Pink Sapphires - Are you getting your colour right

Let's start with an undeniable fact, the worldwide Google Trends reports for "engagement rings" and "pink sapphire engagement rings" for the past five years. Obviously, a greater proportion of people search the Internet for "engagement rings'. But please pay attention to the details of the following two charts. The No. 1 country searching for "pink sapphire engagement ring" is Australia. If you are reading this on a desktop computer, you can click the little list icon on the bottom right corner of each graph to get the country list. When it comes to "engagement rings", Australia is in the 4th position. Brilliyond may be one of the best places to buy a pink sapphire engagement ring in Australia. But even we do not exactly know why Australians love pink sapphires this much. 

_{Google Trends for "Pink Sapphire Engagement Rings" and "Engagement Rings"}

Sapphires come in all the colours you can imagine and they are broadly categorised as blue sapphires, pink sapphires, yellow sapphires etc. Among these categories, pink sapphires are the one having the most variations in colours. The colour of a pink sapphire could vary from luminescence hot pink to very pale baby pink and also spread towards the reddish-pink end and purplish pink ends of the spectrum.

_{Pink Sapphire Rough Specimens from Sri Lanka}

Sapphires come in all the colours you can imagine and they are broadly categorised as blue sapphires, pink sapphires, yellow sapphires etc. Among these categories, pink sapphires are the one having the most variations in colours. The colour of a pink sapphire could vary from luminescence hot pink to very pale baby pink and also spread towards the reddish-pink end and purplish pink ends of the spectrum.

So the big question is how do we get the right pink colour for your ring. First of all, let's discuss a few myths about pink sapphires.

1. The darker the pink colour the better the stone

This is completely misleading. In general, pink sapphires with very light colours and very dark colours are cheaper than the better-looking sapphires in the mid-range of the colour range. But once you are in the desirable range, the darkness of the colour is just a matter of your preference. A good baby pink sapphire is equally valuable as a good dark hot pink sapphire.

However, the vividness and saturation of the colour make a big difference. In simple terms, the gemstone should have an evenly distributed single tone colour and it should be reflective and expressive rather than absorptive and dull.

2. Pink sapphires are less valuable than Blue Sapphires

Best quality pink sapphires are rarer than the blue sapphires of similar quality. Thus a better market was developed for blue sapphire from ancient times. And also the use of blue sapphires in crown jewels and few famous blue sapphire stones helped blue sapphires to consolidate the number one position. Also, prefered blue hues are more common than prefered pink hues. However, given all the other factors equal, blue sapphire and a pink sapphire does not have any value difference. On the other hand, if the pink sapphire has a very unique pink colour tone called the padparadscha colour, it's value will be way above than a similar quality blue sapphire.

3. Pink sapphires are light colour Rubies

Ruby gemstones are in fact red sapphires. We called them rubies because of the historical use of the term. In the past, ruby gemstones were not identified as corundum, the technical term for the sapphire mineral. Corundum (Al₂O₃) displays red colour in the presence of chromium metal as in rubies and display other colours such as blue, pink, green etc. in the presence of different elements as in sapphires. In the continuous spectrum of colours, there is no specific place where the pink colour ends and the red colour starts. Therefore, some stones are difficult to classify as a pink sapphire or a ruby. But gemologists use special techniques and equipment to judge whether a gemstone is a ruby or a sapphire. This is very important because the same quality rubies are highly-priced than sapphires. Thus if you buy a ruby the best thing is to go for a red colour which can be categorized as a ruby without any doubts.

The Padparadscha Sapphire

The pink sapphire colour discussion never completes unless we highlight the padparadscha sapphire. As a matter of fact, it is just a specific narrow range of pink. But because of the rarity, the fact it resembles the colour of the lotus flower ("Padma" in Sanskrit), and historical reasons, pink sapphires with these shades are given a special name, padparadscha sapphires. And of course, they are expensive and unique. Padparadscha sapphire is a very good choice if you are looking for a very unique piece of jewellery. 

_{Padparadscha Sapphires from Sri Lanka}

Brilliyond jewellery is one of the best places to buy a beautiful genuine natural pink sapphire engagement ring. We have more than 130 designs in our pink sapphire engagement rings collection. When a customer orders a pink sapphire engagement ring, we encourage them to learn a little bit about pink sapphires and tell us the colour they want. We share the pictures and videos of the gemstones of different pink tints so that the customers can pick the one they want. This is a very unique jewellery customisation service and the customers are very comfortable in ordering with Brilliyond because they get the option of choosing their gemstone colours. Give us a call (1300 186 315) or email us (support@brilliyond.com.au) to start designing your unique pink sapphire engagement ring.