Spotting Crystal Fakes Handy Reference Guide

Spotting Crystal Fakes

Handy Reference Guide by Hibiscus Moon

Spotting Crystal Fakes

Introduction

Hey, Crystal Peeps!

This eBook you have in front of you is a compilation of a popular series of blog posts I started awhile back on how to spot crystal fakes. I get a TON of questions on this topic, and so I thought it’d be a good idea to compile them all into a handy reference eBook so it's all in 1 place for you to look to when necessary. There are also many more fakes & many more to come; I'm sure...so perhaps this is something I'll need to add to in the future.

Before we go any further, though, I’d like to offer a little caveat that I like to repeat often so peeps don't get the wrong idea. My aim here is NOT to completely remove the romanticism of stones & crystals. You know I'm all about the sparkly, glittery & spiritual side of them! Who do you know that sings their praises more than me with as much passion as I do?

But it may be time for a wee dose of reality when it comes to realizing that they may not arrive 100% unaltered in our hungry little hands. I have NO problem and take no issue with anyone who chooses to work with man-made crystals. If you read my blog, you’ve "read" me say this before, but it bears repeating: If it ain’t broke, please don’t fix it. If you successfully use any of the man-made or man- altered minerals that I discuss in the following pages, and they're working well for you, please don’t stop. You've figured out what works for you, being the brilliant wonder that you are. Please don't let anyone else tell you any different! We have all different reasons for working with crystals. I'm also not saying that anything man made won't work. These specimens might work GREAT! Personally, I just prefer a totally unaltered 100% Mother Earth crystal or stone (or as close to that as I can get) whenever given the choice.

Please remember that this is my opinion and how I feel. We are all beings of slightly varying vibrational frequencies, so my reality may be different from your reality and therefore we may experience things differently so don't take what I say as final, by any means.

OK, now that we've gotten that out of the way...let's get down to business!

An Awesome Gift from Nature

Crystals are remarkable & glorious gifts from Mother Earth. Aren't they? Some crystal peeps prefer their crystals to be all-natural, in the raw; as they were found in Mother Nature.

Others may be drawn to the beauty of crystals that have been enhanced in some way but they may be totally unaware that they have been artificially altered. Maybe the crystals have been molecularly bonded, irradiated, tumbled, cut, polished or even heat treated in a lab. Now, I'm saying "lab" for ease and flow but often times the heating we're talking about here isn't done in a lab at all. It's usually done in a dusty warehouse by the miners themselves; no lab coats or anything. Just keepin' it real for ya. ;)

Natural, Enhanced, or Totally Fake?

So, is the crystal you purchased natural, enhanced, or an all-out fake?

Sometimes, the only way to know for sure is with exhaustive lab tests; however, you can still use your mad-crystal-skills and a little geology know-how to make a strong educated guess. I see lots of misinformed internet videos or posts on some of these that I've included here and just want to set the record straight so you can make wise and informed decisions when making your crystal purchases, my sweets!

I do think it’s very important that you know what you're getting, so you KNOW geologically exactly what you’re working with. Sometimes sellers aren't looking to purposefully fool anyone . . . sometimes they themselves have no idea.

Glass vs. Quartz

Glass is an amorphous solid. Oooooo, BIG SEXY SCIENTIFIC WORD! "Amorphous" just means that due to quick cooling, the molecules didn’t have time to arrange themselves in a crystalline repeating geometric pattern.

Quartz, on other hand, cooled slowly and does have the geometrically perfect molecular structure that all crystals do.

That’s what makes a crystal a crystal, Sweet Pea!

Scanning electron microscope image of quartz at 125x! Image credit: http://minerals.caltech.edu/Mineral_Pictures/Quartz_impaled.gif, California Institute of Technology

Sodium chloride molecule (salt crystal)…look at that precise crystal structure!

Glass will often have tiny air bubbles, quartz won’t. So if you see bubbles, you have glass. End of story.

Fruit-Named Quartz (strawberry, cherry, lemon, pineapple, blueberry, c’mon guys!)

Fruity-named crystals are usually a tip off of FAKES! Not always, but I’ve found it to be true more often than not. These are typically dyed quartz or glass.

Sometimes, natural red-colored fire or harlequin quartz may be dubbed “strawberry” by the seller, but since those in the geo-community equate the fruity name with artificial glass, most sellers in the know would stay well away from calling it that. More on the strawberry/cherry quartz in a bit.

We seem to have a lot of "lemon quartz" on eBay as of late so let me address that more specifically here. It's usually low-quality irradiated quartz giving us a greenish-yellow hued crystal. Now beware not only of the radiation but this is a temporary color that can quickly fade either by sun exposure or just simply over a short amount of time!

Fire Quartz from Namibia: the REAL-DEAL!

Turquoise vs. Dyed Magnesite or Reconstituted

Beware of what many may call "turquoise". Magnesite looks very similar to turquoise . . . when it’s been dyed. So does howlite. Un-dyed howlite and magnesite may even be sold as “white turquoise!” SHEEESH! A telltale sign of dyed magnesite is very deep cracks.

This next photo is of a fake turquoise specimen.

See that little white slice?

It ain't turquoise at all. Yep, a fake.

Then we also have “reconstituted” turquoise. "Reconstituted" is when small amounts of turquoise, that would otherwise be wasted, are recycled by grinding it up into a fine powder. Resins and dyes may be added & then pressed into a mold, carved or shaped.

