Tanzanian Spinel

[minousbijoux]

Gempeaks: its probably time that you read the PS policies. Trade members are prohibited from commenting on the stones of other Trade members. Since the OP is considering purchasing this stone, it is not appropriate for you to weigh in (on this consumer website - there are others where you can and should!) with an opinion. Like I said, probably a good idea for you to actually read the policies here since you have breached them at least once already...

 

[lilmosun]

ETA: The website for Lotus labs defines their saturation, tone and hue scales here, toward the bottom half of this page. "Intense" is one step below "vivid" on the saturation scale.

This makes sense and relatively speaking, why some are not calling the stone in question ideal relatively speaking.

pwsg07 - I am not sure what your question is anymore...at first you seemed disappointed by the "lack of brilliance" of the stone but then seem to question if its the "top color" advertised. Does the stone truly speak to you? If not, wait...while it's a beautiful stone, when you see a top Mahenge, your mind will go from questioning to "gotta have" (assuming you love pink, pink-red or red-pink stones).

From my limited experience, I have learned that "top color" should be a matter of preference. My favorite Mahenge spinel is still my "magenta" one while Prima told me that the neon pinks were more popular at the time (I have some of those too). So many pictures of Mahenge spinels including my own, seem to differ from what I see IRL. Some seem to captures them better in pictures (I cannot). It took me a long time and many real-life comparisons to realize that what I owned was (to my eye and taste) just as nice (and often nicer) than what others may consider "top color".

 

[normanintheskywithsapphires]

If it were top color it would be listed as "vivid." It is not, instead being described as "intense."

I thought 'vivid' means pure-of-color, while 'intense' points to neon or hot or such feature.
Meaning for example 'blue-green tourmaline' can never be vivid but very intense.

 

[T L]

The thing is that the vendor called the stone top quality. Although quality is often subjective to the layperson, a good lab with scientific and objective methods, is best to determine true quality. Regardless of what the vendor stated, if the OP loves the stone and is happy with the price, then the decision is theirs alone.

 

[pwsg07]

This makes sense and relatively speaking, why some are not calling the stone in question ideal relatively speaking.

pwsg07 - I am not sure what your question is anymore...at first you seemed disappointed by the "lack of brilliance" of the stone but then seem to question if its the "top color" advertised. Does the stone truly speak to you? If not, wait...while it's a beautiful stone, when you see a top Mahenge, your mind will go from questioning to "gotta have" (assuming you love pink, pink-red or red-pink stones).

From my limited experience, I have learned that "top color" should be a matter of preference. My favorite Mahenge spinel is still my "magenta" one while Prima told me that the neon pinks were more popular at the time (I have some of those too). So many pictures of Mahenge spinels including my own, seem to differ from what I see IRL. Some seem to captures them better in pictures (I cannot). It took me a long time and many real-life comparisons to realize that what I owned was (to my eye and taste) just as nice (and often nicer) than what others may consider "top color".

Thanks lilmosun.

I forgot to mention that this is my stone and it cannot be returned. I hardly have a stone that I will love at first sight because there is no perfect stone and I always find something I don't like about the stone. At first, I think the colour has orange. Now I started to like the colour. I think the orange is just because of the light source. It is a beautiful colour. I have never seen any or any top Tanzanian Spinel IRL so I cannot confirm it is the colour Tanzanian Spinel being famous for. I have seen some expensive gemstones at the auction house, only few stones look good IRL, most of them look worse than in the auction catalog. That's why I do not trust the photos even though there are tons of photos for Tanzanian spinel.

Now I only dislike the cutting style. When I looked at the photos, I didn't notice the cutting style because the part I dislike is the pavilion. It makes the reflection slightly strange.