1 – Turquoise
It is a traditional gem and is well known for its sky blue, blue-green or yellow-green color. It ranges from semitransparent to opaque and has porcelain luster, while most of the gemstones have vitreous luster. It is porous, gets dirty easily and easy to scratch, so it require care in its use. In addition, it is subject to color changes as per the action of sunlight, sweat, cosmetics and dehydration Water
There are several imitations of turquoise made with various materials such as turquoise vienna. Turquoise can be confused with amazonite, chrysocolla, jade and other minerals. It is always cut in cabochon, being used in Asia for small sculptures.
It is mainly produced in Egypt, USA, Iran and Turkey, followed by Russia, Australia, Afghanistan, Israel, Tanzania and China. The best stones come from Iran. In Brazil, there is small production in Bahia. Turquoise is not an expensive gem. Among the several varieties, it has more value to compact and of celestial blue color. It has been synthesized since 1972 and it is not very easy to differentiate between synthetic and natural one. The presence of white dots indicates a natural origin.
2 – Tourmaline
They are a group of minerals. There are 11 species, but the ones used as gem in their variety is Elbaite. The black tourmaline is another species, the schorlite. They generally form columnar crystals elongated vertically, almost always with curved and striated faces in the direction of greater length.
A tourmaline crystal may have a color at each end and a third in the center, or have one color on the outside and others in the interior distributed concentrically. The tourmaline of two colors is called tourmaline bicolor. If it has pink color in the center and green externally, it receives the popular name of watermelon tourmaline. Indicolite is quite rare and schorlite is the most common.
They are opaque to transparent buds with a vitreous luster. The rubelite usually has many cracks. The most used in jewelry are yellow-green, honey-yellow, dark blue, red, dark green and pink. They are mainly produced in Namibia, Brazil and the USA, followed by Russia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka (yellow tourmaline), India and Madagascar.
There is no synthetic tourmaline in gem trade. The value of these gems grows with the intensity of the color, but among the greens they are worth the lighter ones, more like the emerald). In bi-color tourmalines the higher value corresponds to the higher color contrast.
3 – Ruby
It is the most suitable gemstones for engagements rings of these three choices. The first extraction of ruby dates back more than 2,500 years ago in Sri Lanka. Historically, many believe that in this stone of intense red color mystical powers are hidden.
In ancient times, many believed that rubies possessed prophetic powers, which allowed those who led them to predict their future based on the changes in color of their stone.
The rubies can have different shapes and sizes, offering a wide range of possibilities to lovers of precious gemstones. With a hardness that is only inferior to that of diamonds, ruby is one of the most resistant gemstones, having no splits, and it rarely breaks. The ancient Hindus, fascinated by the color of the ruby, considered it like the ‘Ratnaraj’ or ‘King of the Precious Stones’. I would suggest you to buy the best ruby engagement rings.
