Hi! I’m looking at a ring online and it says the stone is lapis lazuli but I can’t tell if it is or not or if the lighting is making it a certain way ? Thank you !!
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I don’t know for sure , but I suspect it is simulated lapis lazuli Czech glass. I have not seen lapis lazuli look like that, though your stone and ring are very pretty. Czech glass can be amazingly pretty. Also seems like it has a glass-like sheen that more porous genuine lapis lazuli does not get. The darker blue and lighter blue in the photo varies regularly, whereas genuine lapis lazuli that I have seen and own varies irregularly. I will be curious what others think.
Laura
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I would say that if the gold is real, then pretty much the lapis lazuli is real too. Also the lighting is rather immature to be fair. However the gold dust inclusions seem to indicate a genuine piece. Possibly with a surface coating of some kind.
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This picture of a natural Lapis Lazuli 6.90 CT Pear shaped cabochon gemstone mined in Afghanistan and cut and polished in India that I imported to the USA looks similar under the manufacturer’s professional lighting.
It looks similar to the ring you are considering purchasing.
My question to you is: what is their return policy if your jeweler tests the gemstone and you find out it’s not natural?
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Looks like a created stone but if you like it and the price is right you should get it.
The “milky” areas just look off to me for Lapis…, never seen anything like that but it is not to say it cannot exist!
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This photo looks odd to me and not like the specimens of lapis that I have seen. The appearance of large light and dark blue areas is not like lapis that I have seen. Also, the spangles look silvery. Silver and gold flecks can be colored by lighting, but in this case there is a gold setting that looks golden colored and right next to it, the flecks of supposed pyrite, which look silvery. So on two counts it doesn’t look like lapis to me. If I were you I would do some comparisons to other images of lapis in jewelry and make my own judgment. Personally, I think good lapis looks much more attractive than this ring, but that’s just me. Lapis is not a particularly expensive stone, so look at prices for unmounted cabs as well as mounted jewelry and judge the price by that as well as the weight of gold, if any, in the mounting. You can get fairly nice lapis for about $2/ct and a large ring stone is about 20 cts or less, so be aware…
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Ya I wouldn’t buy it if it was fake -which to me it does look fake honestly. Thank you all for your responses! I really appreciate
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The first rule of gemology is not to sight identify, but I will say my initial reaction to that photo is that it’s not lapis. (I’m a Graduate Gemologist & Graduate Jeweler (GIA)).
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I have worked with a lot of Lapis Lazuli, from the most gemmy Afghanistan top quality to what is known in the trade as “denim” lapis which is lighter blue and a lot less expensive. This does not look real to me. It looks like some sort of artistic glass that has what is popularly known as “goldstone” a type of glass with copper dust in it. The pear-shaped sample that someone else posted does look real. The edges between dark and lighter blue are blurred and the pyrite is part of the stone, not something swirled in.
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Here’s a triple-A grade piece of lapis from Afghanistan. The edges are polished … and note the consistent color. The center of the stone is natural (unpolished) druzy (iron pyrite … not gold).
I agree with the others who say that the color variation looks suspicious. And “denim” tends to be a more or less uniform lighter color. My vote: thumbs down.
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Dear Erica,
The ring design is exciting - I can see why you like it - but, the stone is not genuine lapis lazuli. Lapis does have inclusion: Pyrite, that provides golden speckles and interest to the stone; and sometimes Calcite that manifests itself in white streaks or in lesser stones white clouds in the blue.
This tiger skin pattern in the piece you are considering is not typical for lapis - in fact I am not aware of any natural stone that looks like this.
This is a beautiful piece of costume jewellery and can be appreciated as such, its value is in the design and the pleasure it brings, and not necessarily the materials.
I hope this helps.
Jodi.
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That definitely looks like an art glass piece. I have something like that around here but I can not locate it at this time. I may have it in storage with a large selection of my costume jewelry. As I recall, that piece was made of plastic or epoxy material from the late 70’s. The ring it’s self was made from bronze. It was an art craft piece or something that got in college.
All the very best,
Otter
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As to pricing, yes natural Lapis Lazuli retail prices are $1 to $15 per carat according to the IGS pricing guide. The $15 per carat is for gemstones that are of the best blue coloring with minimal pyrite.
With the Pandemic shutting down mines for a while there and fuel prices now going through the roof, it has become hard to find very good natural Lapis Lazuli at reasonable wholesale prices. I have been seeing higher prices from my manufacturers around the world in general for any gemstones they produce.