Yep, we’ve got more crystal fakes to talk about today. 😀 Yahoooo!
On my most recent trip out to the Tucson Gem & Mineral Show I attended a lecture on Fake Minerals.
Oh my gosh…this was so right up my alley! Can you make a Crystal Hottie/Nerd any happier? I mean… finding an academic lecture to attend while hanging out at the biggest most glittery gem show in the world, teaching about mineral frauds. Whaaaaa? You better believe I was front row & center, glasses pressed down tight on my nose, notebook & pencil in hand! Poor Frankie (my hubs) suffered through too. He’s such a good sport! 🙂
I like to stay current on my geo-geekiness so I can continue to bring you the most up-to-date & valuable info + sparkly content.
Plus I just looooove learning!! ♥
One of my greatest joys is educating our #CrystalHottie community on what’s available out there. This way we can all make informed decisions when adding specimens to our sacred collections. If you feel passionate about this too, please share this post in any way you prefer. (***There are some handy-dandy “SHARE” buttons you can use at the bottom***).
So, today I have 3 more fakes or common confusion-makers to talk about. Let’s dive in!
Ruby Zoisite
This stone is highly sought after as it’s often recommended to help support people dealing with some serious illnesses. Quite a chakra-versatile stone, it helps to balance the heart chakra as well as the root & the third eye while also boosting vitality and a joy for life.
Here we have some gorgeous real-deal Ruby Zoisite (photo below) with HUGE chunks of hexagonal ruby in the middle of the stones. YUM!!
But it more commonly expresses itself like this (photo below) …
By Parent Géry (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
HOWEVER…
many sellers are selling Ruby Fuschite as Ruby Zoisite and they are simply not the same thing!
I think most sellers are totally not aware & are simply repeating what they’re being told from whoever they’re buying the minerals from. **It happened to me & I was part of the problem at one point.** Yep, I was selling ruby fuschite as ruby zoisite about eight years ago simply b/c that’s what the wholesaler told me it was! So I just believed him & went with it. Then a fellow geo-geek pointed out my mistake. *Thank you!* I did some research & testing & found out what was up.
I then discovered that most sellers out there at the time were also perpetuating this same exact misinformation.
I mean, you can see how the confusion would happen, right?
Although, I do notice this mix-up happening less often these days…I do still see it happening so I had to include it here in this post.
Ruby Fuschite (seen below in that giant sphere) is relatively plentiful…unlike Ruby Zoisite, which is much harder to come by and is usually a bit more expensive.
(BTW…don’chya luv how dry and wrinkly my hands get in the Tucson desert? It’s a thing of beauty!)
Fuschite is a type of mica (variation of Muscovite) and you can see it’s a sea-foam green color (in the above photo).
Zoisite is a totally different mineral…(the most expensive form of Zoisite is Tanzanite!) and it’s a deeper sparkly green color usually accompanied by some black amphibole hornblende (shown below).
Amphibole Hornblende
***Spotting those black dots of amphibole hornblende is the easiest way to tell them apart if the differences in the green hue are iffy.***
Now that you’re in the know… it’s pretty easy to tell the difference, right?
Just wanted to set the geological record straight on that one. 😉
Pink/Purple Chalcanthite Crystal Fakes
This, Crystal Hottie, is a straight-up lab-created CRYSTAL FAKE.
I spotted these all over the place at 2017’s Tucson Gem & Mineral Show. They seemed to be the new HOT ITEM this year. BOOOO!
Small natural Chalcanthite crystals are actually a natural by-product of dry area copper mining (will usually be a smallish bit of blue/green crust). It usually forms on the mine walls due to acidic surface waters interacting with the copper veins & can be found in copper mines located in Arizona, Greece & France.
I’ve not personally worked with it so I don’t have much to say about the metaphysical aspects of this crystal in its natural form. However, the natural blue crystals would be ideal for harmonizing with the throat chakra light wavelength. If you try it out in that way, please let me know in the comments below!
Natural Chalcanthite. Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0 [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
This person was selling theirs online as “Rose Quartz”!!! REALLY?! ***that one pisses me off!***
Super-Dye-Saturated Quartz
I’ve seen this stuff for a number of years at the gem shows and thought it looked obviously dyed…
But, apparently, it ain’t so obvious...
I heard lots of comments from people walking by them (again at the most recent Tucson Gem Show) …oooh-ing & ahhh-ing over it & wondering how all those pretty colors got in there from the Earth.
**cringe**
NO, I don’t say anything or bother to correct them. I’m not super forward like that. If someone asks for my opinion, I’ll give it. But usually, I just keep my mouth shut. However, here on my blog, I have an open forum! So, I’m here once again to burst the fun glitter-filled rainbow unicorn bubble…
These quartz clusters are saturated with dye.
