LIFETIME & VALUATION GUARANTEE

What makes a stone valuable?

What makes a stone valuable?

Beauty, rarity and durability are the three factors that help define the value of a gemstone.  With sapphire being the most durable coloured gemstone (9 on the MOH scale) this naturally is more valued than other gemstones and helps explain why is sapphire so expensive. 
The rarest coloured sapphire is the Padparadscha (salmon/sunset colour).  This beautiful colour is seen in a very small percentage of sapphires, we estimate about 1%, hence commands a price premium.  And finally beauty is in the eye of the beholder which is why we encourage you to choose the sapphire that speaks to you!

Sapphire grading

There is currently no standard grading system for sapphires (or any coloured stones, outside of diamonds) because of the subjective nature of colours!  But below we give you the factors that the industry uses to try to describe these precious stones.

Colour

Colour is subjective and even lab to lab a stone may be graded differently.  Colour interpretation is different from one person to the next, which is why a standardised grading system for coloured stones is basically impossible.  In an attempt to create a more objective system for grading colour, we look at hue, tone and saturation.  At the end of the day it must be pleasing to your eye, and should be your first priority when selecting a sapphire.

Hue

The gemstone’s basic colour. However this is not usually as simple as one colour and will often be described as, for example, “greenish blue”.  Describing the secondary (“greenish”) and then primary (“blue”) colours seen.

Tone

How light or dark the colour/hue is.  From light, medium and dark to once again, anything in between.

Saturation

Describes how intense the colour/hue is.  Descriptors used here are vivid, strong, medium, fair and weak and it is essentially describing the extent to which the hue is masked by brown or grey.

Clarity

Sapphires almost always have some internal visual inclusions, but more often than not these can only be seen with a loupe (eyepiece with 10x magnification). If you can’t see an inclusion without the magnifier it will be graded as “eye clean”, and if you can’t see an inclusion using the loupe magnifier either it will get the top “loupe clean” grading. While inclusions can take away from the beauty of the sapphire in the beholders eye, they can also actually add to it. On two accounts. Firstly because they may help to scatter light within the gemstone which actually increases its ‘brilliance’ (ie. the amount of light bounced out from the stone, or in layman's terms its sparkle & shine!) And secondly because an inclusion is so unique to each sapphire it acts like a fingerprint in your stone - there really is no other like it! Some inclusions can look pretty darn cool, and given they are all part of the natural forming process, gives you extra assurity that the stone has been made by Mother Earth.

Cut

The term ‘cut’ can refer to several things when applied to sapphires, such as faceting style or finished shape of the stone.  Here at Hart & Halo, we like to keep it simple, so we refer to the shape - and even then, like to use the shape names you are familiar with!  Sapphires often come in unusual, asymmetrical shapes so we do our best to describe the closest one.  The reason for this is several - cutters (lapidary’s) have many things to consider when cutting rough.  How to maximise colour and brilliance (light reflected out of the stone), they are generally shaped to conserve as much material as possible, they will try to minimise undesirable inclusions and of course, customer demand for certain cuts can impact the decision.
The bottom line. At the end of the day, what matters most is how the sapphire appeals to you.  We present to you hard, durable stones and it is over to you to decide which one (one?) you find most attractive.  Which would spark joy each time you looked at it.  Bring flooding happy memories and speak to your soul.  It can be very hard but it also might be easy - much like choosing a partner perhaps 😉

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At Hart & Halo we specialise in totally unique, high quality natural Sapphires.  We believe people are looking to stand out, be unique, and express their individuality, so we give you the tools to enable you to do just this.  We are all about fun, empowerment and celebrating life with sentimental meaning.  We are an online company based in New Zealand but sourcing throughout the world.

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