Here are my tried and true tips for testing your turquoise:

• UV Light Test: turquoise containing resins will fluoresce; have a black- light? Check it out! • Scratch Test: due to its Moh’s hardness being a 5-6, it can be scratched by a steel knife & under magnification the edges will look tattered, if they’re smooth as butter, it’s not the real deal • Hot Needle Test: the tip of a hot needle will burn real turquoise, but reconstituted will melt.

I really like Durango Silver’s video on what exactly “White Turquoise” is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdIF6t_-GoM

Here's 1 of my turquoise specimens where you can see the color goes right through it:

Amethyst, Citrine, or Rose Quartz with SUPER-saturated color

If your quartz is really vibrant & pretty uniform in color it may be dyed.

A tell-tale sign of dyed quartz is excess dye collecting in the cracks. And that fuchsia, bright green & deep blue agate . . . you know that’s dyed, right?

Andara Crystals

Andara Crystals aka Monotomic Andara are said to be found only in Northern California & South Africa. They are also said to be a high vibrational, soul- enhancing crystal and connected with a Lemurian temple complex.

In doing some investigating, I've discovered that they're not a crystal at all.

They're actually a man-made discarded glass (perhaps some are now making the glass purposely for sale as Andara), originally found in a California dump, commonly known as "slag" glass; the by-product of glass manufacturing.

Sometimes it’s called a "Crystal glass".

Up-on-geo-geek-soap-box: Technically, you can't have a "crystal glass". It’s either crystal or its glass...one or the other. Pick a lane. The very definition of a crystal means that the atoms are arranged in a geometrically perfect matrix. Whereas glass atoms are totally random. *off soap box*

In addition, certain Andara crystals are trademarked. That raises a little red flag for me.

Check out this site that goes over the metaphysical properties attributed to Andara: http://www.spiritmythos.org/TM/divine-fire/andara.htm

Orgonite

"Orgone energy" is a type of force energy that is said to permeate the all & everything and is said to have the ability to balance and organize and even protect us from computer EMF and wifi. "Orgone energy" is a theoretical idea attributed to 1930's psychoanalyst, Wilhelm Reich. (Follow this link to Wikipedia to learn more about this very interesting man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich.)

Some of Reich's students & followers experimented with making objects that seemed to harness this energy using other crystals & metal shavings embedded in various resins; aka orgone generators.

Some will even show you how to make your own "orgonite".

Check out these 2 links if you’re interested in finding out more about making your own orgonite:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccS70UQE0fE • http://educate-yourself.org/dc/dcorgonegenfaq26feb02.shtml

Does orgonite work?

Perhaps.

I just prefer to use genuine Mama-Earth-made crystals to achieve the same results. ;) For instance, I have a post here about How to Lower Your EMF Risks with Crystal Healing.

Aura Quartz Crystals

So what's an aura quartz? They take a clear quartz crystal that's been super- heated + bonded with various metals to get the variety of GORGEOUS iridescent colors we see on the market . . . so attractive to many of us.

The process used is known as "vapor deposition." The quartz is heated to almost 900 °C (1600 °F) in a vacuum chamber & then the metal vapor is added. The metal atoms fuse molecularly to the crystal's surface (so, no, it's longer silica),

which gives the crystal an iridescent metallic luster. This high energy process molecularly bonds the gold to the crystal's atoms. That’s a permanent bond between the crystal lattice + the metal molecules & changes the crystal on a molecular level.

I feel this does metaphysically weaken the aura quartz crystal's energies in a big way.

So, you caught that, right?

This process does indeed alter & change the crystals molecularly.

I feel crystals that have been altered in this way have no connection with their original Dominant Oscillary Rate (vibrational frequency) and so, their ability to heal has been severely diminished or maybe even destroyed.

Angel Aura

Angel aura is quartz bonded with either pure platinum or silver.

Flame Aura

Flame or Rainbow aura is clear quartz bonded with the metals titanium and/or niobium.

There are many colors of aura crystals depending on the metal the quartz has been bonded with.

Amber/Copal

Amber (not technically a mineral or crystal since it has organic origins) is supposed to be super-duper expensive, right? So why all this cheap stuffs on the market?

Well, that cheap stuffs is most likely plastic or copal, pronounced "coh-PAHL". Copal is often sold as "amber", but it's not. True amber (as shown below) is the fossilized (40-60 million years old), hardened resin from a now extinct pine tree.

Why is amber so expensive?

Well that, my sweets, depends on several things: how rare it is, its age, color, and whether it has any included insects (remember that mosquito in amber from Jurassic Park that they got the dino DNA from? This is totally impossible, by the way . . .).

The value of amber is related to its scarcity, age, inclusions of extinct species & durability.

Copal, on the other hand, is hardened immature recent resin (only 1000 - 1 million years old). Copal is technically almost the same thing, just not as old and the names are often used interchangeably.

BUT, "almost" is not the same and the slight variation makes a huge difference! A reputable seller will make sure to note that copal is not true amber.

Sometimes what you think is amber may not even be copal, but may be glass, synthetic resins or plastic!

Here are some tests you can do to see if you have copal or the real deal:

• Smell Test – Real amber has a distinct pine scent after heating. Copal will have a "sweet" resin smell but it's not pine. • Solvent Test – Copal and plastic fakes won't pass this test, but it will damage your piece. Drip a few drops of fingernail polish remover or alcohol on your piece . . . if it gets tacky or sticky and the solvent takes on the color of the piece, congrats! You've got yourself a fake! Real amber won't bat an eyelash over this. • Melt Test – Real amber doesn't melt—it burns. Copal and plastics will melt at a relatively low temperature (lower than 150°C/300°F). Yes, this is the same copal many use as incense due to the sweet scent it emits when burned. If it's plastic....acccck!! The smell will be horrible! • Hot Needle Test – The tip of a hot needle will burn real amber, but copal or the fakes will melt, so best to try this on an area that no one will see as this will damage your piece too. • Float Test – Amber will float in salt water. That's why it's so easy to harvest amber along the beach of the Baltic Sea and for locals on the Baltic Coast to find it washed up on beaches, especially after storm events. The amber gets stirred up from a layer known as blue earth, which is beneath layers of silt and clay on the ocean floor. To do this test, mix about 1 part salt to 2 parts water and dissolve the salt completely. Drop your piece into the mixture. Plastic and copal will drop out, while amber floats.

