Gazing at the colour blue can help evoke a calm and peaceful state. Mediterranean blue, navy blue, sky blue, baby blue, Tiffany blue, indigo blue. With the sky and ocean as our first and constant experiences of these hues, it is no wonder we are enamoured with our own planet’s primary colours.

A blue painted wall or even a blue floor can be a wonderful and serene accent to your home or workplace. In many Mediterranean countries, blue is painted on the outsides of houses, sometimes with white, creating a painterly colour play between the facades, the natural light and environment.

Gemstones are a wonderful source of bringing colour into our lives. I rounded up a list of my favourite popular and interesting blue gemstones. Rocks and Co. has a very nice collection of blue gemstone jewellery which can be filtered via gemstone, jewellery style or simply by colour!

Apatite

Apatite is an easily misidentified, gemstone due to its great variety of colours and varieties. It is has been confused with Tourmaline, Peridot and Beryl. However, Apatite does not need to hide behind other gems because the gem possesses its very own beauty. Apatite belongs to the allochromatic, i.e. foreign-coloured minerals. As a pure substance, Apatite is almost colourless. Apatite crystals are calcium phosphates that are part of the teeth and bones of all vertebrates.

Aquamarine

March’s birthstone has always been associated with the sea, hence the name, which in Latin translates to Sea Water. Popularly believed for some time to protect sailors from the dangers of the sea and to actually calm waves. The gemstone is a green-blue to a blue variety of Beryl.

Blue Agate

Blue Agate is a very durable banded chalcedony Quartz.  Classically all chalcedony are associated with volcanic rock. Historically it has been used in hardstone carving.  Also known as Blue Lace Agate, Mohave blue Agate, Blue-banded Agate.

Blue Moonstone

Moonstone is the best-known variety of orthoclase potassium feldspar. The name ‘Moonstone’ is owed to the gemstone’s bluish-white shimmering effect that reminds one of the billowy clouds veiling a moon in the night sky.

Blue Rainbow Moonstone

Rainbow Moonstone is blue,  transparent, and gorgeous. The gem is part of the plagioclase feldspar that exhibits a bluish adularescence similar to the potassium feldspar moonstone. But in fact, the gem is not a Moonstone.

Blue Topaz

One of the most popular gems of all at the moment. This beauty rates 8 on the Mohs scale of hardness and is stunning yet affordable! Irradiation and enhancement, contribute to the hues of the blues in this family including London Blue, Swiss Blue, and Sky Blue Topaz.H

Blue Zircon

The oldest material found on planet earth, Zircon first found in Australia. Sometimes Zircon irradiates its self with uranium thus changing its properties. Zircon has an extremely high level of dispersion. Although it is a naturally occurring gem the colour blue is created via the radiation of brown Zircons. Please do not confuse this stone with the ‘fake diamond’ Cubic Zirconia!

Sapphire

Weighing in at 9 on the Mohs scale of hardness, the gems is as strong as it is stunning. A variety of the mineral corundum which is an aluminium oxide.  Typically blue but fancy sapphires occur in purple, yellow, green and some are parti – Sapphires which show two colours. There are Pink Sapphires and if the hue is dark enough they are no longer Sapphires but Rubies. But that is another colour story.

Tanzanite

The Tanzanite is pleochroic, more precisely, trichromatic (three-coloured). This means that each Tanzanite crystal has three colours: Blue, a purple-red and a greenish-yellow brown (bronze), whereby the intensity of the individual colours depends on the respective viewing angle. Originally found in Tanzania it has become very popular.

These are just a few of my favourites. For more varieties, come back to this column regularly and check out the shop, using the colour filter!