Aura Quartz
quartz with vapour-deposited metal film
Ordinary quartz run through a vacuum chamber and fused with vaporised metal, a 1980s lapidary trick that produced the most photogenic object in the entire crystal market. It is genuinely quartz wearing a genuinely artificial skin, and honest sellers say so. People carry it for intuition, transformation and calm.
Seen · you don't have this one yet
Natural quartz bonded in a vacuum chamber with vaporised titanium, gold, platinum, silver or niobium. The stone is real; the colour is a manufactured coating a few atoms thick, commercially available since the 1980s. It is permanent but abradable.
This one does not go in water. It dissolves.
Mineral facts
Hardness
7 Mohs
Formula
SiO2 + Ti / Au / Pt / Ag / Nb film
Family
quartz
Where it comes from
coating applied in USA, China, India, Brazil; host quartz usually Brazilian or Arkansan
What it is
Ordinary quartz run through a vacuum chamber and fused with vaporised metal, a 1980s lapidary trick that produced the most photogenic object in the entire crystal market. It is genuinely quartz wearing a genuinely artificial skin, and honest sellers say so. Treat the coating as paint, because functionally it is.
What it is confused with
rainbow-obsidian, bismuth, labradorite, synthetic-opal, opalite
Impossible metallic iridescence, oil-slick teal, magenta and gold shifting across the surface with viewing angle, sitting only on the outside of the crystal. The film stops abruptly at broken or sawn faces, exposing plain grey-white quartz beneath, and it wears thin at high points and edges where handling has rubbed it. Colours are far more saturated and more evenly chromatic than any natural iridescence. Aqua aura is a flat electric blue with a mirror sheen; angel aura is milky pearlescent.
Commonly faked · check before you buy
How to tell
Find any chipped, sawn or broken area, a coated stone shows ordinary uncoloured quartz underneath. Natural iridescence (labradorite, rainbow obsidian) sits inside the stone and moves as you tilt through a plane, rather than covering every surface uniformly.
Natural quartz bonded in a vacuum chamber with vaporised titanium, gold, platinum, silver or niobium. The stone is real; the colour is a manufactured coating a few atoms thick, commercially available since the 1980s. It is permanent but abradable.
What it means for you
The Moon is at 1° Scorpio today. Aura Quartz is a quartz, 7 on the Mohs scale, and it is the stone traditionally carried when the problem is proximity rather than intensity.
You know what this one would do for you. You just don't have it.
Aura Quartz for every sign
Aries
Treat the coating as paint, and never soak it.
The oil-slick colour is vaporised titanium or gold bonded onto real quartz in a vacuum chamber, a 1980s lapidary trick that nobody hid at the time. Chip an edge and you see plain grey quartz beneath. Treat the coating as paint, and never soak it.
Taurus
Honest sellers say so and have since the 1980s.
Vaporised titanium or gold, bonded onto real quartz in a vacuum chamber, a film a few atoms thick. Honest sellers say so and have since the 1980s. Do not soak it, do not salt it, do not scrub it, because all three take the film off and leave you holding grey quartz.
Gemini
The stone is honest and the surface is not.
Find a chipped edge and the oil-slick colour stops dead, with plain grey quartz underneath. It is genuine quartz wearing vaporised titanium a few atoms thick, bonded in a vacuum chamber since the 1980s. The stone is honest and the surface is not.
Cancer
The stone did nothing wrong and cannot survive salt water.
Someone put ordinary quartz in a vacuum chamber and bonded vaporised titanium onto it, a coat a few atoms thick. The film stops at every sawn face, with grey quartz sitting underneath. The stone did nothing wrong and it will not survive a soak in salt water.
Leo
The film is atoms thick. The quartz beneath is real.
A few atoms thick. That is the whole titanium or gold film that produces the oil-slick colour, bonded on in a vacuum chamber, commercially available since the 1980s, and it rubs away first at the edges you handle. The quartz underneath is grey, ordinary and completely real.
