Gem Buying Guide

All information referenced from the Gemological Institute of America.

Color is the most defining characteristic of a gemstone. Most gemstones occur in a spectrum of colors, while some have more restricted palettes. Since the color phenomenon in gems is very complex, experts analyze the chromatic options in terms of three essential components: hue, tone, and saturation. Hue is the basic or the primary color of the gemstone, tone refers to the lightness or darkness of the color and saturation refers to the purity or intensity of the primary color.

As a general rule, a bright, intense, pure, rich and vivid color is always best. The most valuable gemstones are those that exhibit a pure color with only slight hues of other colors in addition to their primary color.

The primary color should be medium, neither too dark nor too light.