Topic: UPDATED: Real Citrine vs. Fake Citrine | How to Tell the Difference
In today’s show we’re digging into exactly how to tell the difference between real citrine and the baked variety so:
- you’re well-geo-educated on working with this powerful crystal
- you’ll know confidentially what’s in your collection
- you’ll have checklists on how to spot a fake
- you can make well-informed purchases
- …is it still Citrine-Energy?
Enter your information for my free pdf: Tips for Spotting Fake Citrine
In this blog post, I’ve included the show notes for today’s show or the most recent show, including the links and resources I reference in the video:
Resources
In my last show (Part 1 in my Citrine series), we discussed Citrine Healing Properties, Correspondences and Meanings so you can learn how to effectively work with this popular and powerful crystal. If you need some citrine background, go ahead and start there.
Enter your information for my free pdf (downloading this pdf subscribes you to my newsletter): Tips for Spotting Fake Citrine
By the way… have you ever looked at a crystal and thought, “Is this the real deal or is this just a fake?” Want my guidance on becoming more Crystal Savvy? Then come take a look at my Crystal Savvy: Crystal + Mineral Identification Class Elective.
Natural Citrine
For instance, in the above photo, you can see some of what I was referring to in the show this week; you can see the variations of citrine color always with a yellow hue with the left one a very smokey yellow. All crystals shown here are Congo citrine with the exception of the Top Right, which happens to be a natural citrine from Brazil.
So, you can see these natural crystals have:
- lots of clarity
- the color is uniform throughout the crystal
- they have a relatively straight quartz crystal formation
- and no white base
- with some red hematite tucked in where they were plucked out of the rock matrix
Baked Citrine
Below, we have amethyst that’s been baked to appear as what’s commonly sold as “citrine”. You can see how Crystal Family member, Shayla, baked her amethyst into citrine. Here she’s showing us her light colored amethyst before and after baking. Thank you, Shayla, for putting my teachings to the test and sharing your photos.
You can see that characteristic deeper orange color and tell-tale white base that looks like a root that’s been plucked out of a geode formation… that’s because that’s exactly how these usually grow, as part of a larger geode or druse. As a result of baking, the crystalline molecular bonds become weaker. (as I discussed this in detail in the show.)
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Have you ever looked at a crystal and thought, “Is this the real deal or is this just a fake?” Want my guidance on becoming more Crystal Savvy? Then come take a look at my Crystal Savvy: Crystal + Mineral Identification Class Elective.
Hope you enjoyed this week’s topic. Please post your comments below!
Crystal Blessings,
Thank you so much for this Hibiscus Moon! I never did feel the energy from the fake stuff. Although I have many amethyst, something happens when it is baked….I don’t know, it just has never done anything for me. But I do have a question: if almost all of what we see out there is fake (I see a lot) and the read deal is getting harder to find and is expensive, can you suggest an alternative. I am reading in The Book of Stones among others and wanting to set up grids that are suggesting Citrine. What could be used instead? Should we focus on color similarities? Should we look to the same geometric shapes or properties?
You’re so welcome, Shadoe! Pyrite is a good alternative for finaincail matter and orange or golden calcite for anything related to the solar plexus chakra. 🙂
I was going to ask the same question. I don’t feel comfortable using tumbled fake citrine in my prosperity grid. I’m currently in the CCH course and want to do a prosperity/abundance grid. I was already considering using pyrite. Thanks for clarifying my dilemma.
you’re so welcome, Laura. 🙂
Hi thank you from r always delivering such great information! For the this citrine thing is not such a controversy, it’s just mimicking in a controlled environment what the earth naturally does itself. But you gotta stick with what works for You as an individual.
The biggest current controversy for me is all the fake shaped and polished enhydro crystals currently flooding the market from China. These are sold at extraordinary prices and the man-made nature is not disclosed! Information about it is being suppressed on social media.
Fake enhydros? AC, I would love for you to share a link, please. Are you finding these on eBay?
curious what crystals will be covered in the crystal savvy identification class.
I am on the fence about signing up…..I know quite a few, and wonder if it is new information to me or not.
thank you very much
Amye
ps have sent a few folk to the crystal healing class, and I know that 2 signed up!
I have a retail shop and sell great pieces…..folk are amazed at my knowledge, and ask where they could learn…..I always tell folk Hibiscus Moon!
