The Library
Longer-form guides on the questions worth asking before you bring a stone home.
This is where the deeper material lives. How stones form, what treatment really means, where they come from, how to tell look-alikes apart, and how to keep what you own. Each guide is written at the depth a quick blog post cannot hold, and the version we would walk you through in person.
For the A-Z stone reference, see the Crystal Guide. For grade definitions, the Crystal Grading Guide. For shorter reads, the Journal.
39 guides across 7 topics, and growing
When the stone in your hand is not quite what the label says
Heat, dye, irradiation, coating, lab growth, and naming sleight-of-hand are everywhere in the trade. These guides walk through the most common ones and how to spot them.
Most commercial citrine is heat-treated amethyst. The chemistry, the visual cues, and why disclosure is the real question.
Read the guideThe stones routinely heated to deepen color, why it is usually accepted, and when it should be disclosed.
Read the guideAura stones are real quartz with a vapor-deposited metal coating. What that is, and what it means for value.
Read the guideOiling, glass filling, and fracture dyeing. The quiet treatments that often go unmentioned at the counter.
Read the guideColor pooling in cracks, hues that are too uniform, and the other tells that a stone got its color from a bottle.
Read the guideWhen smoky quartz forms in the ground, when it comes out of a lab, and what the name morion really means.
Read the guideHydrothermal quartz and synthetic gems. The tells that separate a grown crystal from a mined one.
Read the guideThree pretty stones that are actually glass. Fine when it is disclosed, a problem when it is not.
Read the guideThe two real jades, the dyed quartz and glass sold as jade, and what the Type A, B, and C labels mean.
Read the guideTelling true amber from young copal and plastic, with the salt-water, UV, and hot-point tests.
Read the guideStabilized, reconstituted, and block. How to tell genuine turquoise from the dyed and imitation stand-ins.
Read the guideLemurian, Super Seven, and friends. Which names are real geology and which are marketing stickers.
Read the guideTwo stones that look alike, side by side
When a quick glance is not enough, these guides line up the look-alikes and give you the physical tells that actually separate them.
Four black stones, four different materials, and the quick tells of weight, hardness, and surface that sort them.
Read the guideThree pale stones that look alike on a shelf, and a two-minute way to tell which one you are holding.
Read the guideAlmost every selenite wand sold is satin spar. Same mineral, different form, and how to tell them apart.
Read the guideMost carnelian is heat-treated agate. Sorting the orange-red stones, dyed and natural, apart.
Read the guideDoes amethyst origin actually matter? The three big sources compared on color, form, and price.
Read the guideWhat you are actually paying for
Price, grade, certificates, and rarity claims, translated. How to judge value before you buy, and how to spot a marked-up story.
Size, clarity, origin, treatment, and cut. What sets a stone's price beyond the grade sticker.
Read the guideWhy the same stone is eight dollars on a marketplace and forty in a shop. The cost drivers behind the gap.
Read the guideReal geological scarcity versus manufactured hype, and how to tell which one you are paying for.
Read the guideWhy a printed COA proves almost nothing for most crystals, and what actually backs a claim.
Read the guideCluster, geode, tower, tumble, point. What each form means, and how shape affects the price.
Read the guideHow stones come to be, and why it shows
Formation, color, inclusions, and the families stones belong to. The geology that explains what you are looking at.
The two-stage story behind a hollow rock lined with crystals, and why it takes so long.
Read the guideChromophores, structure, and inclusions. What actually makes a crystal its color, and which colors fade.
Read the guideRutile, phantoms, chlorite, and garden quartz. The needles and ghosts caught inside a clear stone.
Read the guideAgate, jasper, amethyst, onyx. How one mineral family covers a huge share of the crystal world.
Read the guideWhere stones come from, and how to ask the right question
Country of origin is the easy answer. The harder one is who mined it, how they were paid, and how a retailer would know. These guides go to the supply chain.
Every hand a stone passes through between the ground and your shelf, and where the chain usually goes dark.
Read the guideWho actually digs the stones, what artisanal miners earn, and what fair sourcing looks like in practice.
Read the guideMadagascar is not a war zone. The honest issues are mining safety and fair payment, and how we verify.
Read the guideThe phrase is mostly unregulated for crystals. What it really covers, and what it quietly leaves out.
Read the guideHow to read a country-of-origin claim, what real traceability looks like, and when to stay skeptical.
Read the guideHow to keep what you own, and not break it
Practical guides for living with stones. Which fade, which dissolve, which need a careful hand, and how often is enough.
Four cleansing methods that work on every stone, and two that will quietly ruin half of them.
Read the guideWhich stones dissolve, rust, or leach in water, gathered into one quick reference before you rinse.
Read the guideWhich stones are genuinely worth caution, which are fine once polished, and no fear-mongering.
Read the guideWhat a hardness number actually tells you about handling, wearing, and cleaning a stone.
Read the guideLight, dust, and humidity. What actually damages a collection over time, and how to store it safely.
Read the guideHow people actually work with stones
Honest guides to traditional practice. No medical claims, no magic. The methods, the framing, and the safety notes for beginners.
The stones most often recommended for rest, and four rules for using one under a pillow without ruining it.
Read the guideHow people traditionally combine stones, framed as practice and tradition, with no claims attached.
Read the guideWhere people traditionally place stones around a home, honestly framed and free of health claims.
Read the guideLooking for a specific stone?
The Crystal Guide A-Z has a dedicated page for every stone we carry, with origin, geology, traditional associations, and treatment disclosure. Start there if you already know the stone name.