Requesting opinions on these spinels

[Bojambles]

Hi everyone,

I've been - and probably will keep on - posting threads with questions about different gemstones. Let me know if there's a limit to keep to or if I should just have one mega thread. This time it's about spinels. I got to see some in person and have a few questions.

Photos are my own.

1. Pair of greyish light pink spinels:

• I think these have windows?
• Not very vivid or saturated. They turn grey with a hint of violet when rotated between my fingers
• "Outdoor" photo is right next to a glass window, and is partly mixed with the indoor light. The glare is where outdoor lighting directly hits the gem, and it doesn't seem to change that much
• "Indoor" photo is in yellow-ish light
• tcw of ~3.0ct, and the vendor's opening price is ~US$485 (might be negotiable from experience when I get more items not shown in the post from them)
• I don't have to have this pair but I keep going back to look at them.

2. Brownish-red heavily included spinel, 3ct

• Has no windows that I can see of, however there is a nasty chip in the girdle. The vendor didn't point it out to me and I only saw when cropping my photos, but I don't think they were aware of it
• There are also large black inclusions. However the colour hides it (as it's deep? brown? red)
• It looks pretty nice and sparkling in the "Indoor" yellowish light, but completely browns out in "Outdoor" light next to a glass window
• Opening price is ~US$600 which but I don't think the vendor is aware of the chip
• Again not the best quality or colour by far, but I keep going back to look at them. Probably because I don't have any gems this big and I've never had spinels before

#3 ~3.5ct brownish red spinel

• This is from a instagram vendor. The photos are in daylight. It's still a brownish red, but it's doing a lot better than #2 and is cheaper at US$450. Fewer inclusions / inclusions are only at the side.

I don't know enough about spinel pricing so hoping to get ideas / opinions from people.

Which would you choose, or none? Thanks!

 

[Bojambles]

#1 pair of greyish pink spinels

Indoor



Indoor rotating on fingers - quite alot of extinction



Outdoors (near a glass window. Some mixing with indoor light)

 

[Bojambles]

#2 brownish red spinel

Indoors





Inclusions



Outdoors (at glass window, mixed with indoor light)

 

[Bojambles]

#3 ~3.5ct brownish red spinel. Only outdoor, asking for photos.

Also, is the extinction really supposed to show up as black / dark patches? Many vendor photos (including trusted vendors) show up like this. Wondering if this a flaw / can be avoided / if it's just the way the photos are taken

Outdoors



Will ask for indoor photos - I expect it to be better since it seems that spinels tend to grey / brown out under the sun, whereas it's the opposite for tourmalines?

 

[icy_jade]

None

Again, my advice is go look at stones irl. No excuse cos in Singapore even going to Far East will give you many shops/stones to look at. Walk all the floors! Don’t be shy. You should get a good idea of what spinels and other gems look like irl before you buy online.

 

[Bojambles]

You're right as usual @icy_jade

The first 2 stones I got to look at irl - those are my pictures. But I don't have any experience seeing good stones irl to compare too. I'm heading out to Orchard now to have a look!

 

[landscape]

You're right as usual @icy_jade

The first 2 stones I got to look at irl - those are my pictures. But I don't have any experience seeing good stones irl to compare too. I'm heading out to Orchard now to have a look!

Brown and purple not good for red spinels.I posted a comparison. I have circled the two types you posted

​

 

[Bojambles]

Brown and purple not good for red spinels.I posted a comparison. I have circled the two types you posted

​

Thank you, this is pretty useful as I can see side by side that the ones I have posted here match the ones that you circled and they are not great.

 

[icy_jade]

You're right as usual @icy_jade

The first 2 stones I got to look at irl - those are my pictures. But I don't have any experience seeing good stones irl to compare too. I'm heading out to Orchard now to have a look!

Ok my number one advice. If the stone or item doesn’t make your heart skip a beat or flutter at first sight, and if you have to somehow convince yourself to buy, then walk away. “Good enough” or “nice enough” isn’t enough. It must make your heart sing. When you see the right ones you will know. It’s literally like falling in love.

Did you see anything nice yesterday?

 

[qubitasaurus]

I think for roughly the same ball park price you'll be able to pick up a nice red/pink tourmaline. It'll have better colour, comparable clarity and may even hold its colour better across different lighting. I'd rather a nice tourmaline over a spinel which with less than attractive colour. There'll be no shortage of pink tourmalines, so you should be able to pick a really nice one.

 

[Bojambles]

Ok my number one advice. If the stone or item doesn’t make your heart skip a beat or flutter at first sight, and if you have to somehow convince yourself to buy, then walk away. “Good enough” or “nice enough” isn’t enough. It must make your heart sing. When you see the right ones you will know. It’s literally like falling in love.

Did you see anything nice yesterday?

okay! Got to raise my standards.

I checked only Desiree on sat as I was with another person. Asiatique closed earlier than usual too.

Desiree's stuff is nice - mainly looked at tourmalines and spinels. They had some nice pink spinels but not very vivid. Tourmalines they had larger pink ones but nothing that jumped out at me. Most stones are meant for rings, few pairs for earrings.

 

[Bojambles]

I think for roughly the same ball park price you'll be able to pick up a nice red/pink tourmaline. It'll have better colour, comparable clarity and may even hold its colour better across different lighting. I'd rather a nice tourmaline over a spinel which with less than attractive colour. There'll be no shortage of pink tourmalines, so you should be able to pick a really nice one.

That's true, there definitely seem to be much more tourmalines around. Might be better as I'm looking for earrings over rings.

Idk if correct but my observation is that spinel has a bit more "sparkle" than tourmaline. But good pink spinel seems to be more scarce and much more expensive, so that's the trade off!

Also I recently acquired a heated pink sapphire for fun (week ago / week before. Cheap and certed), and noticed very little sparkle. Although also possibly because of the cut / massive window

 

[qubitasaurus]

That's true, there definitely seem to be much more tourmalines around. Might be better as I'm looking for earrings over rings.

Idk if correct but my observation is that spinel has a bit more "sparkle" than tourmaline. But good pink spinel seems to be more scarce and much more expensive, so that's the trade off!

Also I recently acquired a heated pink sapphire for fun (week ago / week before. Cheap and certed), and noticed very little sparkle. Although also possibly because of the cut / massive window

I think spinel is much more sparkly, as long as it's not too included. But the first thing you notice with a coloured stone, is usually the colour. So it's generally good to find nice colour and then try to optimize the sparkle. The other thing you find with coloured stones is many shift colour a lot so any brown tends to show up as a pretty muddy colour in at least one lighting.

 

[peacechick]

That's true, there definitely seem to be much more tourmalines around. Might be better as I'm looking for earrings over rings.

Idk if correct but my observation is that spinel has a bit more "sparkle" than tourmaline. But good pink spinel seems to be more scarce and much more expensive, so that's the trade off!

Also I recently acquired a heated pink sapphire for fun (week ago / week before. Cheap and certed), and noticed very little sparkle. Although also possibly because of the cut / massive window

Spinel has a unique characteristic I like, which is that it has a slightly metallic sheen to the sparkle. Cut is so important. Well cut tourmalines can be sparkly, and poorly cut spinels and sapphires can be so dull.

If you like sparkly, definitely check out zircons, demantoid garnets and sphenes down the road after you get your red/pink stone, they are sparkle bombs!