Tourmaline
A close look at October’s modern birthstone: why it comes in almost every colour, the ruby that wasn’t, and how to choose one well.
A stone of many colours
Sometimes more than one at once
Tourmaline has one of the widest colour ranges of any gemstone. It can be pink, peach, green, blue or almost neon teal, and sometimes two or more colours grow through the same crystal. That means choosing tourmaline is often less about deciding you want “a tourmaline” and more about finding the particular colour that stops you.
Watermelon tourmaline
Pink and green occurring together in the same crystal — exactly where the name comes from.
Bi-colour peach tourmaline
Tourmaline can shift colour as the crystal grows, creating stones with two distinct tones in one gem.
Chrome tourmaline
A deeply saturated green tourmaline with the kind of colour that can look almost emerald-like at first glance.
Paraíba tourmaline
Known for electric blue-green colour that can look almost lit from within.
The neon one
Paraíba, and why it looks almost lit from within
In the late 1980s, miners in the Brazilian state of Paraíba found tourmaline in a blue-green so vivid it seemed to glow. The colour comes from copper, an unusual ingredient in tourmaline, and the original deposits produced very little material. Similar copper-bearing tourmaline was later found in Nigeria and Mozambique, but the electric colour of those first Brazilian stones is still what made Paraíba famous.
Brazil
Copper
Electric blue-green
The ruby that wasn’t
Catherine the Great’s tourmaline
For more than three hundred years, one of Europe’s most celebrated jewels was known as Caesar’s Ruby: a red stone of about 255 carats, shaped like a bunch of grapes. It passed through royal collections before King Gustav III of Sweden gave it to Catherine the Great in 1777.
It wasn’t a ruby at all.
In 1922, mineralogist Aleksandr Fersman examined the stone while cataloguing the Russian crown jewels and identified it as rubellite tourmaline. The jewel is still held in Moscow today.
Where the finest are found
Brazil first, then the world
Brazil is tourmaline’s heartland. Minas Gerais has produced fine pinks and greens for generations, while the original Paraíba stones came from the country’s north-east. Copper-bearing tourmaline has since been found in Nigeria and Mozambique, with Madagascar another important source. Afghanistan and the United States also produce notable tourmaline.
Five places worth knowing
A stone with meaning
Creativity, balance, protection
Tourmaline has become associated with creativity, balance and protection — fitting for a gemstone that appears in such an extraordinary range of colours. It was added as an October birthstone in 1952, with pink tourmaline becoming one of the shades most closely associated with the month. It’s also traditionally given for an eighth wedding anniversary.
What to look for
Choosing tourmaline well
Colour leads, then clarity. What counts as good clarity depends on the colour you’re looking at. Green and blue tourmalines are often very clean, so visible inclusions stand out more. Rubellite commonly has inclusions, and they’re more accepted in the trade. Treatment is worth knowing about too: tourmaline may be heated or irradiated to change or enhance its colour, so it’s something you can ask about if you’re curious.
Colour
Start with the colour itself: look for a shade you love that still appears bright rather than overly dark.
Clarity
Expectations vary by colour. Green and blue stones are often cleaner, while inclusions are more commonly accepted in rubellite.
Treatment
Tourmaline can be heated or irradiated to change or enhance its colour. If treatment matters to you, it’s worth asking about.
With tourmaline, start with the colour that makes you stop.
An everyday coloured stone
Tourmaline is a practical choice if you want real colour in jewellery you’ll wear often. It holds up well to regular wear, although it still isn’t indestructible: a hard knock can chip a stone, particularly around exposed corners or edges. A thoughtful setting makes a difference, especially in rings.
Rings
Tourmaline works well in rings, with a setting that gives exposed edges and corners some protection.
Pendants
A pendant lets the colour take centre stage while keeping the stone away from most everyday knocks.
Earrings
Earrings are another low-contact way to wear tourmaline regularly, especially if the colour is the main event.
A lot of colour, without needing to save it for special occasions.
Find your tourmaline
Start with the colour that catches you.
Explore our current tourmaline jewellery. If nothing’s quite right, we can design a piece around the colour, stone and setting you have in mind.
There’s more to explore
Follow the piece that brought you here
Discover something different
Explore unusual gemstones, one-of-a-kind pieces and colours you may not have considered before.
A piece you no longer wear?
If you own coloured-stone jewellery that sits in a drawer, see what could be kept, reset or reworked into something you’ll wear again.
October: Opal
October has another birthstone. Discover Australian opal, play-of-colour and what to know before choosing one.