow to brown are the predominant colors. True amber is sensitive to acids, petrol/gasoline, alcohol and perfume. So no Vaseline, citrus juice or spraying perfume on your amber. Many traders are selling plastic (unknowing) as amber, so beware. If it is cheap, it is likely to be plastic. One test for your own pieces is that amber floats in salt water. Plastic is not going to substitute for amber energy; either therapeutically or magically.
Amazonite – is green to blue-green to light blue; opaque and is easily confused with chrysoprase, (some) jade and turquoise.
Ametrine – is when 2 events happen in an Amethyst crystals’ life and half stays amethyst and half becomes citrine. This effect, however, is easily duplicated in the lab by heat treating either the crystal or the finished cut stone. Nothing marvelous, just tricky. It does happen naturally, but most of the Ametrine is lab generated.
Garnet – is most commonly known as the red to reddish brown mineral. However, garnet comes in green down through the shades to gold; from gold to up to reddish orange. From red/orange to red then purplish red to red/brown and down to brown. Brown is considered valueless and therefore not often cut into gems. This is the reason colors with no brown in them are sought out. Golds and greens in Garnet are rarer and very much more expensive.
Jade – proper Jadeite Jade is rare in nature and valuable. Jadeite is bought and sold by the carat and is very expensive. Nephrite or New Zealand Greenstone is a cousin to Jade and much more common and therefore cheaper. What some traders are selling as “New Jade” is most definitely NOT. Jade when dropped does not shatter and when it’s broken shows and edge like ripped fabric. It comes is a wide variety of colors the rarest being black. Jade never achieves the same high reflective gloss as other stones.
Lapis Lazuli – must have the ‘fools gold’ aka pyrite flecks in it to be called so. A dignified deep blue is the color requirement. But without the flecks it is only Azurite. Uneven whitish streaks or mottled color is poor quality – don’t get taken in. That is why it’s cheap. If the blue is vibrant and electric is probably dyed to hide poor color and stone quality.
Moonstone – must appear translucent with a shiny shift/whitish internal flash. If the stone looks to be a solid color, this is not Moonstone. Quartz with a lot of internal cracking and milky Quartz are sometimes substituted for Moonstone and I have seen this myself.
Nephrite – known in Australia and New Zealand as Greenstone. This is common in comparison to Jade and a whole lot cheaper - by hundreds of dollars. Mineralogically speaking it is cousin to Jade, shares similarities and can be successfully substituted both magically and therapeutically as long as the user is aware that the thinking will need modification.
New Jade – NO SUCH THING! This is a marketing ploy to create sales. The minerals commonly called ‘New Jade” are calcite, prehnite, chrysoprase or aventurine. All of these minerals have colors that are similar to the colors of jade, but have their own purposes, meanings and applications. None of which are compatible with Jades’ functions.
Opal – there are a number of ways to get ripped off with Opal. The most common being a sliver – and I mean sliver – of Opal being sandwiched between resin on top and either a plain stone or colored plastic on the bottom. These are known as triplets. These are worthless for metaphysical purposes. Synthetic Opal is now common, but the stationary appearance of the color flash gives it away, Natural Opal when it moves in light, looks like the colors are moving with the stone.
Rhodocroisite – is a lighter pink opaque stone with a white color streak. Just remember ‘rhodocro is white’ ; so as not to confuse it with Rhodonite.
Rhodonite – is pink to dark pink, opaque with black color streaks.
Ruby – and Sapphire are brother and sister. I have personally seen a trader selling stuff he called “Vietnamese Purple Ruby’. If it is not at least dark rose pink to red, it is NOT ruby. Purple Sapphire – yes. Rubies are RED – end of discussion. The purple stuff is sapphire, at best, but Rubies are more valuable and so the price goes up. So a purple ruby is a non sequitur and a rip off on 2 counts. Unfortunately for us, both ruby and sapphire have been synthesized since the 1890’s. So yes, Grammys’ ring could be a synthetic. Sorry.
Sodalite - is a deep blue stone which can be confused with Azurite. Both are opaque but Sodalite is not as dense and will allow light to show through the edges of the stone, Azurite does not.
Turquoise – is sky blue, blue/green or muted apple green depending on its country of origin. A vibrant blue is dyed. The color of value is sky blue sometimes flecked with pyrite (fools gold) and has a waxy luster. This stone is porous and its; surface and color can be compromised by oils, cosmetics, household detergents and excessive sweat. Turquoise Matrix is when the stone appears to be ‘veined’ with other minerals. Some Matrix can be quite attractive, but this is of lesser quality and should be priced accordingly. Matrix is also harder to work with, its energy being slightly scattered.
Lab created = synthetic, formulated and chemically correct.
Simulated = synthetic and fake, not even chemically related to item it imitates.
