Two blue stones sit side by side. Both are sold as lapis lazuli, both cost about the same, and one of them is not lapis at all.
Lapis is harder to judge than most stones, and there is a reason for it. Lapis is not a mineral. It is a rock, made of several minerals grown together, and only one of them is blue.
So "real lapis" is not a yes or no question. It is a question of how much. The line is drawn at one quarter: a rock has to be at least a quarter blue lazurite before it can carry the name.
I cut and set lapis by hand in our workshop in Tbilisi. Below is what the stone is made of, and how to catch the fakes in a few seconds. Also why a raw lapis face looks nothing like the polished lapis you have seen.
What lapis lazuli actually is
Three minerals do the work, and each one has its own color.
Lazurite is the blue. It is the reason the stone exists and the reason it has a name.
Calcite is the white. geology.com calls it "often the second most abundant mineral present", showing up as "white layers, fractures, or mottling".
Pyrite is the gold. It sits in lapis as "tiny, randomly spaced grains with a contrasting gold color", and our article on pyrite explains how to tell that mineral from gold.
| What it is | A rock, not a mineral |
| The blue comes from | Lazurite |
| The white comes from | Calcite |
| The gold comes from | Pyrite |
| Hardness | Soft for a gem, and not the same across one stone |
| Light | Semi-translucent to opaque |
The hardness changes inside one stone
One line in that table is unusual and worth a moment.
Lapis does not have one hardness. geology.com gives the range inside a single stone as "a Mohs 3 for calcite to the 6.5 of pyrite". So one stone carries soft patches and hard patches sitting next to each other.
That is why lapis is shaped into domes, beads and inlay instead of being cut into facets. A facet needs a material that behaves the same all the way across, and lapis does not. It is also why the setting matters more here than it does with a harder stone.
Why raw lapis does not look like the lapis you have seen
Search for lapis lazuli and almost every picture shows the same thing: a smooth dome, evenly dark, with a mirror finish. That is polished lapis, and polishing does two things at once.
It takes the surface down to one flat plane. That is the only way to get a mirror out of a material with soft and hard patches in it. It also gathers all the returned light into a single bright spot.
A raw face works the other way round. The surface is a crust of small crystals standing at their own angles, so the light does not come back in one patch. It comes back from hundreds of separate points, and the stone reads brighter and busier than a polished one of the same color.
Neither surface is more real than the other. They are two faces of the same rock.
Strong violet is the top of the scale
One thing about color surprises people. A strong violet blue is not a sign that something has been done to the stone. GIA describes lapis lazuli's "signature hue" as "slightly greenish blue to violetish blue, medium to dark in tone, and highly saturated". Strong and violet is the color the trade grades highest.
Here is the honest half. A raw face is not glossy, it is not flat, and it will not throw a clean reflection. What it gives you instead is the surface the stone grew, and no two of those are alike. That is the same reason the stones in our raw and uncut jewelry stop before the polish.
Four checks for fake lapis
1. Look for variation
Lapis is a rock, so its blue is never perfectly even. The tone shifts across the stone, and often there are white calcite areas or gold pyrite specks as well.
GIA notes that "in its most-prized form, lapis lazuli has no visible calcite", so a stone with no white in it is not a problem at all. What matters is that the blue itself varies. Dyed stone and plastic come out flat and identical from edge to edge.
2. Look into the cracks and the drill hole
The International Gem Society lists dyeing as the most common lapis treatment, alongside "heat treatment, fracture filling, wax and oil impregnation".
Dye settles wherever the surface is broken. Hold the piece under a lamp and look into any crack, pit or drill hole. If the color is much stronger in there than on the face, it was added.
3. Weigh it and hold it
Glass and plastic are the cheapest imitations and the easiest to catch. Plastic reaches skin temperature in seconds and feels light for its size. Glass can show round bubbles inside it, or a faint seam left by the mold.
4. Read the name on the label
"Swiss lapis" and "German lapis" are not lapis. IGS describes the material as dyed jasper, "misleadingly referred to as 'Swiss lapis'". Dyed howlite is sold the same way.
Sodalite is a real stone, but a different one. IGS calls it "the only natural gemstone readily available in large enough sizes with a deep enough blue to be a convincing lapis simulant". Gold specks, where you can see them, point to lapis.
What these four checks cannot do
Lapis has been grown in a laboratory since Pierre Gilson's work in Paris, and IGS notes that suppliers sell the synthetic version "with or without pyrite". There is a chemical test that settles the question, and it belongs in a laboratory rather than on your kitchen table.
So past these four checks, it comes down to who you buy from. And that is really a question about where the stone came from.
Thousands of years from the same mountains
Most gemstones have moved around. New deposits turn up, old ones run out, and the map changes. Lapis has barely moved at all.
GIA puts it plainly. The finest lapis still comes from "the mountains of Afghanistan", and that source is "the same today as it was thousands of years ago". The other major sources GIA names are Chile and Lake Baikal in Siberia.
That is why lapis turns up so early in human history. The International Gem Society records that in ancient Egypt "pharaohs favored lapis lazuli". Judges there "wore emblems of Maat, the goddess of truth, made from the stone".
The most expensive color ever made
Then the stone had a second life, as paint. Renaissance painters ground lapis into a pigment called ultramarine. IGS records that "Michelangelo used lapis lazuli powder for the blue colors in his frescoes for the Sistine Chapel."
