Opinion on Alexandrite

[Cina_s]

@minousbijoux Thanks. Yah I dont expect red in candle light as I know that doesnt exist, but hoping for more of a purple red.

What colour did you end up with? is it more blue green to purple like the Brazilian ones?

Or is yours more yellow green to brown red?

So make sure I like the mixed colour of it.

 

[Bron357]

Agree with @LilAlex and I’ll add that the concept of colour change gems is often more appealing than the reality.
The professional studio shots in controlled conditions can be breathtaking.
You wearing the Alex on an overcast day or in the Office or at a restaurant is unlikely to produce colours anything like the studio shots.
No one, repeat no one, ever gasps and asks is that an Alexandrite?
And when you proudly share that this gemstone is a rare colour change Alexandrite, they look and say I can’t see it change colour!
So you reply and say “it changes colour to purple red in incandescent light” and they look at you all peculiar and mutter “ok, that’s nice”.
If you then share that such a rare gemstone is worth over $10,000 a carat they look blankly at you and maybe ask “why?”
So make sure you love what you see with your own eyes.

 

[minousbijoux]

"No one, repeat no one, ever gasps and asks is that an Alexandrite?"

I have to laugh - yup - totally agree with @Bron357 re the underwhelming nature of the "spontaneous color change" of alex! And now that she has shown hers, I'll dutifully pull out mine (apologies as I've shown these before and am sure I'm boring the old PSers) including one showing how it looks much of the time in mixed lighting...

 

[Cina_s]

@Bron357 LOL I actually laughed out loud. No one ever asks about my tiny one, and I doubt most people I know have even heard of it. Thank you for the photos! The colour is amazing and the ring is spectacular! How close are the colours to the actual stone?

@LilAlex Wow. that green and that reddish purple is so pretty! How close to the photos is the actual colour? You havent set it yet?

 

[Cina_s]

"No one, repeat no one, ever gasps and asks is that an Alexandrite?"

I have to laugh - yup - totally agree with @Bron357 re the underwhelming nature of the "spontaneous color change" of alex! And now that she has shown hers, I'll dutifully pull out mine (apologies as I've shown these before and am sure I'm boring the old PSers) including one showing how it looks much of the time in mixed lighting...

is the mix colour what you normally see?

 

[Bron357]

It is very hard to get the daylight colour to match what the eye is seeing. It took about 100 photos or more to get it to match. Those photos match what my eye sees. The following are the same Alex, same iPhone yet different.

 

[Cina_s]

@Bron357 Crazy different!! especially the 1st almost baby blue with what looks like a silver setting and then going into the 3rd photo with the super bling setting. Thanks for sharing! What a difference!!!!!

 

[minousbijoux]

So funny as I have the exact opposite problem with mine - easy to photograph the daylight bluish green, very hard to take a pic of the incandescent reddish purple!

 

[Bron357]

So funny as I have the exact opposite problem with mine - easy to photograph the daylight bluish green, very hard to take a pic of the incandescent reddish purple!

When I bought it (30 odd years ago) for $60 it came in the yellow basket setting on a fine gold chain bracelet and was sold to me as Amethyst. The Antique Centre which was a conglomeration of various vendors was housed in an old warehouse building (old style lighting) and the gem was an obvious purple.
It was the weirdest thing walking outside the Centre into daylight and looking down and seeing it was teal green. I went back inside and back to purple it went. At that time I didn’t know about Alexandrite! I worked it out eventually ha ha.

 

[Cina_s]

@Bron357 What a score!!! $60??? absolutely a steal!!!!!! Wish I had a time machine!!

 

[LilAlex]

@LilAlex Wow. that green and that reddish purple is so pretty! How close to the photos is the actual colour? You havent set it yet?

Oh that one's not mine -- that lovely alex is from minousbijoux from upthread.

Mine is in one of my earliest posts and I'll try to get some decent pictures of it. It's too dark by half but the colors are cool. The incandescent color is ridiculous but, as others have said, I'm almost never in that kind of light.