Natural Untreated Sapphires, Fancy Colored Sapphires, and Rubies

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Sapphire and Ruby Color

Sapphire is a variety of corundum, like ruby. Although sapphire has always been associated with the color blue, sapphire is actually available in a full spectrum of colors, including pink, orange, yellow, green, purple, violet, gray, black, and brown, as well as colorless. In addition to the hue, most sapphire colors can be found in a variety of intensities, also known as saturation. Rubies are classified by their telltale saturated blood red color, but can also include those stones with a slight pink hue. Any corundum that does not qualify as ruby is considered sapphire. Not only does fancy sapphire exist in all the aforementioned colors and intermediate hues, there is even fancy sapphire that exhibits the phenomena known as color change. Most often color change sapphire appears purple under incandescent light and violet or blue under daylight or fluorescent lighting, but the phenomena can occur occasionally with other colors. Colorless sapphire used to be a popular diamond imitation, but there are now much better diamond simulant alternatives widely available to the public.

Hardness and Refractive Index

Sapphire is a fantastic choice for an engagement ring, as it is rated 9 on the Moh's hardness scale, compared with diamond, which is rated 10. It is considered “excellent” for everyday wear, as is diamond. However, we do not recommend setting colorless sapphire in an engagement or wedding ring. Unlike diamond, which is highly dispersive, sapphire has a lower refractive index, so colorless sapphire appears dull and lifeless. The refractive index of sapphire is still among the highest of all gemstones, and lightly colored sapphires can be extremely beautiful.

Value Factors and Heat Treatment of Sapphire

Sapphire has different value factors than diamond. Communicating color and quality is much less standardized and can be subject to interpretation. For this reason, we deal only with the most reputable gem dealers. Sapphire is bought and sold primarily on color, but there are other important factors that affect rarity, and therefore, expense. A natural, sapphire that has not been enhanced in any way by heat or other treatments is very rare. It is estimated that over 95% of all blue sapphires traded are heat treated in some way. It is very common to expose sapphire crystals to high heat to affect a permanent change in color and/or clarity. In other instances, sapphire may be exposed to low routine heat simply to remove the host rock from the crystal after it is mined, not to improve its appearance. Although gemological laboratories may be able to detect evidence of heat, there is no way to know why it was used, therefore, any stone that shows evidence of heat is considered “heat-treated”.

There are also a number of other treatments widely used to improve the color and/or clarity of sapphire, including (but not limited to) lattice diffusion (heating to very high temperatures in the presence of a coloring agent), fracture filling with oil or epoxy, cavity filling with epoxy, resin, or glass, and irradiation. It is our policy not to deal in the sale or trade of treated sapphire, since the affected changes are not permanent with any of these treatments.

Synthetic Sapphire

Aside from natural sapphire (unheated, heated, and treated), there is also synthetic sapphire to choose from. Synthetic sapphire has pretty much the same atomic and optical properties of a natural sapphire. The difference is the crystal is formed inside a laboratory instead of Mother Earth. Due to the fact that a lab-grown sapphire is less rare than a sapphire occurring in nature, it is more affordable. Synthetic sapphire is an excellent choice for those who wish to keep their budget more conservative without compromising the quality or sacrificing the aesthetic of their jewelry.