And be forewarned: the dye wears, washes off or fades quite quickly too!
I already talked about dyed quartz agate here so I won’t spend any more time on that in this post.
Always use your common sense & the best protection from this is to be well-informed yourself.
Do your thing
If you choose to work with man-made crystals & you enjoy them just fine or it’s been working for you…as I always say:
“keep on ‘truckin’”. Don’t change a thing!
I just want us all to have the geo-knowledge first. Then you can make an informed decision regarding how you choose to use these “stones”.
And as always, the moral of the story here is…Buyer Beware: Who are you buying from? Are they reputable? Do they know what they’re talking about? Are you doing your own due diligence and research? The best way to protect yourself is education. And again…
You got this Crystal Hottie! We all love the beautiful jewels that mama earth creates & you don’t know what you don’t know…until you know better. So, I hope you enjoyed this new info and have learned something new. Have you seen any of these or new fakes that you sleuth-ed out recently? I’d love to hear in the comments below!
Crystal Blessings,
Thank you so much for the information. I have not seen any of these crystal yet but will be on the look out for them.
always my pleasure, Ariel
The one that I usually get tricked by is Howlite that has been dyed to look like Turquoise. I know from you how to spot the difference, but I can’t check it until it arrives in the mail. Used to be that a cheaper price was a warning, but now some charge higher prices to fool you.
I know.. defo a problem.
Thank you sooo much???????? I did buy a fake turquoise on line from a seller that I have bought many beautiful pieces from. When I received the turquoise my intuition told me something was wrong. The color and lack of vibration made me very suspicious. I saturated a Q tip in polish remover and rubbed the fake crystal with it. The blue came off and revealed a white color. I let the seller know and they sent me a replacement turquoise. They claimed the seller added it to their bulk order.
Thank you again for sharing, Elizabeth ????
🙁 …but wonderful you picked up on it intuitively, Elizabeth.
Here in Australia we get a lot of fake amber sold as Balkan amber. Genuine Balkan amber contains a natural painkiller and has been used for centuries for pain relief in Eastern Europe. This artificially created amber often contains insects and other creatures, which for some bizarre reason increases the price dramatically. In the making of this stuff, the creatures are dropped into the molten liquid alive. Another example of money distorting our sense of humanity
That’s awful. Poor creatures are so abused for money. Thanks for making me aware of this. I am relatively new to Australia and am finding that people are becoming more and more adept at creating hard to distinguish fakes!
such a shame, Jane. I wrote a bit about this fake amber here: https://hibiscusmoon.com/more-crystal-fakes/
The link for your free Crystal Fakes Book isn’t working for me…I know that you are on a much needed break so, TAKE A BREAK ALREADY!! I just thought that you should know…I tried it from several places on the site, none worked.
Thank you for the additional info! I do have a question for you though: HOW do they dye the quartz and not have it leave a palpable film on the surface? Or is there one I didn’t happen to feel myself?
I have people ask me all the time for the HOW of things and I do LOVE being able to answer them! 😀 So I would be so very grateful to you if you could explain that process to me!!
Thank you so much!!!
Hugs,
Kathy
Kathy, the porous nature of the quartz allows the dye to soak in and not really stay on the surface. Here’s more info on exactly how: http://sciencing.com/dye-crystals-6012423.html
I bought some very cheap quartz crystal double terminators recently just to see if they were fakes. Yep, full of tiny bubbles that form in the glass making process and they sounded like glass as the clattered together whilst being unwrapped. When I emailed the seller he swore black and blue that they were real quartz… I pointed out the bubbles…no response. It is sad that there are people out there who want to rip off unsuspecting customers.
Thank you so much for all you information you post about crystals…inspiring and informative.
Hugs,
Anna
Another reason why I usually prefer all natural rather than cut and polished when it’s possible. 😉
Re: Chalcanthite, I’m SUPER-sensitive to it! So much that as I was reading your blogpost, just the photograph alone triggered an energy kick-off in my throat. I HIGHLY recommend this to anyone working w/this energy center.
Re: Fakes. I went out to Sedona Az a couple wks ago & the shops in that downtown area are NOTORIOUS for selling fakes & dyed rocks. I saw everything from painted rocks you’d find on the side of the road that were being sold among all the genuine tumbled stones all the way to painted quartz, also druzy that was obviously dyed and painted this fucsia color & being sold among all the other genuine crystals. The upsetting part is that about 8 out of 10 of the clerks had no idea what the stones were, if they were genuine or fake. I got answers like “Oh, I don’t know, I just work here twice per wk.”
