Natural Stone, Synthetic Stone, and a Simulant

The word “gemstone” is used for three materials that should not share a price or a sentence. A buyer who knows the three words can stop a muddled sale in one question.

Natural

A natural stone grew in the earth, or, for pearl and coral, in a living process, without a person assembling its crystal. It may still have been cut, polished, heated or otherwise treated after it was found. Natural does not mean untreated. It does not mean rare. Quartz is natural and common. A fine ruby is natural and not common. The word only places the origin.

Synthetic, or lab-grown

A synthetic stone has the same kind of crystal as the natural one, grown by people. A lab ruby is still aluminium oxide with chromium. It is not glass. It can be beautiful, and it should cost less than a natural stone of similar looks, because the rare part was the earth, not the colour. Calling it “the same as natural” is only true about the chemistry. It is not true about the origin, and origin is what the price is mostly paying for.

Simulant

A simulant only looks a bit like the stone named on the tag. Glass can imitate emerald colour. Cubic zirconia can imitate diamond brilliance. The material is different. A simulant is not a low-grade version of the real crystal. It is another substance. The tag should name that substance.

The sentence to ask for

Ask: is this natural, lab-grown, or another material? Then ask what treatment, if any, the seller knows about. A laboratory report, when there is one, should be for the stone in the box, not for a stone photographed last year. If there is no report, the shop can still write the answer on the bill. An answer that changes when you ask twice is not an answer.

Traditional names, such as pukhraj or manik, are names. They do not by themselves say natural or synthetic. Use them, and still ask the origin.