Rubellite Tourmaline Buying Guide

Rubellite Buying and The Four Cs

To help your rubellite buying experience go smoothly, I’ll share my personal opinions and experiences dealing with this stone.

Color

Sellers often misrepresent rubellite. A rubellite is not a ruby. They also misrepresent rubellite’s color. True rubellite colors range from a medium to dark saturated red/red, red/purple, to red/purple/very slight peach. Think raspberry, like the fruit.

Personally, I would grade a red/purple/very slight peach stone as a little less valuable. However, some people really like the peach tone. I think it’s OK but just not a top rubellite color.

How Does Rubellite Color Shift Affect Value?

Keep in mind that natural, untreated rubellites have a very slight to strong peach shift in incandescent light. Depending on the amount of shift, I would grade a stone a little lower as it becomes more peach. (Again, this is my personal opinion).

Ideally, look for a pure red/purple/pink to red/red/purple/pink stone with minimal color shift (peach). At some point, hot pink/red/purple becomes intense enough to qualify as rubellite. You can have difficulties judging this often borderline color. Generally, I think the stone should be intense and more red/purple than pink/purple. I will often grade a…