Free checker · No account
Is your crystal real? Find out free.
Most “citrine” is heat-treated amethyst. Most “turquoise” is dyed howlite. Upload a photo and we'll tell you how to check yours.
Most crystals sold as rare are real minerals under the wrong name, or common ones that have been heated, dyed or coated. Of the 111 stones in our catalogue, 24 are commonly faked, treated or misnamed. Upload a photo and we will name the likely stone, then give you the physical test that settles it. Free, no account.
Option one
Upload a photo
Daylight, plain background, close enough to see the surface. Your photo is resized and stripped of location data on your device before anything is sent.
Free · No account
Option two
Tell us what it was sold as
Pick the name on the label and we will give you the physical test for that stone, and the imitation it is most often swapped for.
The stones people are most often sold wrong
Each of these has a physical test anyone can run at home. The test is on the page. Free, no account, no email.
Citrine (Heat-Treated Amethyst)
Amethyst (or smoky quartz) roasted at roughly 400–550 °C, which converts the iron colour centres from violet to orange-brown. Stable and permanent; not a fake mineral, but a treated one, and it should be disclosed. It is not sold as treated in most shops.
The test
White chalky base plus sharp orange tips equals heated amethyst, every time. Confirm it is quartz first with a glass scratch, then read the colour boundary. Treatment is permanent and not detectable by any consumer test other than colour distribution.
Turquoise
The great majority of commercial turquoise is treated. Stabilisation (plastic or waterglass impregnation) is near-universal for chalky material; dyeing (often Prussian blue), waxing and oiling are common; 'block' or reconstituted turquoise is powdered stone in resin; and dyed howlite and magnesite are sold outright as turquoise. Untreated natural turquoise is a small fraction of the market.
The test
Turquoise is 5, 6 and resists a steel knife on the harder material; dyed howlite and magnesite (3.5) are cut easily by a knife and show colour concentrated in the veins with a white core visible under a scratch. Acetone on a cotton bud lifts blue dye from howlite and leaves turquoise unchanged. Look at a drill hole: dyed stone shows a white interior.
Moonstone
The test
Real moonstone's sheen is soft, blue-white and directional. Opalite (glass) shows a warm orange glow when backlit and a cold blue glow in reflected light, plus round bubbles under a loupe. Moonstone scratches with quartz but not with a knife, and shows ~90° cleavage steps.
Aura Quartz
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.
The test
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.
Amethyst
The test
Scratches glass; fluorite (4) does not and shows flat octahedral cleavage faces that reflect like tiny mirrors. Genuine amethyst shows angular colour zoning under a light; dyed quartz shows colour trapped in fractures and a dead-uniform body.
Malachite
Frequently stabilised with wax or resin because it is soft and porous. Reconstituted malachite — crushed powder in resin — is widely sold and shows unnaturally regular banding and a slightly plastic feel. Polymer imitations exist.
The test
Scratch it in a hidden spot: malachite is soft (3.5, 4) and leaves a bright green streak. Plastic and glass fakes give no green streak and often show mould seams or bubbles. A drop of vinegar will fizz on malachite (it is a carbonate), but this etches the stone, so use it only on an already-damaged edge.
Amber
Sold under another name
Ammonite
Sold under another name
Aquamarine
Sold under another name
Bismuth
Sold under another name
Black Onyx
Sold under another name
Blue Apatite
Sold under another name
Blue Goldstone
Sold under another name
Calcite (Coloured Varieties)
Sold under another name
Carnelian
Sold under another name
Cherry Quartz
Sold under another name
Chrysocolla
Sold under another name
Emerald
Sold under another name
Goldstone
Sold under another name
Howlite
Sold under another name
Jadeite Jade
Sold under another name
Kunzite
Sold under another name
Lapis Lazuli
Sold under another name
Lepidolite
Sold under another name
Magnesite
Sold under another name
Morganite
Sold under another name
Nephrite Jade
Sold under another name
Common questions
How can you tell if citrine is real?
Almost all citrine on the market is heat-treated amethyst. Look at the base: a white, chalky base with sharp orange tips is heated amethyst. Natural citrine is an even, pale, smoky-lemon colour throughout.
Is my turquoise dyed howlite?
Dyed howlite is softer than turquoise and its matrix lines sit on the surface rather than through the stone. A hidden spot rubbed with acetone will lift dye off howlite.
Can a photo prove my crystal is real?
No, and we will not pretend otherwise. A photograph cannot measure hardness, streak or specific gravity. It gets you most of the way, the right name, the right family, the usual imitation, and then we hand you the physical test that settles it.
Do I need an account to use this?
No. The identification and the physical test are free and never gated. An account is only for keeping your results and reading what each stone means for your birth chart.
Is a treated stone a fake?
Not always. Heating, dyeing and coating are common trade practices. The problem is when a treated stone is sold under a rarer stone's name at a rarer stone's price. We name the treatment and let you decide.
Check your whole collection
Oraclite identifies any stone from a photo, flags the fakes, and tells you what each one means for you. Free to start.