How to tell Real Stones from Fake Stones?

When it comes to describing real stones and fake stones, so many different terms are used and they are so confusing. The common terms are natural, synthetic, lab-grown, simulated, Cubic Zirconia (CZ), rhine stones. So what is what? What are their similarities and differences? Have you ever experience that the shop promoter of an expansive jewelry shop telling your the stones that being engrave in the jewelry is a Cubic Zirconia. It does makes it sounds really sophisticated, read on and find out more what it actually is.

Instead of going deep and lengthy with all kind of special terms, we will cut the long story pretty pretty short.

Synthetic: A man-made stone created in the lab with exactly the same chemical, optical, physical properties that you can find in natural stones. Eg, a synthetic diamond that consist of carbon will be the same as natural diamond, just that the formal is created in the lab.

Simulated: A man-made stone created in the lab that resembles the material but does not necessarily contains the same  chemical, optical, physical properties as the natural stones. Eg. CZ diamond resembles the real diamond but does not have the same properties as diamonds.

Cubic Zirconia (CZ): A man made stones created in the lab that made with Zirconium oxide, a colorless stones that may be made in any other color. Often being promoted in the market under certain brands.

Rhine Stones: A man made stones created in the lab made with glass, paste or crystal quartz. Those made with crystal quartz are of higher quality in this range and often have a fused metallic backing that reflects the light and gives the stones a brilliant fire-like appearance.

Natural: This is simple, all stones that formed by our mother earth with her own chemical reactions are natural.

Instead of thinking of knowing real from fake stone, knowing what we actually buying are more important. Most of the retailers are honors about what they are selling but it relies on us to find out more on what we are buying. Let us shop smart~~

~Maggie~