A coveted gem with a lustrous appeal, Sapphires are second only to the mighty diamond in hardness. Pretty Pinks, Royal Blues, Luscious Greens, and Golden Yellows are just some of the elegant colors of these rainbow gems.
Some stones grabbed our attention over millennia and sapphire is among a few of them. Sapphire is a precious gemstone member of the corundum mineral family. The exceptionally rich color with excellent durability is the key point of this gem. Besides sapphire, there occurs a red-shaded corundum gem, renowned as ruby.
However, sapphires are typically blue in color, but not all the sapphires are blue. It arises in every color of a rainbow, except red. They are sometimes found colorless and sometimes in various different shades too. Generally, sapphire gemstone comprises of aluminum oxide with some elements of iron, magnesium, titanium, chromium, and vanadium in it.
Sapphire is a September month birthstone. In common, natural sapphires are used as jewelry but they are also widely used in various non-ornamental applications and decorative purposes owing to their solid durability. Sapphires come with a remarkable hardness of 9 on the Mohs scale. It is the third hardest mineral, after diamond at 10 and Moissanite at 9.5. Nowadays, synthetic gem pieces are produced in industrial laboratories as an affordable alternative to precious sapphire.
Though, blue-colored sapphire is the most famous one; the word ‘Sapphire’ is used for most of the corundum varieties, other than red ruby. In addition to ruby and blue sapphire, the corundum group also includes a variety of fancy sapphires in yellow, green, violet, pink, purple, orange, and other intermediate hues. They can even be gray, brown, and black in color.
PADPARADSCHA
A sapphire with the beautiful combination of pinkish-orange shade is best known as Padparadscha sapphire. After blue, this blossoming lotus-like sapphire is the highest-priced variant of sapphire.
KASHMIR BLUE SAPPHIRE
With intense rich blue color and saturated velvety texture, Kashmir blue sapphires are the rarest form of the sapphire category. It has set the standard for blue sapphire. It is one of the most desired and sought-after gemstones globally.
ROYAL BLUE SAPPHIRE
The royal engagements of Princess Diana’s wed Prince Charles, and Kate Middleton’s wed Prince Williams were completed with an another world-famous sapphire ring i.e., Royal blue sapphire. There is also a ‘Parti-colored sapphire’ that demonstrates blends of two or more colors. Pitambari & Neelambari are types of Parti Color Sapphires. There are color-changing sapphires that exhibit a color-changing phenomenon, which shows a blue tint in daylight and a purple hue in the fluorescent to incandescent lighting.
