Coloured gemstones

Coloured gemstones come in an incredible array of colours and varieties. Emeralds, rubies and sapphires are most well-known, but our testing services and research efforts go far beyond these three varieties. Our expertise in treatment detection and origin determination of coloured gemstones is based on decades of research, a large reference collection and continuously developing new techniques to analyse these treasures of nature.

We test different types of coloured stones

  • Single or series of loose coloured gemstones
  • Gemstones mounted in jewellery
  • Coloured stone bead necklaces

For more specific information on disclosure and standards, and issues related to specific coloured gemstones please visit the Understand SSEF Reports page, which offers extensive details on individual varieties of gemstones.

Explore our research library

The spinels were nearly free of any inclusions except for a few tiny colourless forsterite inclusions. In combination with trace element analyses, the origin of these spinels could be unambiguously attributed to the famous spinel mines near Kuh-i-Lal, located in the Pamir mountains in southern Tajik

Copper-bearing tourmaline from Nigeria is known in the trade since about two decades (Milisenda 2001, Henricus, 2001; Smith et al., 2001; Zang et al., 2001). The first reported material from Nigeria was rather of aquamarine- to amethyst-like colours, but shortly after it was followed by a limited an

by Dr. M.S. Krzemnicki, first published in Facette 27 (June 2021) It cannot be repeated often enough: any gemstone which contains fissures is prone to be treated with fissure filling substances, either by using a colourless or coloured substances (e.g. oil). Even when the stone comes from

by Dr. M.S. Krzemnicki, first published in Facette 27 (June 2021) Tourmaline is a mineral group of complex boro-silicates and is well known to produce gemstones in a wide range of beautiful colours. A specifically attractive variety is vivid yellow elbaite tourmaline, which owes its colour