Learn About Natural Gemstones

We label every stone honestly: natural, lab-grown or moissanite. Here is what those words mean, so you can tell whether anyone else is being straight with you.

The three categories

Natural stones formed in the earth. Rarity and imperfection are the point. Two natural sapphires of the same weight can differ in price several times over on colour alone.

Lab-grown stones are chemically and optically identical to natural ones, grown in a controlled environment in weeks rather than millennia. Not fake. Same material, different origin, far lower price.

Moissanite is a different material entirely — silicon carbide. It is not a diamond substitute pretending to be a diamond; it has its own optical character, with more fire and slightly more rainbow flash. Nearly as hard as diamond, so it stands up to daily wear.

Stones we work with

Sapphire (neelam)

Corundum, hardness 9, second only to diamond. Blue is the famous colour but sapphire occurs in yellow, pink, green and colourless. Sri Lankan and Kashmiri material commands the highest prices; most affordable blue sapphire is heat-treated to improve colour, which is standard and permanent. Excellent for daily wear.

Ruby (yaqoot)

The same mineral as sapphire, coloured red by chromium. Fine untreated Burmese ruby is among the most expensive materials on earth by weight. Most ruby on the market is heated or glass-filled — glass-filled stones are far cheaper and far more fragile, and anyone selling you one should say so.

Emerald (panna)

Beryl, hardness 7.5–8, but with a catch: emeralds are heavily included, which makes them brittle. Nearly every emerald sold anywhere is oil-treated to fill surface-reaching fractures. This is accepted practice, but it means emerald needs gentler handling than sapphire or ruby.

Peridot, garnet, topaz

Softer, more affordable, and beautiful in the right setting. Better suited to earrings and pendants than to a ring worn every day.

How to read a gemstone claim

• “Natural” does not mean untreated. Ask specifically what treatment was applied.
• Certificates matter for expensive stones. GRA certificates for moissanite, recognised gemmological labs for significant natural stones.
• A price far below market means something. Usually a treatment, a synthetic, or a different stone entirely.
• Vague words are a warning. “Semi-precious”, “genuine” and “real” tell you nothing.

What we do

Every product page names the stone, whether it is natural or lab-grown or moissanite, and any treatment we know of. If we cannot verify something, we say we cannot verify it. Ask us anything before you buy — we would rather answer twenty questions than take back a ring.