Loved the part 2 (and part 1!) on citrine…this has become my favorite to work with (shhhh don’t tell my amethyst or clear quartz) and because of Hibiscus Moon and the information she shares, I took my time and knew exactly what I wanted and what to look for and have a truly amazing congo citrine that I know is the real deal….and oh the energy I feel with this one. Based on what I have learned in the classes, I am pretty sure it is also a cathedral! Thank you for the education and turning me into a crystal loving crazy woman 🙂
I appreciate the way you kindly hold the line on authentic citrine; this is a touchy issue. When I watched your last video on citrine it was snowing here, but the light was bright, so I laid down white paper on my desk and put all my citrines on it together. My studio is half window, so this is for me, an optimum white light. Three of my pieces were clearly baked, one probably baked, and four clearly real! Now I realize that I had two citrines I did not know know about because they were a pale gold champagne color. Fortunately my favorite (and largest) crystals are real, if they were not. I would be very upset! As to the others…I feel the dealers did not know. I agree that all dealers have an obligation to update and constantly know what remains a shifting market. I am glad you are not afraid to change your perspective when you feel methods and energy’s shift.
I can only give my experience with heat treated citrine vs. real deal citrine. I had put together my big abundance/success/wealth grid last September and used some tumbled citrines that yep…were amethyst heat treated to look crackled inside and intensely yellow/orange. They were seriously flashy things, but after hearing Hibiscus talk about heat treated citrine I replaced them with the real thing tumbles (which in their real state were glowy, subtle and really prettier than the heat treated “citrine”). I’d been trying to sell a building in a difficult real estate area for two years. Just paying bills on this empty building. 3 weeks after I replaced the heat treated ones with genuine citrine….the building sold for what I needed to get out of it. For CASH. So it’s a live and learn for me. Now my grid is being focused on new things and I expect continued good things from working with it. Genuine worked much better for me and I’ll never use anything but genuine.
I was so very excited to find Congo Citrine in Tucson. It was at the top of my list and I was speechless when we decided to stop at a small show because we arrived in Tucson about 4 pm so no time to go to a big one. My husband found this piece that he had never seen anything like so he brings it to me asks what it is…totally speechless. It was Congo and it was very obviously mine….been waiting for me. The only one he had. So meant to be. The vendor offered to take $20.00 off and I didn’t or wasn’t even thinking about asking. Then next door we found another vendor that had a bag full of small Congo points. We bought 1 1/3 kilo. They just about all have the baby points around the stone . I wish I could share a picture. I’m so proud og mine and to offer it to others in the small points. We did find in at 22sd st. and Pueblo but nothing like these the first day.
How can i buy congo citrine…Really keen on it
Hi I have read all kinds of things about crystals and my zodiac sign and have found a lot of crystals for my zodiac sign but when I look them up they are not even for my zodiac sign can you help me with this I am Scorpio a water sign well one of the water signs can you please help me find out what crystal are in my zodiac sign thank you for all of your help
I have a 9 year old grand daughter who want to learn some things about crystals is she too young to learn about them ? What age should we teach our children and grand kids at ? right now she is into every thing and at the some time in to crystals more amethyst what are your thoughts on this thank you for your time please get back to me about this and zodiac crystals
I have enjoyed learning .
I always prefer to have things at their natural state . I think that it should be mentioned that it is fake citrine. It may not make a difference to some because of using some stones for color therapy .
Hey! I found this very helpful. I just bought Citrine today and then re read this blog and I was curious if anyone could tell me if I purchased fake Citrine? I could send a photo of what I purchased today.
Hi Hibiscus
I tried several times to download the checklist for fake crystals. I’m going to a gem show in New Jersey tomorrow and would like to have it for reference. PS I am on your mailing list. Thank you
I have definately been sold heat treated amethyst as citrine before, even after asking the seller if it was heat treated and her telling me it wasn’t. Your explanation was valuable however now I wonder if some smokey quartz I bought is actually citrine because the light that shines through them is very yellow. Mined in Australia. Does Citrine have rainbow refractions? All colours?
hoping she sees this and answers you.
Thanks so much for all of your wisdom. Can you tell where is a good site to order a citrine bracelet. Thanks
Has any one worked with the new find of citrine in Missouri they are small pale clusters that grow on fossil alage .
I’m trying to access the PDF
“Enter your information for my free pdf (downloading this pdf subscribes you to my newsletter): Tips for Spotting Fake Citrine”
The link is disconnected. I keep entering my information and still can’t get it. I want to buy I said train for my son’s birthday on Thursday. Can you help me out?
So where is a reputable source for real crystals?
Hi , how to tell if a tumbled citrine stone is real ? , I have one which is orange in colour .
I’ve also read from a shop I buy from on Insta that dyed quartz and lemon quartz are being passed off as citrine??? How can one tell???
I was wondering about lemon quartz being put out as citrine. I know about the green undertone on some lemon quartz but i am not sure if there is a green undertone in all lemon quartz.
Have you considered that maybe the baked vitrines shut down for you because you lost faith in them? I notice when I act differently towards my crystals, they respond in like. They are, after all, living, energetic beings with souls, are they not? I have always been able to put power into crystals and to receive that same love and energy back. If you don’t put it in, doesn’t it follow that you would receive nothing in return? Perhaps it is a mistake to call them “fakes”. They’re real crystals, and they carry your energy, whatever that may be. Put fake in, get fake out.
