Does a Sapphire Change Color?


To see a true color shift of the sapphire gem, you must view it, or view it, under daylight or UV lights. Natural light is considered the best method for seeing the color-changing properties of sapphire stones. Light close to daylight, such as fluorescent or LED lighting, makes a typical color-changing sapphire from blue to violet in its base color.

A sapphire can change color when placed under incandescent light, but this color change is an illusion, and the sapphire retains its original color when removed. Sapphires normally retain their color over time, because their mineral composition stays constant.

Color-changing sapphire is considered to be a very rare type of sapphire because it can show different colors under different lights, so blue in outdoor conditions, and violet under indoor lighting, but it can also show pinks and greens.

Natural color change sapphires are usually blue, but naturally colored oblique sapphires are also found with yellow, violet, orange, and green colors, with particolored sapphires showing two or more colors. Color change sapphires are blue under natural outdoor lighting, violet incandescent lighting, or green-green in the daytime, and pink-reddish-violet under incandescent lighting.

Pink sapphires range from red to violet, with faint-to-dazzled color saturation, as well as lighter hues. Purple sapphires range from moderately dark to reddish violet and purplish purple with weak to brilliant color saturation.

Yellow Sapphires and Their Variance

Yellow sapphires vary in some color terms from pale yellow to dark green yellow to orange yellow with weak to strong color saturation. Green sapphires range from light to dark blueish green through to yellowish green and are generally lower in saturation.

Yellow sapphires are held to higher standards of clarity than blue, pink, or Padparadscha sapphires, generally having fewer infiltrations compared with the other colors. Sapphire gems are available in a wide variety of colors, including pink, yellow, orange, green, black, color-changing, violet, violet, pale blue, and a rare orange-pink gem, Padparadscha sapphire.

While the amazing blue sapphires are out there and are pretty popular, there are plenty of other colors and forms of sapphires out there. Star sapphires can be of any color, but to be valuable, they need to be symmetrical and present an obvious contrast from the colors in the stone.

The desirability of colored stones, such as sapphires, may be subjective, depending on trends or personal preferences, but there are specific characteristics that make certain types of sapphires more valuable than others, or some colors of sapphires more desirable than others.

Notes on Bicolor Sapphires

Bicolor sapphires can range from drastic color zones, where two wildly contrasting colors are represented within a single stone, to subtle color zones, where two highly similar, yet slightly different colors are shown within the same stone. Pricing for bi-color sapphires is difficult to estimate and depends on how appealing the stone is, along with availability.

From blues to violets, greens to grey-greens, and pinks to reddish-violets, even the colored-changed sapphires are rare and difficult to obtain, making them precious and prestigious. White sapphires are extremely rare in nature, with the majority being created by laboratory processes, or even heated, to remove the slightest hints of color.

The amount of light that is reflected off the surface of a gem is its luster, and fancy-colored altered sapphires have a glassy (vitreous) luster, unlike other stones that have a waxy, oily, or resinous luster. How we view different gems depends on which colors they reflect as they interact with light, a blue sapphire, for instance, absorbs and bounces the color blue.

The Physics of Color Shifts

To help with understanding color shifts, a red gem appears red because it absorbs every color of light other than red, but a color-shifting gemstone, which absorbs every frequency other than blue and red, will appear blue when the light is rich in blue wavelengths, and it will appear red when the light is rich in red wavelengths.

Although Alexandrite is the most well-known of color change gems, the color change may occur even in rare samples of sapphire, garnet, and diaspore-zultanite. A rarer type, originating in Myanmar’s Mogok region, has vanadium chromophores, similar to those used in Verneuil’s synthetic color-changing sapphires. Virtually all gems showing Alexandrites effects exhibit similar absorption/transmission characteristics in the visible spectrum.

When discussing synthetic color-change sapphires, the color changes are very similar to those in natural alexandrite, to the point where sometimes these synthetic versions are sold under the names Alexandria and synthetic alexandrite. While there are other color-changing gems like fluorite and diaspore, the Alexandrite, color-changing sapphires, Garnets, and spinels are still the most precious and rare color-changing gems, because of this, gems with color changes command even higher prices per carat than their monocolored variations.

Color change and Bicolor Rocks

Sapphires are exceptionally rare stones, most people are not aware of their existence, much less what they look like. These gemstones are enthralling and wonderful to look at.

Hot pink sapphires are most precious due to their strong, vibrant colors, however, pale pink sapphires are equally desired in jewelry. In terms of color, pure blue sapphires are most prized, so they are generally more expensive. Purple sapphires are comparable in color, though darker, and consistently feature purple as their dominant color.

The main groups of colors of fancy sapphires are Padparadscha, Pink, Purple, Orange, Yellow, Green, and Colorless, as well as Black. Sapphire, as we know, is a type of corundum that comes in a wide range of colors including yellow, pink, orange, green, brown, and violet-hued sapphires. We listed and described all blue and other types of sapphires — from blacks to Padparadschas — so that you can pick out the best color sapphires for yourself or somebody special.

With so many different colors to choose from, pick a sapphire that best matches your personality and expresses the most meaning for you. Maybe you are on the fence as to which color you would like your sapphire ring to be. Of course, those colors are a result of various trace elements, including iron, titanium, vanadium, and chromium.

Gene Botkin

Hello, I'm Gene. My family belonged to the aristocracy of Old Russia, and I created this site to re-establish a familial connection with them. My aims are to generate interest in aristocratic virtues, such as beauty, honor, and loyalty, and to spread Russian culture.

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