It’s a good thing I’m sensitive to crystal energies- it’s not always easy to spot a fake!
Hi thank you for all the warnings that you give or rather giving us this awareness about fake crystals
I have one question is there a crystal called Scapolite and where can you get this?
Regarding people commenting on the “lovely colours” of the dyed crystals; I recently overheard a customer in a crystal shop commenting “oh, look at this one! It looks just like a piece of wire has been formed in the stone”. What was she looking at? Orgonite! People are their own worst enemies not researching what they are buying.
Very interesting article — thank you. I wasn’t at home when I first read the article, so had to wait until I got home to view my stones. I currently own a Ruby Zoisite, Ruby Fuschite, Ruby in Blue Kyanite, and Ruby in Feldspar (plus plain Ruby and a Star Ruby). The Ruby Zoisite is the only one with black in it, and it actually has black veins. Based on your article, I’m reassured that it appears to be the real deal. I’ve never heard of the Chalcanthite crystals. They are beautiful, but it’s good to know that the dyes are toxic. Are you saying the the only authentic one is blue (but not dyed blue)? Thanks again for enlightening us.
This is not the right forum for these fake crystals, but it is a fake nonetheless. Just finished reading The Sparkly ebook download where it talks about ajoite and papagoite. I bought one from a seller on ebay because I was a newbie and really wanted it. I paid $25 plus $10 shipping. The crystals are on a rock matrix. So I was evidently duped. Since I paid through paypal I thought I would try to get my money back but how can I prove it is fake?
Thank you anyone who can help!!
Shelly
I bought a chrome alum crystal recently (toxic by the way) I can’t resist purple sometimes! And before buying it it didn’t feel right and I ignored that unfortunately. Now I have a purple lab made paper weight.
Love this post! I always see posts like this all over my Instagram feed, mostly regarding aura crystals and in my opinion, people that are selling crystals should always disclose if they are fake or not, but unfortunately not a lot of people do 🙁 so it is good to give our fellow crystal lovers this knowledge ourselves!
Can rose quartz be easily faked/dyed? If so, how noticeable is it and how do you tell?
The opposite happened to me with ruby zoisite. The girl told me it was ruby fuschite and I bought it. Upon further research, I realized it was ruby zoisite. Now I know the difference between them and won’t get confused again.
Great article! I’ve now learned I have a Ruby in Fuschite sphere rather than a Ruby in Zoisite sphere ????
Hello there. Have you considered doing a piece on the fake fluorite and citrine that seems to be flooding the market right now? I’m seeing more and more gigantic obelisks and “rose quartz” flames popping up on Etsy and Ebay and I’m convinced 90% are smelted quartz (glass) with colours added. Some Chinese vendors even say so in their descriptions if you look closely. I just feel so bad that people are being duped into thinking they are buying huge, flawless specimens which are actually duds (in an energy sense), and are then reselling them on as real fluorite and citrine. 🙁
Hi there! I’ve noticed a lot of crystals lately that have iridescence… I saw some beautiful pieces called “angel quartz” here in NYC. But I also know that its possible to add the iridescence to things using a chemical process. The idea of buying an iridescent fake makes me cringe! Any ideas on how to know the difference?
It sounds like what you are referring to is what is known as an aura treatment (one kind is angel aura quartz). The iridescence is from a thin layer of metal that is bonded to the stone through a heating process. In the crystal healing community the stone takes on the healing properties of the metal combined with it’s own properties. Unfortunately I don’t know if this can be faked or if that’s a common issue. I have a rainbow aura treated black kyanite pendant (from a reputable seller) that I wear almost daily. Hope that helps some.
I’m from Canada andI went to the Tucson rock and gem show 2020 and picked up some stones which were beautiful in colour and I was told they are silverite . They say it’s from India …and semi precious stone . Some are glass and some are sillimanite. Have you ever heard anything regarding this type of fake stone?
I lately have been drawn to Opal’s. I purchased some loose ones from a guy in india, they are beautiful. He didn’t carry Black Opal so I checked out another seller who had some, this guy had great reviews and beautiful pictures he was showing. Well they arrived today we’ll for one I ordered a cream color and got blue, it doesn’t even look like an Opal. The other one is supposed to be a Black Opal, well it is black with just a flicker of green I turned it every direction and looked under a microscope and found a seam line, I think it is resin with glitter.
I haven’t contacted the guy yet but I asked the first guy I bought from because they work within the same city he is going to check him out for me. My question is is there a way to tell Opal’s from fakes when they look alike?
[…] gem shops misrepresent Ruby Zoisite as Ruby Fuschite which are very similar in appearance but totally different crystals. They look […]