November Birthstone | Citrine & Topaz

It’s hard to believe November is right here, the end of 2020 is just around the corner.

We have chosen this month to start writing about birthstones, basically because this month marked being the first month in Melbourne, after the possibly the harshest lockdown during the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic. It is like a new start for many of us, along with so many positive vibes, I decided to add a bit more sparkle to this special month.

November Birthstone: Citrine

This golden juicy stone has been named the November Birthstone, possibly due to its golden body colour with a hint of orange. Its colour scheme also represents the colourful season of fall in many parts of the world. As a member of the Quartz family, Citrine shares its toughness (7 out of 10 on the Mohs scale) and durability along with other quartz members.

This Gem is mostly used in jewellery design pieces for its top clarity and soft yet beautiful colour. So either it’s your birthstone or just because your appreciation of its bright sunny hue, it will make a perfect jewellery piece or become just simply a part of your gemstone collection.

November Birthstone: Topaz

Another November Birthstone is the famous Topaz. People commonly know topaz as being blue (so-called Blue London Topaz), since you can see them in a blue hue and set in jewellery more often than others. However, this gem comes in various shades and can be found in huge and flawless crystals. Its hardness is 8 (harder than quartz), transparent and vitreous just like citrine.

Its colour ranges from colourless, pink, green, white, yellow, red, brown, purple, grey, white to even being multicolour. The fact is, most blue topaz in the market are heat treated or irradiated from colourless ones.

There is always been a debate if treated stones are non-natural, but the truth is many gemstones you see used in jewellery are treated in some way to gain perfection, and they are still undeniably natural stones (which will be a totally different topic for another day).

The most valuable and rarest topaz is called Imperial Topaz, which has golden yellow hues to most sought after sherry pink like a sunset. Same as citrine, this gem makes awesome everyday jewellery and we have seen them appear in many masterpieces.

To both the citrine and topaz lovers, you are in luck of these beautiful gems with gorgeous colours. However, even they are in the high scale of hardness, it’s still not recommended for you to put them in an ultrasonic cleaner. So for the daily maintenance of jewellery sets with either of these kinds of gemstones, gentle warm soapy water with a brush will do the trick. More jewellery cleaning tips can be found here.

Enjoy this extra bit of sunshine in your life and for sure, when the clouds cover the sun, you still have your own to brighten your day!

Have a great month!