Amber also has some cool electrical properties that I wrote about a while back too. The link to that post is here: http://hibiscusmooncrystalacademy.com/crystal- q-a-electrical-properties/ Amber and copal will get a negative electric charge, while glass will be positively charged.

Plastics will also be charged negatively like amber. Sooo . . . I don't recommend using this property to test.

Irradiated Crystals

Irradiation of mineral specimens is a pretty common thing. You may not realize it, but many gemstones on the market are irradiated to get a more vibrant or deeper color.

Is it dangerous?

Yeah, I'd try to steer clear of them.

Some commonly irradiated gemstones:

• deeply pigmented topaz • artificially dark (almost black) smokey quartz • very deep pink or red tourmaline • colored diamonds • deeply colored kunzite • some cultured pearls • vibrant yellow heliodor (irradiated pal aquamarine)

Some sellers choose to take milky quartz and subject it to gamma ray radiation, normally used to clean germs from medical equipment and food (oh yeah...that's gamma ray RADIATION on your food . . . sheesh!).

Anyway, back on topic.

So, when they radiate the milky quartz with the gamma rays you get a deeply pigmented, almost black smoky quartz that's nearly entirely opaque like the one I show here while I was shopping in Tucson 2012. BTW, Ron Coleman's Mine openly tells you (if you ask) that their smokey's are irradiated. I really love the Coleman's and recommend them as a reputable place to buy from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuI18n3r6hE&feature=youtu.be&t=49s

BTW, quartz colored by natural radiation from Mama Earth is not radioactive & is safe to carry. Yes, Mother Earth NATURALLY radiates quartz that's included with some aluminum to create smokey quartz, but this is a slower, gentler process. I explain more about that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xBNj1Yifcs&feature=youtu.be

One telltale sign of an artificially irradiated smokey is that the color fades FAST when exposed to sunlight, whereas a natural smokey will retain its color longer.

Irradiated Smokey Quartz:

If the seller tells you it’s a natural smokey from Arkansas, raise your eyebrows way up high because natural smokey's usually don't occur there and they certainly won't be very dark like I explain in the video link above.

Morion Quartz

Now don't confuse irradiated quartz with Morion quartz.

This dreamy stuff just recently came on the scene. Its deeply colored, black quartz only occurs in and around volcanic rocks. These babies are RARE and formed by natural radiation caused by nearby uranium deposits from South Africa or in Poland. Natural Morion quartz retains some translucence when held up to the light as you can see in my pic below.

I have a blog post here that I did all about Morion Quartz. :)

Rainbow Cal-Silica

Rainbow Cal-Silica is bogus.

Turns out its calcite ground up & mixed in with car paint, plastic and resin!! YEAH! YUCKO!!

Some sellers will insist that it’s a naturally occurring stone, but there's no evidence to back it up. With some digging I turned up this juicy document by the Swiss Gemological Institute that states it’s a fake: http://www.ssef.ch/fileadmin/Documents/PDF/2003_Kiefert_Rainbow_Calsilica.p df.

So that's THAT!

Too bad because that would sure make a purty agate, huh?

Citrine

Lab-heated citrine seems to be a sore spot with many. So much so that over the years, as I received many questions about it I've created a few videos to talk about the topic & show some examples. (See below for vids).

Sometimes when people find out that much of the citrine on the market isn't an authentic Mama Earth Creation, they may go into a mini-panic, thinking that they've been duped or that their heat-treated citrine is totally useless. Not so...IMHO. But more about that in a bit.

How to tell the difference

It's not always an easy task but let me give you a few pointers.

• If its heat-treated citrine, the color will be most concentrated at the tips with more white at the bottom (see photos below). • Also heat-treated citrine will be sort of crumbly & break apart easily (friable), since heating the stones at the temps necessary does seem to weaken the stability of the crystals.

Natural Citrine

Heat-Treated Citrine

How Do They Do It?

The cause of natural citrine color is still under debate. Mother Earth naturally creates at least some natural citrine with her geo-thermal heat source from within the mantle (her deluxe gourmet geo-kitchen!) by heating amethyst or smoky quartz (both are SiO2 (quartz), just as citrine is).

The earth can also produce the deep brown citrine, aka Madeira citrine. This is rarer than your usual lighter honey or white wine colored natural citrine. Actually, all types of natural citrine are considered relatively rare. They're no where near as bountiful as amethyst so they can get be hard to find & a bit pricey. Be prepared.

When we lab-heat citrine we're simply mimicking what Mama Earth does. You usually begin with a poorly or lightly colored Brazilian amethyst. Then you heat it in a kiln to over 900°F (482°C). If you want it to go dark yellow or to red-brown (Madeira color) then you go up to 1022-1040°F (550-560°C). Some smoky quartz can turn citrine color as cool as 390°F (199°C). Once the right temp. is reached the oven is turned off with the crystals left inside, allowing them to cool overnight. (But many who do this treatment aren't aware, taking the crystals out too soon. The extreme temp. change caused by cooling too fast can cause "thermal cracking" where the crystals weaken & crack). This process weakens its crystal lattice which produces the brittleness...but bear in mind, the molecular structure is still the same.

