I spent six years in a grading lab, staring through a loupe until my eyes felt like they were filled with grit, and if there is one thing I learned, it’s that people love to sell you a story to justify a high markup. You’ll see shops claiming you need a specific sapphire just because … Read more
I once spent a frantic hour in a humid hotel room in Bangkok, staring at a velvet pouch and wondering if I’d actually packed my sapphire ring or if I was just hallucinating from the heat. There is this ridiculous, expensive myth that you need a heavy-duty, biometric safe to handle travelling with gemstone jewellery, … Read more
I remember sitting in a cramped grading lab in Bergen, squinting through a loupe at a parcel of sapphires that looked like deep, midnight ocean water under the halogen lamps. Then, a colleague moved them toward the window, and suddenly they were a bright, electric cornflower blue—the color of the North Sea right after a … Read more
I was sitting in a cramped grading lab in Bergen, staring through a loupe at a piece of amethyst that looked like it had been dyed in a vat of grape soda, when I first realized how much nonsense people buy into. The salesperson was spinning some yarn about how this specific stone was the … Read more
I spent six years in a grading lab, staring through a loupe at the microscopic inclusions that tell a stone’s true history, so I have a very low tolerance for expensive, airy nonsense. I see people online selling “moon-charged” kits for ridiculous prices, acting as if the lunar cycle is some kind of high-voltage battery … Read more
I spent six years in a grading lab, squinting through a loupe until my eyes felt like they were filled with sand, mostly to separate the real from the manufactured. I’ve seen people spend a small fortune on “healing” stones that are actually just dyed glass or heat-treated scraps, sold under the guise of deep … Read more
I remember sitting in the lab back in Bergen, squinting through a loupe at a tray of diamond eternity bands that had been sent in for a “quality check.” The jeweler was frantic, claiming the stones were “eternally secure,” but as I leaned in, I saw the truth: a microscopic gap between the girdle of … Read more