Two gemstones.
Side by side.

GEMSTONE ONE

Rutile

Rutile: titanium dioxide oxide with red-brown, black, golden yellow and brown appearance; Mohs 6–6.5. Mineral identification, origins, care and buying guide.

Colour & appearance

Red-brown, black, golden yellow and brown

Mineral family

Titanium dioxide oxide

Mohs hardness

6–6.5

Representative source regions

Brazil; Madagascar; Switzerland; Australia

Brazil Madagascar Switzerland Australia

Jewellery & care

Durable enough in some protected settings but slender natural crystals are fragile; use the separate rutilated-quartz guide for quartz-set jewellery. Unlike a photographed product listing, this guide's AI illustration is not a rea...

RedBlackGoldenBrown

Read the Rutile guide

GEMSTONE TWO

Sapphire

Sapphire is a gem variety of corundum, often associated with blue but also found in other colours. Its hardness makes it an enduring jewellery material, although the secu...

Colour & appearance

Blue and other colours

Mineral family

Corundum (Al₂O₃)

Mohs hardness

9

Representative source regions

Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Myanmar, Australia, Thailand and Montana in the United States are recognised sources. The Kashmir region is historically famous for highly valued blue sapphires.

Sri Lanka Madagascar Myanmar Australia Thailand United States

Jewellery & care

Choose the style and setting to suit the specific stone, treatment information and intended use.

Blue

Read the Sapphire guide

Hardness measures scratch resistance, not breakage. Source regions are educational examples, not claims about the provenance of an individual GEMHOOD product. Images may be digital gemstone illustrations.