Interactive!!

Ain't this the interactive classroom?? My favorite kind. ;)

Crystal Hottie Shayla got to experimenting in her lab kitchen and showed us how it's done. Thank you Prof. Shayla for sharing this with us, and for your quick work! *bowing down*

Check out her results:

Is it Still Citrine?

Yep, yep, yep and I feel that heated/baked crystals and stones can be worked with very effectively. Heating the stone at these temperatures simply changes the color & stability of the crystal (they can become more brittle) but doesn't change its molecular structure & again, IMHO, as long as a crystal’s molecular structure hasn't been altered; I feel that the crystal will still have inherent and effective healing qualities.

So, although I feel the healing effects & abilities have not been drastically altered or reduced, the stone's color (light vibrational frequency) has now been changed to that of natural citrine's. It’s no longer of the violet light frequency; it’s now in the orange or yellow light vibrational frequency. So it’s going to resonate that energy now.

That being said, I do think that heat treating or enhancing a crystal can somewhat reduce this frequency & effectiveness since it does weaken the crystal lattice, but it doesn't totally cancel out its potential healing effects. So, no need to replace your citrine at all. I feel it is still quite valid in its capabilities.

Check out these YouTube videos where I discuss natural and fake citrine:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRdvwomAnpY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDK-yCLmsnA&feature=youtu.be

Whether citrine is heated artificially or naturally, it’s still often commercially classified as citrine. Remember, this artificial or natural heating is not enough to change the molecular structure of the crystal so it’s still SiO2. I feel the healing properties are still those of citrine, but on a lighter scale.

To me, lab-heated citrine's properties are not similar to amethyst's or smoky quartz’ at all. Through much experimenting of my own as well as that of my students & clients, baked citrine’s properties align perfectly to my solar plexus chakra; it's energetically stimulating, it helps with financial issues and it helps us to be more confident.

Now, if you're looking for a piece that's just going to go BAMMM! in these precise areas, then I'd advise you to go with a natural citrine, for sure . . . its energies will be much more powerful.

Just as in quantum physics, the scientist doing the observing actually influences the outcome & properties of the subatomic particles being observed. So, basically, if you believe it to be so, it simply is, on a subatomic level. Why should it be any different on a super-atomic level?

As below, so it is above, right?

Let the crystals that you know work for you continue to do so . . . if you believe it to be true, it simply is. No panicking over heat-treated citrine, OK? If it worked for you before, it's still going to continue to do so . . . unless you think it won't. ;)

Let’s wrap up our talk about citrine with this YouTube video about types of citrine for crystal healing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDfBeF_9azs

Lapis Lazuli

This baby is no fake, but is one of the most often FAKED stones.

The more high quality variety comes from Afghanistan & Pakistan & is characterized by a deep & vibrant blue color (from lazurite) & highly sought after pyrite flecks. Its natural good looks make it popular in the jewelry trade, but it is more expensive & a bit harder to come by.

There's a less expensive, less dazzling kind available from South America & Russia that has more gray in it is more of a dull blue & lacks the pyrite flecks, so not nearly as sought after.

The attractiveness of lapis and ease of "fake-ability" make it one to be cautious with.

Some will even take less expensive or low quality howlite, jasper or sodalite and dye it up to make it that vibrant blue, passing it off as lapis. Sometimes even plastic, resins or glass (either mixed in with lapis lazuli "powder" to make "reconstituted" lapis or pure) will be cheated off as the blue stone. Shady!

My Tips for Spotting Fake Lapis:

• Acetone (nail polish remover) will remove the dye from a fake but may also damage the stone so tread lightly. • If it's very uniform it may be reconstituted (which is not technically fake but completely altered by man) or plain ole' plastic, resin or glass. • Lapis can be confused with sodalite but will have much less white (calcite) than sodalite, if its heavy on the white then pass • If it has a lot of gray, it's mostly like sodalite; if you know how to do a streak test, sodalite will have a white streak whereas lapis will have a light blue streak. • Cheap price is usually an indicator of a fake.

Gaia Stone aka The Goddess Stone, Helenite, Mt. St. Helen's Obsidian, Green Obsidian, Blue Obsidian

This stone is purported to be created from melting volcanic ash from the eruption at Mount St. Helen & then shaping it into various forms, possibly mixing it with other resins & binders.

Hence...MAN-MADE. Geologists have yet to confirm any naturally formed green or blue glass in this region.

That would be so totally exciting if this Gaia Stone actually happened all on its own . . . at the hands of Mother Nature, but is simply not the case. At least we don't have any evidence yet to prove this.

Here's the deal. This is scientific fact so there's no arguing here on this:

So, if Mother Earth didn't fuse it together during a volcanic eruption herself . . . it ain't obsidian!

But many are taking any sort of glass and calling it "obsidian". Some are also confusing this "blue obsidian" with Andara Crystal (discussed previously). Oh my...mass confusion here. I just think that's wrong & misleading to misuse the terminology that way.

• So is the glass bottle I'm drinking from an "obsidian bottle"?

• Are my windows on my house "obsidian"? *Need to remember that when I put the house up for sale*:

C'mon. Same goes for the red, orange & yellow "obsidians". Mother Earth does make many natural & darker colored types of obsidian . . . but not these colors, Lima Bean.

If evidence ever does come to light that this was a natural event then I will gladly take back everything I've said here and high-tail it to the nearest seller to buy a HUGE honkin' piece of this . . . but until then I'm just steering clear.

