Loose sapphires may not be as expensive as diamonds but they still cost a lot. Therefore it makes sense to choose only the best quality loose sapphires. Here is how you should go about it:

* The first thing to be done is find a store that has a good reputation. Such a store will always give you best quality loose sapphires. Once you are shown the loose sapphires, you have to first confirm that they have not been artificially treated in some way to increase their value, by adding to their appearance.

* You should pay due attention to the color of the stone. The best quality loose sapphires have a deep blue color and the color does not change even if the lighting changes.

* The best quality loose sapphires should not have any scratches or visible inclusions. Look for them carefully.

* Also pay attention to the cut of the loose sapphires. The best quality loose sapphires have cuts that cause the light to reflect evenly off the stone’s surface.

I have a lot of friends who want to buy loose sapphires for personalized sapphire rings. Since, they asked for help I spent a whole day researching on the different types of loose sapphires available. Here is what I found out:

Loose Sapphires

Well the first thing that I found out was that Sapphires are not always necessarily blue. They instead come in a number of colors. Usually, the blue color of the loose sapphires changes to some other shade due to the presence of impurities. Normally, the various elements like Iron, chromium and titanium make up for the impurities that cause a change in the gemstone’s hue and color.

The other popular colors include green, pink, yellow and orange. Some of the sapphires also support a grayish or black tone.

Apart from the usually shaped sapphires, one type that is very popular is the star sapphires which have an appearance that resembles a star. The star shaped pattern usually appears whenever a single top-down light source is used to light the sapphire. This pattern is also known as asterism and is caused by a number of needle impurities present in the loose sapphires.