Learn About the Different Types of Gemstones with Color

Gemstones by Color: Many people purchase gemstones by type, for example, they want to buy a sapphire, a tourmaline or an amethyst.

But one thing we have learned in the coloured gemstone business is that most customers are concerned above all with colour, and are less concerned with gemstone variety, as long as the gemstone they buy is durable enough for their purpose.

Since colour is indeed the most important factor for most people when it comes to buying Loose Gemstones and jewellery, it only makes sense to start your search by shopping for gemstones by colour.

Finding gemstones by colour can often be difficult; since websites tend to organize their inventory around gemstone varieties rather than colours.

So for those people who want to know what their options are in particular colours, here is a list of gemstone types organized by colour.

Since there are hundreds of colour variations in coloured gemstones, we have organized this list around "base" colours or colour families.

This means that a red-orange gemstone can fall into the "orange" or "red" category and a blue-green gemstone would be in the "blue" or "green" category.

Red Gemstones: Red colour gemstones are actually quite rare, and mainly occur in garnet, ruby, and spinel. There is some very fine red tourmaline (also called rubellite), but it is not often found.

Almandine Garnet

Red Spinel

Andesine Labradorite

Red Coral

Pyrope Garnet

Star Garnet

Ruby

Strawberry Quartz

Rhodolite Garnet

Pink Gemstones: The most popular pink colour gemstones are spinel and tourmaline. Pink sapphire is lovely but very rare, especially in gemstones weighing over 1 carat.

Rhodolite garnet tends to be purple-pink. Compared to other colours, the list of pink gemstones is quite short.

Kunzite

Pink Coral

Morganite

Pink Mystic Topaz

Malaya Garnet

Pink Pearl

Pink Sapphire

Pink Zircon

Pink Opal

Rose Quartz

Pink Tourmaline

Rhodolite Garnet

Pink Spinel

Star Rose Quartz

Blue Gemstones: The classic blue colour gemstone is sapphire. Deeply saturated blue is also found in kyanite and spinel.

However, there are a number of choices in the lighter blues, including aquamarine, topaz, and zircon.

Tanzanite and iolite are more of a violet-blue, while Paraiba tourmaline, apatite and fluorite tend to be blue-green.

Aquamarine

Chalcedony

Azurite Druzy

Iolite

Blue Sapphire

Kyanite

Blue Topaz

Lapis Lazuli

Blue Apatite

Larimar

Blue Jadeite

Sodalite

Blue Star Sapphires

Tanzanite

Blue Zircon

Turquoise

Blue Agate

Rainbow Moonstone

Green Gemstones: The traditional green gemstone is emerald, but tsavorite garnet, chrome tourmaline and chrome diopside are also good alternatives.

Peridot, which tends to be in olive green colour, has become an important jewellery gemstone.

Emerald

Chrome Diopside

Peridot

Chrome Tourmaline

Prehnite

Green Chrysoberyl

Green Tourmaline

Demantoid Garnet

Tsavorite Garnet

Hiddenite

Grandidierite

Kornerupine

Actinolite Cat’s Eye

Maw-Sit-Sit

Green Agate

Serpentine

Amazonite

Variscite

Green Apatite

Green Fluorite

Aventurine

Green Jadeite

Bloodstone

Green Sapphire

Green Cat’s Eye Apatite

Sphene

Cat’s Eye Aquamarine

Malachite

Yellow / Gold Gemstones: Citrine is the most popular yellow to a gold gemstone, but yellow sapphire is highly sought after.

There are also good choices in harder gemstones such as beryl and chrysoberyl. The canary yellow tourmaline from Malawi is also very rare.

Citrine

Yellow Tourmaline

Cat’s Eye Opal

Yellow Quartz

Golden Beryl

Yellowish Golden Zircon

Mali Garnet

Yellow Opal

Rutile Quartz

Yellow Apatite

Yellow Sapphire

Yellowish Golden Diamond

Yellow Agate

Yellow Sphene

Yellow Sillimanite

Violet / Purple Gemstones: The list of purple and violet colour gemstones is quite short. Amethyst is the classic example, although fluorite can also be found in an amethyst-like purple.

There are wonderful violet hues in tourmaline, sapphire, and spinel. Also, chalcedony is often found in a unique lavender hue.

Amethyst

Violet Purple Spinel

Amethyst Geode

Violet Purple Sapphire

Charoite

Orange Gemstones: Spessartite garnet is one of the most famous orange colour gemstones, but there are a number of other options as well.

Such as orange sapphire, which is produced by heat treatment, while the finest fire opal occurs in hues from yellow-orange to red-orange.

Citrine

Orange Sapphire

Hessonite Garnet

Orange Andesine Labradorite

Orange Sunstone

Orange Mali Garnet

Orange Agate

Orange Opal

Orange Moonstone

Orange Zircon

Orange Tourmaline

Spessartite Garnet

White Gemstones: This category includes both colourless gemstones, such as diamond, sapphire, topaz and zircon, as well as white gemstones like moonstone and opal.

Howlite

White Sapphire

Scolecite

White Topaz

White Moonstone

White Quartz

White Opal

White Zircon

Brown / Bronze Gemstones: It will be fair to say that brown is not the most popular colour in gemstones.

However, there are some notable exceptions, such as the peach-orange-bronze of imperial topaz.

Brown Cat’s Eye Opal

Brown Tourmaline

Brown Moonstone

Smokey Quartz

Brown Cat’s Eye Scapolite

Star Sunstone

Brown Rutile Quartz

Tiger’s Eye

Grey / Silver Gemstones: There are very few gemstones which are mainly grey or silver. In our experience, the most popular one is spinel, whose brilliance and single refraction show grey and silver at its best.

Cat’s Eye Sillimanite

Labradorite

Gray Silver Mother of Pearl

Pyrite

Gray Star Sapphire

Silver Pearl

Hematite

Black Gemstones: Many gemstone dealers occasionally stock black diamonds. However, black tourmaline is by far the most popular black gemstone. The black star sapphires found only in Chanthaburi, Thailand, are also very popular.

Black Spinel

Black Cat’s Eye Scapolite

Black Tourmaline

Obsidian

Black Star Sapphire

Star Diopside

Multicolour Gemstones: In the category of multicolour gemstones, we list those gems which display multiple colours in a single stone.

Some of these gemstones, such as ametrine, tourmaline and fluorite, have zones of different colours. Others, such as andalusite, are strongly pleochroic and will display different colours from different angles.

Ammolite

Multicolor Coral

Multicolor Agate

Fire Agate

Andalusite

Multicolor Flourite

Multicolor Black Opal

Fossil Coral

Boulder Opal

Multicolor Jasper

Chrysocolla

Labradorite

Mystic Quartz

Multicolor Opal

Pietersite

Ruby Zoisite

Snowflake Obsidian

Spectrolite

Sugilite

Tiger’s Eye Matrix

Multicolor Tourmaline

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