Let yourself fall into the sea of aquamarines

To my March birthday beauties, happy birthday to you. I’m sure you all know how lucky you are to be March babies because you get to have the lovely aquamarine as your birthstone. But did you know that aquamarines and emeralds are "related?" Hard to imagine that big beautiful sea of blue can come from the same family as that empress of green, but it does - the beryl family.

Aquas rank a 7.5-8 on the Mohs scale so they are ok to wear in a ring, but you still must be careful with them because they can scrape, chip, and loose their luster.

Aquamarines are occasionally lightly heat treated to remove the greenish color in them. Heat treatment is an acceptable treatment and won’t diminish its value, BUT finding a highly coveted color that hasn’t been heat treated will help increase the value (does that make any sense at all?).

Aquas can come in a range of color from super light almost white blue to slightly greenish blue to deep beautiful blue. They also are customarily very eye clean and can be found in very large sizes. I’ve only seen one aqua that is the amazing coveted deep blue and unfortunately it’s only been in a photo. FORTUNATELY she’s been kind enough to let me share it with all of you!



DiamondSeeker2006's beautiful aquamarine in Beaudry setting



DiamondSeeker2006's aqua and her August Vintage Round diamond from Goodoldgold.com

To find that color is pretty epic. As you can see, aquas are normally a little lighter and less saturated. Interestingly enough, many collectors prefer the lighter ocean blue color and would choose that over the darker and more saturated blues. Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder.

As always, buyers beware: there are synthetic aquas out there that very closely match an aqua’s shade. Although most aquamarines aren’t insanely expensive, but the highly coveted colors get a little pricey, so just be sure to buy from a trusted source. Also, the synthetic aquamarine (actually it’s a synthetic spinel grown in the color of an aquamarine) have been produced since the early 1900's so you’re not guaranteed a real aquamarine just because it’s set in a vintage setting. If in doubt, give me a shout out and I can help you.

I hope you all have a blingtastic day.