Natural quartz is rarely used in industry synthetic quartz is preferred since it is not twinned in structure. Some people prefer the paler more ethereal hues. You will generally pay a higher price tag for a darker pink than you will for a paler pink.Īll shades of rose quartz are quite affordable, though, so it is best to make a purchase decision based on personal taste. This actually makes it a great gemstone to match any skin tone, which is one of the reasons it is an excellent choice for jewelry.Īs with most colorful gemstones, the deeper and richer the hue, the greater the worth of the stone when it comes to measuring market value. The pink color may be warm or cool in appearance. Rose quartz is never particularly dark in color, though you may find some pieces with a muted, medium hue. The color of rose quartz can range from a pale, ephemeral pink barely distinguishable from white to a deep, saturated pink. Rose Quartz Colorīack-lit rose quartz crystal – Image credit to Edward Peters – CC BY-NC 2.0 This is why it probably was not only one of the first gemstones you remember collecting as a child, but one of the first you could likely identify on sight as well. The texture and the recognizable rose hue make it quite easy to identify rose quartz when you find it. ![]() The texture is generally glossy to the touch and glassy in appearance. Unless you have a piece with individual crystals, you will probably have a stone where the crystals have grown in an indistinguishable mass. If you drop a piece of quartz, it is quite likely to fracture. This does not make it particularly fragile, but it is not as strong as sapphire or topaz (9 and 8 respectively). On the Mohs scale of hardness, quartz rates a 7. Rose quartz is translucent to opaque, and the color may range from pale to deep pink (more on that shortly). As you might guess, these pieces have a greater value than most. These inclusions produce asterism, a phenomenon of reflected light which is generally associated with star sapphires. Occasionally you also may stumble across a piece of rose quartz which contains rutile needle inclusions. Exposure to the sun can cause it to fade. These crystals are relatively rare, and their color stems not from manganese, iron, or titanium, but from the presence of phosphorus and aluminum. There is also a second “type” of rose quartz known as “crystalline rose quartz” or as “euhedral rose quartz,” a reference to its crystal structure. These patterns are similar to those found in the mineral known as “dumortierite.” ![]() It may well be that the rose color comes from microscopic mineral fibers contained within the stone. These trace elements may be what lend the stone its roseate hue, though scientists are still not 100% certain on this point. Rose quartz exhibits the basic crystal structure mentioned above, but it also contains trace amounts of manganese, iron, or titanium. Numerous varieties of quartz exist, but few are as popular as rose quartz. Quartz is the second most abundant mineral found in the Earth’s crust, with a continuous crystal structure of SiO 4. ![]() Rose quartz is a type of quartz which is known, prized, and named for its rose color. Rose quartz crystal with small zanazziite crystals from Minais Gerais in Brazil – click to enlarge – Image credit to Géry Parent – CC BY-ND 2.0
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