Fake, Enhanced & Misidentified Crystals ❀ Page 2

Aura Quartz

Enhancements

❀ Aura Quartz is a treated & enhanced natural Quartz. This well-loved gem is created using a process called Chemical Vapour Deposition, which requires the use of a vacuum chamber & incredibly high heat. The high temperature allows a metal, like Gold, Platinum or Titanium, to fuse to the surface of the crystal & produce different sparkling, iridescent colours. Many people adore Aura Quartz not only for its beauty, but for the powerful combination created between the bonded Quartz & metal. Because of the complex process it takes to make quality Aura crystals, you may find fakes made of plastic, resin or glass. You may also discover low-quality Aura Quartz, coated with dye or teflon, wearing off easy & appearing sticky or painted.

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Crackle Quartz

Enhancements

❀ Crackle Quartz, also known as Fire & Ice Quartz, is a natural type of Quartz that has been heated then rapidly cooled to produce cracks. This process creates many internal fractures that appear to shimmer with rainbows. They are also commonly artificially coloured, as the cracks allow dye to seep in.

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Coloured Obsidian

Man-Made

❀ Obsidian is a natural volcanic glass with an opaque appearance. Often found in deep blacks or browns, this mineraloid can also display small coloured inclusions of white snowflake patterns or mahogany lines. It can also produce a sheen across its surface of gold, silver or rainbow. What natural Obsidian will almost never display is a bright, transparent colour. These clear blue or green Obsidians are simply nothing more than colourful man made glass.

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Dyed Agate

Enhancements

❀ There are so many wonderful varieties of Agate. From the soft blues in Blue Lace Agate to the vibrant reds & violets in Coyamito Agate, these crystals display a wide range of beautiful, natural patterns & colours. Due to the porous nature of Agate however, they are frequently dyed. Most common & affordable Agates showcase earthy colours of brown & yellows, whereas vibrant neon hues are often a signs of a dyed Agate. Keep an eye out for inauthentic colours such as bright pink, emerald green or neon blue.

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Bismuth

Imitations / man-made

❀ Another crystallised mineral rarely found in nature is Bismuth. Composed of the element of the same name, it naturally exhibits a metallic-white colour with a slight pinkish hue, often forming in masses. It has a variety of uses, but is probably best known as the main ingredient in Pepto-Bismol. Because of its rarity, most Bismuth specimens are lab-grown. These man-made gems showcase a rainbow iridescence & unique hopper crystal formation.

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Chalcanthite & Carborundum

Imitations / man-made

❀ Natural Chalcanthite crystals are very rare in nature. So rare, in fact, that most Chalcanthite is lab-made (or home-made!). Well-formed crystals are easily grown synthetically from copper sulfate solutions. Natural crystals will display fibrous prismatic crystals rather than the large, perfect points seen in lab-created Chalcanthite. It is important to note that this bright blue mineral is both water soluble & highly toxic.

❀ The natural form of Carborundum is one of the rarest forms of crystals, extracted from a mineral called Moissanite. Because of this, almost all Carborundum on the market is man-made. In 1891, Edward Goodrich Acheson discovered Carborundum in an attempt to create Diamond using electricity. It has a crystal structure like that of Diamond & is almost as hard, giving it many uses in various industries.

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Magnetised Hematite, Red Tiger Eye & Mystic Topaz

Enhancements

❀ Hematite does not exhibit strong magnetic properties. However, a synthetic version known as Hematine or Hemalyke does. These man-made imitations are either synthetic barium-strontium ferrite compounds or possibly ground Hematite that has been mixed with other materials. Inauthentic Hematite may also display a perfectly shiny & smooth appearance.

❀ Natural Tiger Eye can be found in a beautiful golden yellow & a silver-blue, known as Hawk’s Eye. The red variety of Tiger Eye is not a naturally occurring stone. It is in fact created by heating regular gold Tiger Eye until it changes colour.

❀ Often found in jewellery, Mystic Topaz is a treated topaz gemstone. This rainbow coloured gem is created by coating a natural, colourless topaz stone with titanium, using a technique called Chemical Vapours Disposition.

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