Apr 28, 20212 min read

Identifying Fake Crystals

Updated: Jul 22, 2023

Identifying fake crystals can sometimes be hard and I’m here to help

with a few red flags, I will update this post frequently and it’s my promise to you

to never misrepresent in my store any product.

Citrine - Let's start with citrine, my own first fake piece before I became more educated.

Don’t get me wrong I still value my fake citrine it’s a beautiful piece, but I was disappointed nonetheless because the energy & vibrations are not the same.

fake citrine or heat-treated amethyst generally has a white bottom and deep-colored tips, real citrine almost looks like a pale yellow quartz and is hard to find. It has quartz-like shapes. Citrine has lots of clarity and the color is uniform throughout the crystal With no white base.

Quartz- Quite simply if your quartz has tiny bubbles it’s likely glass. I find Brazil quartz to be very clear and is hard to determine if it’s glass, whereas Arkansas quartz is very obviously real with its sometimes cloudy appearance. I have quartz from Brazil and Arkansas and my Arkansas piece is very powerful. Aura quartz is regular quartz that’s been bonded with another material, they sure are beautiful though! Any fruit named quartz Is dyed. Any brightly colored neon-colored quartz is dyed.

Smoky Quartz- Basically smoky quartz is not black, that’s irradiated black quartz. If the ”smoky quartz” is basically black it’s quartz. Smoky quartz is translucent brown or grey.

Amber- often faked with a Copal, they look nearly identical. Amber will float in salt water, but Copal will not.

Irradiated/Dyed stones- pearls, agates, geodes, and coral are frequently dyed. Very vibrant colors! This isn’t exactly ruining the stone but I prefer the knowledge. If it looks fake, your judgment is probably accurate.

Turquoise- Magnesite and howlite look very similar to turquoise when they’ve been dyed. Magnesite will have very deep cracks in it. You can test turquoise with an up test. There is no such thing as white turquoise.

Malachite- This stone is one of the most popular to find fake. Real Malachite isn't cheap. The easiest way to identify fake Malachite is in the patterns and colors. Real Malachite has swirls, waves, rings, and stripes. The fake versions generally have a repeated pattern and tend to stick to stripes because they are easy to achieve. Real Malachite comes in Many shades of green. Whereas fake tends to be darker with black and hard contrast between the lines. Look for no uniform patterns when choosing Malachite

My very own very beautiful FAKE Citrine, this is my heat-treated amethyst. ⬇️ Glad I can help. 😒