Gemstones

Understand heated and unheated sapphires, why heat treatment is used, how it can affect value and what a gemological report actually confirms.

Learn what a sapphire window looks like, why it forms, how it affects colour and brilliance, and how to examine a stone before buying.

Assess a sapphire’s cut through its proportions, crown, pavilion, symmetry, windowing, extinction and actual return of light.

Compare Royal Blue, Cornflower Blue and other blue sapphire colours. Learn to assess hue, saturation and tone beyond trade colour names.

Discover why a sapphire can look milky or hazy, how fine inclusions scatter light, and when a soft velvety appearance differs from poor transparency.

Learn to read a sapphire report: identification, carat weight, measurements, treatment, origin opinion, colour wording and report-number verification.

Explore Sri Lankan sapphires, also known as Ceylon sapphires: their colours, reputation, treatments, origin reports and the checks to make before buying.

Understand sapphire clarity, eye-clean appearance, inclusions, transparency and durability, without expecting every natural stone to be flawless.

Find out why natural sapphire prices vary. Compare colour, treatment, origin, size, clarity, cut and laboratory reports before judging value.

Discover padparadscha sapphire’s pink-orange colour, rarity and report requirements, and why a pink sapphire is not automatically a padparadscha.