Real or fake? Six ways to check a gemstone bracelet

Stones
August 1, 2026
10:34 am

Real or fake? Six ways to check a gemstone bracelet

Most of the crystal jewellery sold online is glass, resin or dyed howlite. Here is how to tell before you spend.

The crystal market has a counterfeit problem, and it is not a small one. A large share of bracelets sold at kiosks and on marketplace sites are glass, polymer-bound stone powder, or a cheap stone dyed to impersonate an expensive one. None of these are illegal to sell. They are only a problem when they are described as something they are not.

Six checks. You can do the first four in a shop, holding the bracelet.

1. The temperature test

Natural stone is a poor conductor of heat. Touch a bead to your lip or the inside of your wrist: real stone feels distinctly cold and takes several seconds to warm. Glass warms almost immediately. Plastic and resin feel neutral from the first second.

This is the single most useful test and it takes two seconds. It works on almost everything in the Premium Collection.

2. Look for imperfection

Count on natural stone to be inconsistent. Real amethyst shows colour zoning — bands of deeper and paler purple through a single bead. Real lapis has calcite veining and pyrite flecks. Real moonstone shows its sheen only from certain angles.

If every bead on a strand is identical, be suspicious. Perfect uniformity is a manufacturing signature, not a quality signature. This is why our Auralith Prism™ fluorite and Auralith Balance™ chakra bracelets look different from one another — and why we say so in why does my bracelet look different from the photo?.

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