Anchi Crystals

I included this "crystal" (seems to be a group of many different crystals) b/c I've been receiving several frequent questions about it from my students in our Certified Crystal Healer Course.

Since the “discoverer” of these Anchi crystals hasn’t disclosed the locality of where these crystals were supposedly found, we don’t have much concrete info about them.

So far they've only disclosed that they "are found in only one location on the Earth" and that they are a group of over 50 different types of crystals including

opaque or milky quartz & different types of tourmalines. From what I can tell they are a lower quality group of smaller crystals (so not very clear) and seem to have been knocked around quite a bit.

I’m still not sure why this outcrop of crystals deserved a special name all their own (except that they’re trademarked under that name so there’s that).

Charoite

BEWARE: Chinese fluorite is being sold as "Chinese Charoite", claiming a new deposit discovered in China. Again...it's BOGUS!

They really look nothing alike to me so I'm surprised this is actually duping people.

Some people have been taking low grade Chinese purple fluorite & polishing it up to sell as dupes. You'll notice that these "Chinese Charoite" fakes have a lot of white in them & no swirly pattern. In fact, the purple layers in these fakes have a very angular pattern to them.

As you can see in the above photo, high grade charoite is vibrantly purple with very little white + a gorgeous unusual swirly purple pattern (no angles).

All authentic charoite comes from Russia from the Chara River region. It's the only place in the world where it's found & it's very rare, hence a hefty price. So price point can sometimes be a good indicator of a fake.

The "Chinese Chaorite" started rearing its head big-time about 5 years ago.

You can determine if your piece is fluorite with a UV light & a scratch test being that charoite is harder than fluorite... (something our Advanced Crystal Masters are well-versed on).

Cinnabar Infused Quartz

Cinnabar crystal is also a tough crystal to come by in large quantities or in large pieces. Here's my cabochon of cinnabar in milky quartz matrix:

But the cinnabar fakes? Oh...very easy to come by! I've seen many with the name, "Cinnabar-Infused Quartz" or sometimes they called them "cherry and/or strawberry" quartz.

There we go with the Fruity Names again.

*Beware the mercury content in cinnabar.*

Although cinnabar & quartz do grow together naturally, it's usually not in a pretty swirl as seen in the above photo.

Sometimes, the creators of this stuff may even add some selenium (Se) to get a more red-colored crystal.

When it is actually cinnabar, it's often reconstituted (melted & mixed with other stuffs) with clear quartz & then can have plastics & binders added to it, as is most likely the case in this orange-y colored cute & polished point.

Here's my big beef with all of this:

If the quartz & cinnabar (if there's any real cinnabar being added at all) are being reconstituted (hence melted down)...then all you're doing is creating man-made silica glass!

So this is no longer holding a crystalline molecular structure = IT'S NO LONGER A CRYSTAL.

And all of this may be totally OK with you. Nothing wrong with that if it is. I am here to simply point it out to you. I want to let you know what you're working with from a geological perspective.

Personally, I prefer my crystals to be actual CRYSTALS and to be 100% Mama Earth made.

But that's just moi.

Goldstone

Goldstone, aka "aventurine glass", is another man-made glass "gem" that's been hangin' around for quite a long time . . . since the 17th century!

It's very pretty so I can certainly see why.

Check this sparkly baby out!!

There's a legend that this "stone" came about when some Venetian glass- working monks accidentally dumped some molten copper into the melted glass they were working with. Oooopsie!

The process is a bit more complicated but here's what goes into it:

• After the molten copper is poured into the molten glass . . . • It's sealed off air-tight and kept at a specific temperature that's hot enough to maintain in liquid state while still allowing the copper crystals to grow in the solution but not melting back again, • Then the solution is cooled forming one solid mass. • The cooled mass is broken open for cutting and polishing. The result is teeny crystallized specks of copper strewn throughout the glass, reflecting & sparkling up a freakin' storm. Although usually a golden coppery color, I've seen "goldstone" come in all colors, based on the elements added in the process.

Bismuth

I've been seeing these guys in new age shops & being sold online & peeps just falling all over themselves over these iridescent bismuth crystals, thinking they're natural. Not when they look like this. Nope. Sorry to burst that pretty bubble, but rainbow-colored crystallized Bismuth like the above photo DOES NOT occur in nature.

These Pretty-Babies are lab-grown (usually in Germany). They take liquid bismuth & super-cool it until it crystallizes.

Here's a great source for good quality Bismuth lab grown crystals who is also quite knowledgeable & honest: http://www.spiritrockshop.com/Bismuth_Crystals.html

Native natural bismuth born of Mother Earth is usually a dull gray (sometimes it oxidizes to show some yellow or green), lumpy & doesn't have any visible crystal structure.

So, in other words, BORING.

Galena Geodes aka Berber Geodes

OK, these are BIG in the metaphysical market right now.

They're gorgeous, right!?

Photo credit: By Guy Courtois (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

They're often touted as being from Morocco.

Well, no such thing!

What's being done here is a natural quartz geode (or even a fake clay one may be used) is broken open & crushed Galena is actually sprayed inside.

Magnetic Hematite

OK, this is one that I could not wait to get the word out about because I see many in our community getting fooled by it.

So, there's real hematite (non-magnetic) and then there's Magnetic Hematite (FAKE).

Natural Hematite is not naturally magnetic.

There's a small teeny-weeny little magnetic charge in natural hematite, but nothing you'd be able to feel. So, yeah...all those science museum shops that are stocked with the buzzing "singing" hematite, the magnetic rings and bracelets... they're all bunk.