That was not a cheap decision. The pigment history project Pigments Through the Ages writes that "ultramarine is famous for having been the most expensive pigment. It was more expensive than gold during the Renaissance."
So when a painter chose that blue for a sky or a robe, the choice showed. Anyone looking at the finished picture knew roughly what it had cost.
Here is the odd thing about lapis. It is not the rarest stone in the world. It has simply been wanted, without a break, for longer than almost anything else people wear.
What makes one piece cost more than another
Lapis is not priced by weight the way a diamond is. GIA grades it on what you can see, and three things do most of the work.
Color
This is the big one, and the top of the scale is the hue we met earlier: deep, saturated, leaning violet. At the other end, GIA says, "the lowest-quality lapis looks dull and green".
White
The most-prized form has no visible calcite, and GIA adds that "lapis with white calcite streaks is less valuable".
So white areas are honest proof that the stone is a rock rather than a dyed one. A lot of them still costs you.
Gold
Pyrite is treated differently. GIA again: "if the flecks are small and sprinkled attractively throughout the gem, their presence doesn't necessarily lower lapis lazuli's value."
Too much of it is another matter. An excess of pyrite is what turns the lowest grades dull and green.
The work around the stone
All of that prices a piece of rough. A finished piece is priced on something else as well.
The silver has to be drawn, cut and soldered by somebody. The stone has to be shaped and set by hand, one at a time, with no second chance if the setting goes wrong.
Two stones of the same grade can end up in two very different pieces. That difference is not in the rock.
Looking after lapis
Lapis asks for less than people expect, and the instructions come from one place.
The International Gem Society is direct: "the old standby of a soft brush and mild soap is recommended for cleaning lapis lazuli. Avoid mechanical cleaning, such as steam or ultrasonic systems, and chemical solvents."
That last word matters more for lapis than for most stones. IGS lists "wax and oil impregnation" among the common treatments, so a solvent can strip something off the surface that was put there on purpose.
Five habits that cover it
- Wash it in warm water with mild soap and a soft brush, then dry it
- Never use an ultrasonic cleaner, steam, or a jewelry dip
- Put it on after perfume, hairspray and hand cream, never before
- Store it on its own, because most stones in a jewelry box are harder than lapis
- A raw surface holds soap where a polished one sheds it, so rinse it properly and dry it
One more thing, and this one comes from the bench rather than a book. Earrings and pendants hang clear and meet almost nothing all day. A ring meets more corners than anything else you wear, so take it off before heavy work with your hands.
How we work with lapis at Akra
Our workshop and our shop are the same room in Tbilisi. Every piece is drawn, cut and set there, in 925 sterling silver.
Lapis sets a particular problem. The face of the stone is the whole point, so it cannot be covered. The stone also has soft patches inside it, so it has to be held firmly. Those two things pull against each other, and the answer comes out different every time.
One stone is held by a net. Silver branches run across its face and grip it from above, with no frame around it at all. The blue shows through the openings instead of through one cut window.
Another sits in an unbroken rim of small beads running the whole way round. Another is held by claws with beaded tips that fold over the edge. On our lapis lazuli earrings, a crown of fine silver teeth does the same job, set close together.
Why the silver is darkened
The silver is oxidized dark in all of them, and that is a color decision rather than a style one. Against dark metal the blue reads deeper. Against bright silver it reads cooler and thinner.
Behind most of the stones the silver is cut through into a branching pattern instead of being closed with a plate. It keeps a larger piece from feeling like a block of metal, and it means the stone has a back as well as a front.
Every piece is one of one. Lapis never repeats, so the setting built around it does not repeat either.
Everything currently finished is in lapis lazuli jewelry, including the lapis lazuli necklaces and the lapis lazuli rings. If you are in Tbilisi, the workshop is at 13 Abano Street in the old town, and you are welcome to come and look at the stones in daylight.
Quick answers
Is lapis lazuli expensive?
It is far more affordable than the stones people usually call precious. Price follows color first: a strong, deep, slightly violet blue costs more than a pale or greenish one. In a finished piece the silver and the work count as well.
How can I tell if my lapis is real?
Look for variation in the blue, because dyed stone and plastic come out flat and even. Look into any crack or drill hole for color pooling there. Then check the weight and the warmth, because plastic is light and reaches skin temperature in seconds.
What is the difference between lapis lazuli and sodalite?
They are two different minerals that can look alike. IGS calls sodalite the only natural stone convincing enough to pass for lapis. Gold pyrite specks, where you can see them, point to lapis.
Can lapis lazuli get wet?
Yes, briefly. IGS recommends warm water, mild soap and a soft brush for cleaning it. Keep it away from solvents, and never put it through a steam or ultrasonic cleaner.
How hard is lapis lazuli?
It does not have a single hardness. Because it is a rock, the range inside one stone runs from about 3 to 6.5. Either way it is soft enough to be stored away from harder stones.
Why is your lapis not shiny?
Because we stop before the polish. A polished dome gathers light into one bright patch. A raw face has a crust of small crystals and throws light back from hundreds of points instead.
Is lapis lazuli dyed?
Often, yes. IGS lists dyeing as the most common lapis treatment. It is a fair question to ask any seller, and the cracks and the drill hole are where it shows.
