So really excited to dive in with you guys
today over the most popular gemstone for engagement rings, which is blue sapphire, which was made popular by Princess Diana. Okay. And we're going to cover a whole
variety of stuff for you guys today. So we're going to go into all the
different factors that are going to affect pricing, where cover why carat
is completely meaningless for sapphires. Heat treatment created sapphires
versus ones that are mined. And we're even going to show you guys the variations in blue
that blue sapphires come in, that there's a much wider array
than a lot of people are aware of. Strap in.
So we saw a huge surge in using
a blue sapphire for your engagement ring after Prince William proposed to Kate Middleton
with Princess Diana's blue sapphire ring. The two main factors that
most people will think about when it comes to blue sapphires, and it's going to probably have
a large effect on the price is going to be the color. And then the other thing is
whether the stone's eye is clean or not. Generally, you're going to have two
polar opposites in the color saturation. So on one end,
you might get a barely blue sapphire sorstica,
a hint of blue maybe. On the other extreme end, you can get so much,
or it might even look almost opaque. You can get some blue sapphires that look quite dark. When you have a deep, rich color, a lot of people will think of the stone in Princess Diana's ring is a good
example is this deep blue. Some people have even
called it a "cornflower blue" is the term that
sometimes thrown around. And you're gonna pay the biggest
premium for a blue like that.
Definitely.
Exactly. Yeah, and then so there's that. So the intensity of the
color is a huge factor. The other thing that we want
to touch base on is clarity. And it's very different. I want to say the clarity
that's referred to in diamonds. So in diamonds,
there's like a whole scale. When it comes to blue sapphires,
there's no standardized rating. And that's important to note. So, really honestly in the trade, often people when they look
at a gemstone, a blue sapphire, they just honestly say,
"Is it eye clean or not?" Really subjective. But obviously, if you have a stone that has
an imperfection, that is eye clean, maybe you cannot see it
basically without magnifying it.
That's going to sell for a higher premium, obviously, than one where you
can see the imperfection. And whereas when a diamond, there can be over 30 different types
of inclusions, you can kind of see that. I find that when a gemstone, when a blue sapphire in particular is
included, you might see some cloudiness, or you're not going to see
a nice saturation in the color. The variations in color vary quite a bit. So we reference some of the more unfavorable end of the spectrum. Okay. But you're going to see some that have
a lighter blue, which is quite beautiful. They're often from Sri Lanka,
almost a lavender kind of hint to it. And then you can get
the other kind of blues that often command a premium is
kind of that deep blue that we refer to that you see
in a Princess Diana-type of sapphire.
I find that's usually
an either-or. If you see them, we usually find that clients,
like one of the two. And we encourage you, if you're interested, make sure you get
the opportunity to see one of the two. So just so diamonds have
lab grown diamonds as well as mined natural diamonds. Sapphires can be lab created
or mined through the earth. So probably the biggest difference is going to be if we're going to choose
a lab created sapphire, they come in very standardized colors
because they're simulating the highest grade, the highest premium, rarest
gemstone that you would find in nature.
It's been optimized and it's standardized. And whereas, when it comes to
mined diamonds, sorry, mined blue sapphires, you're going to see them in a much bigger
array, much bigger variety of blues. And so that's where you're going to save
for a lab grown blue sapphire, you may pay 10% of the equivalent
in a mined for what that would look like. However, the trade-off is going to be
you're going to have one shade of blue. Whereas, if you're looking for
a different shade of blue, then you may want to start
considering more of the mined variety. Another thing to consider with blue
sapphires is the shape of the stone. And so where rounds are very popular for diamonds because of the way that they
shine, they're not bad for blue sapphires, but definitely other shapes,
like an oval or like a cushion, usually have a better ability
to show off the color of the stone.
The reason why it has to do with the way the faciting is and the way
that light reflects. But really, if you see cushions, ovals, you're going to usually notice that they show off a much more vibrancy
in the bluish hue or the bluish color
compared to a round. Carat, if you guys haven't
watched her video on carat, I definitely,
it'll be linked in the video here. However, carat is even super meaningless
when it comes to blue sapphires. And one of the biggest reasons is blue sapphires are not cut
in any standardized way. And so I'll give you an example. So
you can have two oval blue sapphires; one might weigh like 5 carats, the other might weigh 2 carrots,
but face up, there the exact same size. And often blue sapphires are faceted. Really, they're trying to show off color
is the ideal idea, whereas when it comes to diamonds, you're trying to cut
them to shine or reflect light. And that's not what we're necessarily trying to do when it comes to a blue
sapphire and so throw carat out the window.
We have clients that start looking around, and they're saying they're
looking for a certain carat. But honestly, what we recommend
that's so important is look at the measurements
and fix it on the measurement of what you're looking at because
that is really what you see. But it is super irrelevant
when it comes to blue sapphires because they vary so much. I think the last thing
we'll just kind of address today is going to be heat treatment. Okay. And we're not going to dive
into this in too much detail. But this is specifically for
mined blue sapphires. But what most people often will learn about is that probably 90%, 95%
of blue sapphires are heat treated. All that it means is that
it's been around for ages, but they basically take a blue sapphire
and apply intense heat to it.
In that effect, what it does is,
it increases a saturation of blue. And this is interestingly enough,
this is considered like a norm. It's very rare nowadays to find a blue
sapphire that has not been treated. Now the only reason we mention this is if you do ever come across a blue sapphire that has an amazing color
that is unheated, you will pay a premium
for it because of the rarity. And if that's important for you, absolutely, you will want
to dive into it further.
But for most people, just understand
that it's a normative treatment that's applied really
to almost all blue sapphires. All right, guys. So we talked a lot today
about blue sapphires. But really, the biggest takeaway
for you is that gemstones, blue sapphires in particular, it's so important that you
see a variety side by side. That way, you'll be able to see
different cuts, different shapes, you'll be able to see all the various
color ranges. And I mean they're jewels; so you'll really be able to assess. So don't worry about,
don't get too heady about it. It's all about what your eyes can see..
