61 crystals
Purple Minerals and Crystals
What makes crystals purple?
Purple in minerals comes from a few specific mechanisms. In quartz (amethyst), iron impurities combined with natural gamma radiation create color centers that absorb yellow light, transmitting purple. In fluorite, rare earth element defects produce violet. In sugilite and charoite, manganese is responsible. The rarity of purple in nature - it requires very specific chemistry - is part of why purple has been associated with royalty across cultures.
Want the traditions attached to each color? Crystal color meanings, stone by stone. Holding a stone you cannot name? Identify it by its properties.
How to tell common purple minerals apart
Hardness, streak, luster, and density are read from each stone's profile. The last column is the fastest single check that separates it from the others in this table.
| Stone | Mohs | Streak | Luster | Specific gravity | Quickest tell |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amethyst | 7 | White | Vitreous | 2.65 | Hard enough (Mohs 7) to scratch glass and no cleavage, so it breaks in curved, shell-like fractures where transparent fluorite splits into flat planes; often shows angular color zoning inside. |
| Fluorite | 4 | White | Vitreous | 3.18 | Splits along perfect octahedral cleavage into eight-sided fragments, and a steel knife scratches it. |
| Charoite | 5 | White | Vitreous to Silky | 2.54 | Swirled, fibrous, silky purple with black augite flecks; nothing else on this list looks like it. |
| Sugilite | 6 | White | Vitreous to Waxy | 2.74 | Even, deep purple with a waxy, almost gel-like look: no swirls like charoite, no flakes like lepidolite, not see-through like amethyst. |
| Lepidolite | 2.5 | White | Vitreous to Pearly | 2.84 | Lilac mica that flakes under a fingernail and peels into thin flexible sheets. |
| Purpurite | 4.5 | Purple | Matte to Satiny | 3.2-3.4 | Matte to satiny deep violet that leaves a purple streak on unglazed porcelain, where every other stone here streaks white. |
What are some purple crystals?
Adamite
The Neon Crystal
Alexandrite
The Chameleon Gem
Amblygonite
The Lithium Light Stone
Amethyst
The Stone of Spiritual Wisdom
Ametrine
The Two-Toned Gem
Ammolite
The Seven Color Gem
Angelite
The Stone of Awareness
Anhydrite
The Waterless Gypsum
Aqua Aura Quartz
The Gold-Bonded Crystal
Auralite 23
The Billion-Year Crystal
Benitoite
California's Blue Diamond
Blue Chalcedony
The Speaker's Stone
Blue Lace Agate
The Communication Stone
Brandberg Amethyst
Namibia three-in-one crystal
Chalcedony
The Mother of Agates
Charoite
The Stone of Transformation
Chevron Amethyst
The Banded Dreamer
Cobaltocalcite
The Pink Crystal Bloom
Creedite
The Porcupine Crystal
Dumortierite
The Patience Stone
Elestial Quartz
The Crystal of a Thousand Faces
Erythrite
The Cobalt Bloom
Fire Agate
The Flame Within
Flower Agate
The Blooming Stone
Fluorapatite
The Gemstone in Your Teeth
Fluorite
The Genius Stone
Garnet
The Warrior's Stone
Grape Agate
The Dream Cluster
Hackmanite
The Color-Changing Sodalite
Iolite
The Viking Compass
Jade
The Dream Stone
Kunzite
The Evening Stone
Labradorite
The Stone of Transformation
Lepidolite
The Peace Stone
Lithium Quartz
The Balancing Crystal
Mookaite
The Australian Sunset Stone
Musgravite
The Rarest of the Rare
Paraíba Tourmaline
The Neon Gem
Peacock Ore
The Stone of Happiness
Pearl
The Gem of the Sea
Piemontite
The Red Epidote
Pink Amethyst
The Patagonian Rose
Purpurite
The Violet Phosphate
Rainbow Obsidian
The Stone of Light in Darkness
Rhodolite Garnet
The Rose Garnet
Scapolite
The Shaft Stone
Slate
The Splitting Stone
Smithsonite
The Pastel Zinc Carbonate
Sodalite
The Poet's Stone
Spinel
The Great Impostor
Spirit Quartz
The Fairy Quartz
Stichtite
Purple Fire in Serpentine
Sugilite
The Healer's Stone of the Violet Ray
Super Seven
The Sacred Seven
Taaffeite
The Gem Found in a Jeweler's Box
Tanzan Aura Quartz
The Indigo-Veiled Crystal
Tanzanite
The Generation Stone
Tiffany Stone
The Purple Passion
Vera Cruz Amethyst
Slender Las Vigas amethyst
Vesuvianite
The Volcano's Gemstone
Zoisite
The Tanzanite Parent Mineral