If the stone speaks to you then what does it matter? If you are going to sell heat treated amethyst then it should be advertised as exactly that, Heat Treated Amethyst. Or more accurately, Heat Treated Quartz. Natural Citrine, Amethyst, and Smoky Quartz are all in fact Quartz. They are not fake Quartz stones, even when heat treated. Again, if the stone speaks to you then it has value. This is not fake when you listen to your intuition m
I have a few stone that I collect in the beach, as I light the opposite of this stone I could see the light shining trough it. is this a crystal?
I have yellowish colour and really shiny white specially when the light of sun shining on it.
most likely what you have collected at the beach is simply beach glass. Beach glass easily shows the light through it & comes in all colors. Although not a crystal, many people still collect beach glass or use it for jewelry. Enjoy what you found & the memories you have collecting it.
Hello,
I was just watching your video. And I’m wondering what gives you the qualifications to tell the public that 99% of the citrine on the global market is fake. According to gemological institutions around the world this is a socially acceptable practice. And I’m just curious where are you getting your information from that it’s fake. Because I can’t find that information anywhere. I’ve been to Brazil to the very places where they heat treat this material and I’ve been in the industry my whole life. And I want to know why people like yourself are calling it fake because that is such a strong word to use and it’s something that is never been documented as far as I can tell.
As long as the customers are aware there’s been a heat treatment and there shouldn’t be a problem. In my opinion, there are many stones out there that have hair treatments done to them that nobody picks on. So why does everybody pick on the quartz family? Smoky quartz can also be heated to make citrine. And that stuff is harder to spot because it looks like natural.
I have some citrine that looks like the baked? kind. But some of the crystals feel loose in the cluster, is that normal or something to be concerned about? By the way, I love your articles on them, I didn’t know they are difficult to acquire.
when the amethyst clusters are baked, they become more brittle. This may be what has happened to your cluster. They loosen up somewhat in the cluster when baked, especially if they are cooled down too quickly
Glass that is sold as “crystals” are the controversy that I absolutely abhore. Lab heated Amethysts that turn into Citrine isn’t a big problem to me, they just sped up the process. Whenever I have druzy like this, I find that the citrine has the energy of transformation and energy elevation. While the earth did bake amethyst into citrine, labs who do so as well and people have beef with man-made processes. I
t still carries the energy, but it disperses in a different way, lab heated citrine also has its amethyst past energies. It has an interesting vibration of transformation, vibrational & energetic elevation, & some of its amethyst vibrations like higher communication/psychic protection. This is just from my own experience working with the ones I have. It may still be disheartening for some, but it is still a crystal and it still emits vibrationally. I think that the reason I had gotten disheartened at first was because it wasn’t honestly described as heat treated amethyst and it felt dishonest. Yet, the stone isn’t dead though…it just feels slightly different from earth heated citrine. It’s got high energy, but it’s spiritual/psychic and transformational in nature.
I think the “dishonesty” about how these are sold is what gets to me. Genuine Citrine is much more expensive than heat treated amethyst. I just posted a comment about a seller on Etsy that posted a disclaimer in her listing for citrine druzy clusters that were heat treated amethyst. She says that is the industry norm and advised not to pay more for the real deal. Well, I am here to say that even tho the crystals she is selling may still have some benefit, they will not pack the full punch of a genuine citrine crystal. And when you pair crystals with one another for specific healing and benefits, they certainly act differently if they are not genuine. I understand what you are saying, but if you are looking for a certain type of benefit that citrine can give then heated amethyst may not be able to provide that
OK.. i wish i could post a picture here. I JUST spotted an Etsy shop selling this baked citrine. She also says and i quote, “Don’t be fooled into paying more for the real thing. MOST, if not all, of the citrine out there is the heated amethyst. Don’t pay more for this. This is the standard” . I also found another listing for what they were calling “Smoky Citrine Clusters” which to me looked more like Smoky quartz clusters than any type of citrine at all. You REALLY need to be careful when you are purchasing crystals anywhere. To be purchasing them on Esty is tough. to be purchasing them in person is tough but if you are not well versed in some things you are going for a ride either way..
Hello ,
I recently got into crystal and was wondering if citrine phantom are real.
I purchased this polished citrine and there were alot of phantoms being sold.. so i’m starting to doubt if they are real citrines or isit possible for them to be real ? I got them at pretty pricey and not sure if I got scammed. I have them in towers and spheres. It looks similar to this video the one that is possiblely citrine (time stamp 15:57). I tried searching on google but there isnt much information on it. Looking forward to your response
[…] for a high-quality gemstone, baked citrine may be the best option. However, if you are looking for a rare and unique gemstone, natural citrine may be the better choice, even if it is more […]
[…] citrine is technically purple amethyst which has been heat […]
I purchased a “natural citrine” ring on Etsy and a “natural amethyst” How can I be sure I got what I paid for? Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.