A sapphire typically looks like a beautiful, often blue, gemstone, but its appearance can vary significantly depending on its color, clarity, cut, and size.
Here's a breakdown of what a sapphire can look like:
- Color:
- Blue: Most commonly known for its blue hues, ranging from light sky blue to deep, rich indigo. The most valuable blue sapphires are intensely saturated and uniformly colored.
- Fancy Sapphires: Sapphires come in almost every color except red (which would be a ruby). These "fancy sapphires" can be pink, yellow, green, orange, purple, or even colorless (white sapphire).
- Clarity: Like all gemstones, sapphires can contain inclusions (internal flaws). Higher clarity stones, with fewer inclusions, are generally more valuable.
- Cut: The way a sapphire is cut influences its brilliance and sparkle. Common cuts include oval, round, cushion, pear, and emerald cuts. The cut aims to maximize the stone's color and minimize the visibility of inclusions.
- Size: Sapphires can range in size from tiny melee stones (used as accents) to large, impressive gems weighing many carats. Larger, high-quality sapphires are rarer and more expensive.
- Luster: Sapphires have a vitreous (glass-like) luster when polished, contributing to their brilliance.
- Specific varieties: Certain sapphires exhibit unique optical phenomena:
- Star Sapphire: Contains needle-like inclusions that create a star-like effect (asterism) when viewed under direct light.
- Color-Change Sapphire: Changes color depending on the lighting conditions (e.g., appearing blue in daylight and purple in incandescent light).
In summary, while the classic image of a sapphire is a vibrant blue gemstone, the reality is that sapphires are diverse in appearance, offering a spectrum of colors and characteristics.
