How to Spot Fake Crystals

Scratch an inconspicuous spot with a needle. Dyed howlite shows white underneath. Real turquoise is colored throughout.

Check hardness. Real turquoise is 5-6. Howlite is only 3.5 and scratches much more easily.

Under magnification, dye concentrates in surface cracks and pits, creating a spiderweb of darker color.

Rub with acetone on a cotton swab. Dye will transfer to the swab. Stabilized turquoise will not.

Real moldavite has a distinctive texture: pitted, sculpted surface with thin edges and bubble-like inclusions (lechatelierite).

Under 10x magnification, real moldavite has flowing, swirling internal structures and elongated bubbles. Fake glass has round, perfectly spherical bubbles.

Hold it up to strong light. Real moldavite has an olive to forest green color with internal variation. Fakes are often too uniformly green.

Genuine moldavite is lighter than you would expect. It feels almost hollow compared to solid glass.

Natural citrine is pale smoky yellow to honey gold. It does not have the deep orange or burnt sienna color of heated amethyst.

Heat-treated amethyst citrine often has white or opaque bases with colored tips. Natural citrine is usually evenly colored.

Natural citrine rarely forms the dramatic cluster points that heat-treated amethyst does.

If the price is very low for a large bright orange cluster, it is almost certainly heated amethyst.

Under magnification, real malachite banding is organic and irregular, never perfectly uniform or repeating.

Real malachite is cold to the touch and heavy (specific gravity ~3.9). Plastic is warm and light.

Apply a drop of dilute hydrochloric acid to an inconspicuous spot. Real malachite fizzes (copper carbonate). Plastic does not.

Hardness test: real malachite is 3.5-4. A steel knife scratches it, but it should not scratch as easily as plastic.

Real lapis with pyrite shows gold metallic specks that are randomly distributed. Fake 'pyrite' specks are often too uniform or glittery.

The acetone test: rub with acetone on cotton. Dyed specimens will transfer blue dye to the swab.

Check for calcite veining. Real lapis often has white calcite streaks. Dyed howlite has grey veining in a different pattern.

Scratch test: lapis is 5-5.5. Howlite is only 3.5.

Glass imitations have round bubbles inside (visible under 10x). Natural amethyst may have inclusions but not round bubbles.

Natural amethyst has color zoning: bands of darker and lighter purple following crystal faces. Synthetic often has more uniform color.

Check for the 'Brazil law twinning' under polarized light. This is a gemological lab test that distinguishes natural from synthetic.

Temperature: real quartz feels cool to the touch. Glass warms up faster.

Natural rose quartz is almost always translucent to milky, never perfectly transparent (gem-quality transparent rose quartz is extremely rare and expensive).

The color should be evenly distributed throughout, not concentrated on the surface or in cracks.

Hardness test: real quartz is 7, glass is 5.5. Rose quartz will scratch glass.

Under magnification, natural rose quartz may show tiny needle-like inclusions (the dumortierite fibers that cause the color).

Under magnification, synthetic opal has a lizard-skin or snake-scale pattern to its color play. Natural opal has more random, organic color patches.

Doublets and triplets have a visible seam line when viewed from the side. The opal layer is glued onto a dark backing.

Natural opal play-of-color shifts as you rotate it. Glass imitations often have a fixed sparkle pattern.

Check the back. If it is flat black plastic or obsidian, it is likely a doublet or triplet, not a solid opal.

The sound test: real jade rings with a clear, musical tone when tapped. Imitations produce a dull thud.

Real jade is extremely tough (not hard, tough). It resists breaking. It does not chip or fracture easily.

Specific gravity: jadeite is 3.3-3.5, nephrite is 2.9-3.1. Both are noticeably heavier than common imitations like serpentine (2.6).

Under magnification, Type B jade shows a dimpled surface texture where the polymer has degraded. Type C shows dye concentrated in grain boundaries.

Real larimar has a distinctive volcanic pectolite texture with white streaks and veining through blue. The pattern is unique and organic.

Hardness: real larimar is 4.5-5. Test against a steel knife (5.5) to confirm.

Under magnification, natural larimar shows fibrous crystal structure. Dyed material shows dye concentrated in cracks.

Real larimar can range from white to deep blue. Uniformly saturated pieces without any white are suspicious.