Virgo
Treat the coating as paint, because functionally it is.
Real quartz bonded in a vacuum chamber with vaporised titanium or gold, a film a few atoms thick. Find any sawn or chipped edge and ordinary grey-white stone shows through underneath. Treat the coating as paint, because that is the maintenance it needs. No soaking and no salt.
Libra
The stone is innocent.
Real quartz bonded in a vacuum chamber with vaporised titanium or gold, a film a few atoms thick. Break it and the colour stops dead at the fracture, plain grey quartz underneath. Someone lied to you about this one. The stone is innocent.
Scorpio
Find any chipped edge. Plain grey quartz underneath.
Quartz run through a vacuum chamber and bonded with vaporised titanium, gold or niobium, a film a few atoms thick. Find any chipped edge and plain grey quartz sits underneath. Someone probably sold it to you without saying so, and the stone had no part in that.
Sagittarius
It is honest work badly labelled.
Run quartz through a vacuum chamber with vaporised titanium or gold and you get a film a few atoms thick, permanent until you rub it. Find a chipped edge and the plain grey quartz underneath is right there. It is honest work badly labelled.
Capricorn
The coating is paint and it wears like paint.
Real quartz run through a vacuum chamber and bonded with vaporised gold or titanium, a film a few atoms thick. Find a sawn edge and the plain grey rock shows underneath. The stone is innocent. The coating is paint and it wears like paint.
Aquarius
Break the crystal and the film stops dead at the new face.
The coating is a few atoms of vaporised metal fused on in a vacuum chamber, a lapidary trick from the 1980s. Break the crystal and the film stops dead at the new face. Treat it as paint, because functionally that is what it is.
Pisces
It wears thin exactly where hands go.
The metallic film is a few atoms thick and it wears thin exactly where hands go, at the high points and the edges. It was fused on in a vacuum chamber in the 1980s, which honest sellers say out loud. Do not soak it or salt it, because both strip the colour off entirely.
Correspondences
What tradition attaches to this stone. Folklore, not chemistry.
Element
spirit
Planet
Neptune
Chakra
crown, third-eye, throat
Signs
aquarius, pisces, gemini
What tradition says
In crystal lore, aura quartz varieties are assigned high-chakra and 'angelic' attributions by colour; practitioners are openly divided over whether a manufactured coating carries any tradition at all, and the app should say so.
Care
- Do not put this one in water. It dissolves or spalls. Dust it dry.
- Salt scratches it. Do not bury it in salt.
- Do not soak, do not salt, do not scrub — all three strip or dull the metallic film. Wipe dry with a soft cloth only.
Common questions
What does aura quartz mean?
Aura Quartz is carried for intuition, transformation and calm. Ordinary quartz run through a vacuum chamber and fused with vaporised metal, a 1980s lapidary trick that produced the most photogenic object in the entire crystal market.. Tradition links it to the crown, third-eye, throat chakra.
Is aura quartz real or fake?
Natural quartz bonded in a vacuum chamber with vaporised titanium, gold, platinum, silver or niobium. The stone is real; the colour is a manufactured coating a few atoms thick, commercially available since the 1980s.. Find any chipped, sawn or broken area, a coated stone shows ordinary uncoloured quartz underneath. Natural iridescence (labradorite, rainbow obsidian) sits inside the stone and moves as you tilt through a plane, rather than covering every surface uniformly.. Natural quartz bonded in a vacuum chamber with vaporised titanium, gold, platinum, silver or niobium.
Can aura quartz go in water?
No. Aura Quartz dissolves or spalls in water. Dust it dry instead of soaking it, and keep it out of salt.
Common · iridescent teal-violet, electric blue, peacock, pearlescent white-pink
Where this leads
This stone belongs to
Related crystals
Is it real?
FOR ENTERTAINMENT AND REFLECTION. NOT MEDICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, FINANCIAL OR LEGAL ADVICE. How this works