Magnetic hematite is totally manmade.

We're easily fooled by it b/c it looks just like polished natural hematite with that mirrored finish. Geologists don’t actually consider the man-made magnetic stuff as hematite, since its technically just finely powdered iron oxide or ceramic barium-strontium ferrite, heated until it granulates & then cooled while it is attached to very strong magnet.

Although, it's made of the same stuff as natural hematite, it's not the same process at all.

And that, to me, makes a huge difference.

Again, this does not mean that wearing synthetic hematite bracelets (or what have you) won't work for you. The magnetic effects may indeed be doing you much good.

As always, if it's working...Keep on Truckin'!

Personally, I prefer to not work synthetic stones or crystals if there is a natural alternative, but it doesn't mean there aren’t benefits to be had.

How do you know if what you have is real or not?:

• Is it magnetic? Then it ain't real. • If it's chipped & it's white inside, then it ain't real (real hematite is a rusty reddish, brown). • If you do a streak test & it's gray, it ain't real (real hematite streak is also a rusty reddish, brown as I demo here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZDP5MyBm6Y&feature=youtu.be).

Green Quartz

OK, this shiz really made a big splash (with the inexperienced buyers) at the Tucson Gem Show in 2013-2014! It's been steadily growing in popularity over the last several years, but this last couple years took the cake & b/c of that, it's trickled its way into almost every new age crystal shop in every corner of the world w/ most of the shop owners not knowing any better.

And, OH, the Tucson stories that I was hearing to go along with these suckers! Such a crime. It was also quite popular on eBay, although I see recently it seems to have died down...thank goodness.

My intuition was telling me they were fakes when I first saw them, but I wanted to sit with it a bit longer and do some more digging and research to really be certain.

Well, I found out that, indeed . . . just as I suspected, green quartz can and is being produced in the lab . . . the very same labs that tech companies use to manufacture high-quality quartz crystals for electronics.

They use a hydrothermal process; heating a normal clear quartz w/ natural chromium inclusions (usually a lower quality milky specimen and/or a damaged clear specimen) with water & chromium under high pressure, causing the quartz to re-crystallize and actually force it to form new growth that caps and covers the damaged tips. Then the chromium disperses throughout and changes almost the entire color of the specimen to a deep forest green!

DEAD GIVEAWAY TELL-TALE SIGNS to look for:

• Crystal tips & apexes that have an etched or stepped growth pattern; due to the forced re-growth. • Crystal apexes that are trigonal (3 facets) rather than the more common hexagonal (6 facet). • Deeper green color concentration at apexes (even look like phantoms so may be higher in price!) • Many of these specimens on eBay hail from China. • Tend to look like spirit or fairy quartz w/ the same sort of teeny crusted crystals points that tend to cover the crystal shafts; due to the forced re- growth.

Check out the Difference . . .

Notice the green is much more gray in color, barely green:

FAKE Green Quartz:

Keep in mind...this fake deep forest green quartz is not to be confused with Dream Quartz, which is a much lighter green & doesn't look anything like this stuff!

Vibrant Pink Tourmaline

Mostly, I’ve seen these at the most recent Tucson Gem Shows or popping up on eBay from the Middle East.

The color really pops so it really catches your eye! Not to say that pink tourmaline of this color doesn’t exist in nature. It so totally does!

BUT I can tell these in the below photo are FAKES.

HOW can I tell?

Well, let me tell you…b/c I want you to be informed & be able to catch this shiz too.

Now it is HARD to pick out the fake pink tourmalines, but this one made it all too easy. It was coupled with an easily identified irradiated smokey quartz. Dead give away!

See the dark 6 sided points up there? Yep, that’s quartz &, as you can see, it looks like black quartz, Morion quartz even…BUT ITS NOT!

The above quartz is clearly artificially irradiated quartz.

And since the pink color of the tourmaline & the black of the quartz is so strong, I’m going to assume that this specimen (and others like it) would be considered “HOT”; meaning that it could still be giving off significant amounts of radiation!!

Another tell-tale sign would be that the color fades over time & very quickly when exposed to sunlight. Of course, you’d have to own the piece for a bit of time to catch that though.

Opalite

This stuffs is often mistaken for moonstone b/c of its luminous blue-ish glow.

But it ain’t nothin’ more than manmade glass (or sometimes even plastic!)

It’s usually flawless with no inclusions & blue-ish clear or milky colored. You may sometimes see little air bubbles from the synthetic manufacturing process or even scratches on the surface.

Just know…it has NOTHING to do with real authentic opal.

Fake Ajoite & Papagoite

I’ve lumped these 2 together b/c they are very closely related.

This one really has me fired up & ticked off b/c I was recently selling my last 2 pieces of ajoite from my private collection. So in the process of that, it gave me the opportunity to have my nose shoved into this new fake situation that’s reared its UGLY head: FAKE AJOITE & PAPAGOITE! No duping us with FAKES!!!!

Yep, this one really pisses me off! Probably b/c I have such a love affair with ajoite most especially. I’ve now realized I’m really protective of it.

Both ajoite & papagoite are extremely rare & expensive…when they are genuine.

I first became alerted to this issue recently when someone told me on 1 of my FB livestreams that they had just purchased a papagoite necklace of beads for a reasonable price. *Ding, ding, ding!!* Red flag up!

Papagoite & ajoite do not come in beads…if they do then they are not the real deal. They should be in the form of a natural quartz point.

If they are in a quartz mass or tumbled quartz stone of any sort then it’s most likely some form of chrysocolla. Some of these fakes are simply low-grade chrysocolla masses or tumbled stones.

