“Natural or Synthetic Sapphires”
A natural sapphire & synthetic are chemically identical, the natural sapphire created over millions of years and many miles below the earth’s surface, were as synthetic sapphire created in the laboratory over few weeks.
The biggest difference you see as a buyer is price, because synthetic sapphires can be replicated in vast volumes with perfect color and machine cuts the prices can range from $50.00 to a few hundred dollars a carat, we’re the natural sapphire can start at thousands of dollars a carat for a similar stone.
Today it’s estimated that over 90% of sapphires sold are either synthetic or chemically enhanced, now there’s nothing wrong if you are looking at choosing a synthetic sapphire as your new engagement ring, the one issue I seen is the vast majority of synthetic sapphires sold, are sold as natural not synthetic.
How can I tell the difference?
The best and only real way to know if you buying a natural sapphire over synthetic is through laboratories like the GIA or AGL, these two gemstone laboratories based here in the USA, both have the right equipment and expertise for testing each stone, this is probably the most important step you can take before buying your sapphire engagement ring and a must-have – before handing over any money!
There is certainly a lot of different laboratories out there for testing your sapphire but these two gem laboratories are the gold standard for both the trade and personal buyers & the only two I personally trust, with prices starting around $85.00 for the GIA sapphire report this will be the best investment you can make.
Where to buy your sapphire engagement ring?
There are some reputable companies like Sapphire Ring Company where all of their sapphire rings & loose sapphires come with GIA reports for each sapphire as part of your order, unfortunately, there are very few companies today who offer this service which could leave you paying thousands of dollars for a sapphire ring only to find out its worth few hundred dollars, always insist of a gemology sapphire report from a reputable lab.
Even experienced gemologist can find it difficult to impossible to tell, especially with sapphires which have been chemically enhanced such deep diffusion.
Below is a Ceylon natural sapphire set into a custom-made platinum ring, this unheated sapphire comes with a GIA origin report, so you not only know the sapphire is a true natural gemstone but you also know the sapphire was mined in an ethical way from the island of Sri Lanka (Ceylon)