Colored Gem Search
Gem Cleaning and Display Chart
Color Your World
A dash of red, a spark of gold, the soothing touch of blue…color has the power to change moods, and add exotic glamour to jewelry. Gem Lab owners Joe and Paul Cassarino have been educated to understand the differences in gemstones and their quality. And one of their foremost objectives is to educate customers about the items available to them for purchase. So, for your convenience, we have included the following basic information about gemstones to help get you started in coloring your world with these magnificent jewels.
Colored Birthstones
JANUARY
GARNET
The garnet group of related mineral species offers gems of every hue, including fiery red pyrope, vibrant orange spessartine, and rare intense-green varieties of grossular and andradite.
FEBRUARY
AMETHYST
Purple variety of the mineral quartz, often forms large, six-sided crystals. Fine velvety-colored gems come from African and South American mines.
MARCH
AQUAMARINE
Blue to slightly greenish-blue variety of the mineral beryl. Crystals are sometimes big enough to cut gems of more than 100 carats.
APRIL
DIAMOND
This hardest gem of all is made of just one element: carbon. It’s valued for its colorless nature and purity. Most diamonds are primeval—over a billion years old—and form deep within the earth.
MAY
EMERALD
The most valued variety of beryl, emerald was once cherished by Spanish conquistadors, Inca kings, Moguls, and Pharaohs. Today, these fine gems can be found in Africa, South America and Central Asia.
JUNE
PEARL
The most valued variety of beryl, emerald was once cherished by Spanish conquistadors, Inca kings, Moguls, and Pharaohs. Today, these fine gems can be found in Africa, South America and Central Asia.
ALEXANDRITE
The color-change variety of the mineral chrysoberyl. Bluish green in daylight, purplish red under incandescent light; hard and durable. Top quality Alexandrite is rare and valuable.
JULY
RUBY
Traces of chromium give this red variety of the mineral corundum its rich color. Long valued by humans of many cultures. In ancient Sanskrit, ruby was called ratnaraj, or "king of precious stones."
AUGUST
PERIDOT
Yellow-green gem variety of the mineral olivine. Found as nodules in volcanic rock, occasionally as crystals lining veins in mountains of Myanmar and Pakistan, and inside meteorites.
SEPTEMBER
SAPPHIRE
Depending on their trace element content, sapphire varieties of the mineral corundum might be blue, yellow, green, orange, pink, purple or even show a six-rayed star if cut as a cabochon.
OCTOBER
TOURMALINE
Comes in many colors, including the remarkable intense violet-to-blue gems particular to Paraíba, Brazil, and similar blues from Africa. One of the widest color ranges of any gem.
OPAL
Shifting play of kaleidoscopic colors unlike any other gem. Opal’s microscopic arrays of stacked silica spheres diffract light into a blaze of flashing colors. Color range and pattern help determine value.
NOVEMBER
CITRINE
A yellow-to-golden member of the quartz mineral group. Deep golden varieties from Madeira Spain can resemble costly imperial topaz. Thought by ancient cultures to increase psychic powers.
DECEMBER
TANZANITE
Named for Tanzania, the country where it was discovered in 1967, tanzanite is the blue-to-violet or purple variety of the mineral zoisite. It’s become one of the most popular of colored gemstones.
ZIRCON
Optical properties make it bright and lustrous. Best known for its brilliant blue hues; also comes in warm autumnal yellows and reddish browns, as well as red and green hues.
TURQUOISE
Ancient peoples from Egypt to Mesoamerica and China treasured this vivid blue gem. It’s a rare phosphate of copper that only forms in the earth’s most dry and barren regions.