If it’s a fake quartz point being touted as “ajoite” with an off-color it’s most likely fake chlorite lab-grown quartz or dye injections we’ve been seeing as of late! Yuck.

Remember that ajoite is a very specific very vibrant shade of blue turquoise (the EXACT shade seen in the above photo), and the AUTHENTIC naturally included quartz points are all from the Messina Mine in Musina, South Africa.

Also keep in mind, these blue inclusions are always found in natural quartz crystal points, not beads, masses or cut & polished points.

Here’s a grouping of some of my ajoite collection in the above photo. The 4 points on the top are indeed the real thing. The 2 stones on the bottom are chrysocolla rocks.

If it has more of a green hue…sorry, but it’s not the real deal. Match yours up with the photos above. Not quite right? A bit off? Then it’s NOT ajoite.

ANOTHER VERY IMPORTANT TIP!: The blue inclusions are usually somewhere between the apex & midway up the shaft…not near the base of the crystal point.

I’ve seen many of the fakes with the fake color gathered somewhere between the mid-shaft & the base.

In authentic ajoite & papagoite, somehow the blue inclusions like to rise to the top of the apexes (apices) & even very often form phantoms!

Someone was trying to pass this off as ajoite. Puh-leeeeez!

You can see the difference now, right?

Same with papagoite; also a very specific vibrant color sky blue (bordering on Royal Blue) embedded in a natural quartz point.

Price is another indicator to authenticity here too. Not to say that if it’s super expensive that it means it’s the real deal!

Ajoite Tips to REMEMBER:

• Look for the green hue. Greenish? Not the real thing. • Does it look like most REAL ajoite & papagoite specimens you’ve studied before? • Is it a naturally included quartz point? • Where is the color saturation gathered in the specimen? • Is your seller trusted & knowledgeable about the minerology (not just the metaphysics)? • Then use price point as your next indicator

Why so rare?

Although ajoite & papagoite microcrystals were originally discovered in Ajo, Arizona the highly coveted quartz-included points only come from the Messina Copper Mine in South Africa, which stopped production & closed in 1992.

The expensive price of ajoite & papagoite reflects the extremely high demand & low supply. Basic economics.

Sellers of authentic ajoite & papagoite know what they have & fully understand their worth.

Some of these sellers may know full well they are passing off fakes & others may have no idea. So I feel it's up to us, Crystal Hotties, to inform such sellers so they can know in the future & pay it forward by educating their customers. ♥

Use your common sense here. If it’s too good to be true, then yeah, it probably is.

Larimar

Yes, sadly larimar is so freakin’ HOT on the market that it’s now being faked. :(

It’s a semi-precious stone that is extremely rare due to supply & demand and mining it is extremely difficult. Although geological surveys either haven’t been done or were not able to determine the exact size of the mine so no one is really sure just how much larimar is left for us, since it’s only found in this 1 place. So what I’m saying here is that there just isn’t that much of it to be had & there’s a fear that it could be exhausted at any time.

Some have taken to whipping up plastic or reconstituted fake larimar in the lab.

Luckily, these lab-fakes are pretty easy to spot as they look NOTHING like the real deal. If you familiarize yourself with the genuine stones by looking at lots of photos of it you’ll be able to easily pick out the lab created fakes.

Larimar is a type of pectolite; a sodium calcium silicate that forms in cavities of basaltic lava. It’s found in only 1 place on the entire planet: the Barahona region mines in the Dominican Republic.

The mines are really difficult to access AND the area may be closed off 5 months of the year due to the torrential rains & hurricane season making it very unsafe to dig.

So you can probably now easily see the motive to fake this stone. Right?

Some sellers desperately get a hold of some lower quality larimar intermingled with some silicate/quartz containing rock material and sell that off as larimar. Well, technically, they’re not entirely wrong here & energetically this is still a gorgeous energy to work with! LET’S BE CLEAR ON THAT.

My purpose here is to inform you & make sure that you’re armed with all the knowledge to make a highly informed purchase decision & that you’re not paying unnecessarily higher prices for something that is not entirely what it’s being claimed to be.

True-Blue Larimar (*Yep! Pun intended*) should not be mixed in with any of that translucent quartz material at all….

This (below), Chick Pea, is not larimar but was being sold as such in a shop I was in.

See the translucency?

I tested it & it’s Mohs Hardness was a 7 telling me that is a copper-bearing quartz rock (chyrsocolla most likely?)

{GEO GEEK FACTOID: Larimar’s Mohs Hardness is between 4.5-5}

3 Easy Tips to Spot Fake Larimar

• Is the stone translucent at all? Lift the stone up to the sun. This is an extremely reliable way to tell. If you can see ANY light through any part of it, no bueno! Real-deal high quality larimar is opaque. Light does not penetrate at all. • Does it have any white veins, streaks or what look like clouds? This is a hallmark trait of genuine larimar and part of what makes it so beautiful. White streaks are also very common in larimar stones and are key-markers that distinguish the stone from turquoise or other copper-bearing silicates. Be wary of any supposed larimar stone that doesn’t have some hint of a white streak, veins or clouds. • Ask about the mining location. Some unethical sellers try to come up with new & exotic locations for stones to make a great new story to help sell them. Yep, they just make something up. If it doesn’t come from the Dominican Republic, it ain’t the real deal. Walk away, Jelly Bean.

BTW, I have a whole blog post devoted entirely to luscious larimar here if you’d like to learn more about it. :)

Healerite™

This is another one of those trademarked jobbies.

I feel there’s no good reason to trademark this stone, b/c it’s part of a well-known subgroup of mineral that already has a perfectly good name: that would be “lime green serpentine”.

My take on the whole trademarking of stones is here.

See, I really don’t like when sellers do this…someone takes a subgroup of an already known mineral, slaps a new name on it & trademarks it.

“Healerite™” is simply a yellow-green serpentine subgroup being relabeled & sold for $50/piece (depending on size) instead of around $6.00/lb as it should be at any gem show you go to.

But, apparently, subgroups are being trademarked all over the freakin’ place. Something to watch out for!

Ruby Zoisite

This stone is highly sought after as it's often recommended to help support people dealing with some serious illnesses. Quite a chakra-verstile stone, it helps to balance the heart chakra as well as the root & the third eye while also boosting vitality & a joy for life.

Here we have some gorgeous real-deal Ruby Zoisite (photo below) with HUGE chunks of hexagonal ruby in the middle of the stones. YUM!!

But it more commonly expresses itself like this (photo below) ...

By Parent Géry (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons

HOWEVER...

many sellers are selling Ruby Fuschite as Ruby Zoisite and they are simply not the same thing!

I think most sellers are totally not aware & are simply repeating what they're being told from whoever they're buying the minerals from. **It happened to me & I was part of the problem at one point.** Yep, I was selling ruby fuschite as ruby zoisite about 8 years ago simply b/c that's what the wholesaler told me it was! So I just believed him & went with it. Then a fellow geo-geek pointed out my mistake. *Thank you!* I did some research & testing & found out what was up.

I then discovered that most sellers out there at the time were also perpetuating this same exact misinformation.

I mean, you can see how the confusion would happen, right?

Although, I do notice this mix-up happening less often these days...I do still see it happening so I had to include it here.

Ruby Fuschite (seen below in that giant sphere) is relatively plentiful...unlike Ruby Zoisite, which is much harder to come by and is usually a bit more expensive.

(BTW...don'chya luv how dry & wrinkly my hands get in the Tucson desert? It's a thing of beauty!)

Fuschite is a type of mica (variation of Muscovite) & you can see it's a sea-foam green color (in the above photo).

Zoisite is a totally different mineral...(the most expensive form of Zoisite is Tanzanite!) and it's a deeper sparkly green color usually accompanied by some black amphibole hornblende (shown below).

Amphibole Hornblende

***Spotting those black dots of amphibole hornblende is the easiest way to tell them apart if the differences in the green hue are iffy.***

Now that you're in the know... it's pretty easy to tell the difference, right?

Pink/ Purple Chalcanthite

This, Crystal Hottie, is a straight up lab-created FAKE.

I spotted these all over the place at 2017's Tucson Gem & Mineral Show. They seemed to be the new HOT ITEM this year. BOOOO!

Small natural Chalcanthite crystals are actually a natural by-product of dry area copper mining (will usually be a smallish bit of blue/green crust). It usually forms on the mine walls due to acidic surface waters interacting with the copper veins & can be found in copper mines located in Arizona, Greece & France.

I've not personally worked with it so I don't have much to say about the metaphysical aspects of this crystal in its natural form. However, the natural blue crystals would be ideal for harmonizing with the throat chakra light wavelength. If you try it out in that way, please let me know in the comments below!

Natural Chalcanthite. Rob Lavinsky, iRocks.com – CC-BY-SA-3.0 [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

But! These larger pink or purple (or even neon blue) fake towers are easily grown in tubs from a hydrated copper sulfate... and are potentially TOXIC.

This person was selling theirs online as "Rose Quartz"!!! REALLY?! ***that one pisses me off!***

Super-Dye-Saturated Quartz

I've seen this stuffs for a number of years at the gem shows and thought it looked obviously dyed...

But, apparently, it ain't so obvious...

I heard lots of comments from people walking by them (again at the most recent Tucson Gem Show) ...oooh-ing & ahhh-ing over it & wondering how all those pretty colors got in there from the Earth. **cringe**

NO, I don't say anything or bother to correct them. I'm not super forward like that. If someone asks for my opinion, I'll give it. But usually, I just keep my mouth shut. So, I'm here once again to burst the fun glitter-filled rainbow unicorn bubble...These quartz clusters are saturated with dye.

And be forewarned: the dye wears, washes off or fades quite quickly too!

Don’t Be Fooled By the Rocks That I Got

I realize I sometimes tend to burst people's bubbles with my scientific approach to working with crystals.

Seems I have a slight aversion to working energetically or spiritually with many of the man-made "crystals," devices” and "stones" that may be whipped up in a lab.

Even so, I'm quite enjoying my role in revealing & educating on the gemmy fakes & frauds that have crossed my path. I like that my students know they can come to me & my Crystal Coaches for the low-down. And if I don't know, I will turn over every rock (pun intended!) to find out the answer. ;)

So the moral of this story, my sweet Crystal Hottie, is . . . buyer beware.

• Who are you buying from? • Are they reputable? • Do they know what they’re talking about? • Be informed & cautious. • Don't just believe it b/c someone told you that it is so.

And again, just to reiterate one more time: If you choose to work with man- made crystals that's totally fine. No judgments from me on that. I, personally, choose not to.

Let me end by saying that I feel your intuition should always be your first guide. If a stone or crystal works for you for a particular purpose then don't let anyone or anything that you read or hear change that for you. For certain people, certain stones may work very well while not work for others no matter what is said or written about them.

Thanks for geo-geeking out with me! One of my fav. things to do. :)

Keep on truckin', Crystal Hottie!

Hibiscus Moon