March Birthstone: Aquamarine Jewelry

Aquamarine is the modern March birthstone. Bloodstone is the traditional alternative and still appears in older lists, but aquamarine is what nearly all March birthstone jewellery uses today.

Aquamarine is the blue variety of beryl, the same mineral species as emerald, coloured by trace iron.

The name comes from the Latin for seawater, which describes the colour of the stone about as directly as a gem name ever has.

Because it is a light-toned stone by nature. Aquamarine's colour range runs from very pale sky blue to a deeper blue, but even the deeper material is light compared with a sapphire.

Size matters more here than with a saturated stone. Colour depends partly on the depth of material light travels through, so a larger aquamarine shows its blue noticeably better than a small one cut from the same rough.

If colour intensity is the priority, choosing a larger stone or a deeper-cut one does more for it than anything else.

Most aquamarine has been gently heated, and this is standard practice across the trade rather than something done to particular stones.

Heating removes a greenish or yellowish cast and shifts the colour toward a purer blue. The result is stable and permanent - it does not fade back over time.

It requires no special care and does not change how the stone should be cleaned or worn.

Generally yes, and this is where aquamarine differs sharply from its relative emerald. Aquamarine typically grows clean and buyers should expect an eye-clean stone.

Visible inclusions in aquamarine count as a fault rather than as character, which is the opposite of how emerald is judged.

That expectation is why aquamarine is cut into open brilliant styles that show transparency, rather than the protective step cuts emerald requires.

Yes - at 7.5 to 8 on the Mohs scale it is one of the more practical coloured stones for regular ring wear, comfortably harder than amethyst, citrine or peridot.

That durability is why it appears in stackable and everyday designs rather than only in occasion pieces.

Beryl does have a degree of brittleness, so a sharp knock can still chip it. A bezel or a lower profile setting is worth considering for a ring that will take real use.

Partly decoration and partly optics. A pale blue stone benefits from something bright and colourless beside it, which gives the eye a point of reference and makes the blue read more distinctly.

Diamond accents also add sparkle that a light-toned stone does not generate on its own, particularly in indoor light.

The same reasoning explains why white metals suit aquamarine so well - they keep the background clean rather than tinting the stone.

They are different minerals. Aquamarine is beryl coloured by iron; blue topaz is topaz, and almost all of it is irradiated and heated to produce the blue, since natural blue topaz is rare.

Blue topaz is generally the more saturated of the two and comes in defined shades - sky, Swiss and London blue - while aquamarine's colour is softer and more variable.

Topaz is slightly harder at 8 but has a distinct cleavage direction, which makes it more vulnerable to a sharp knock than its hardness alone suggests.

White gold and platinum keep the blue clean and are the most common pairing, particularly when diamond accents are involved.

Yellow gold warms the stone considerably and gives it a more traditional, softer look - a genuine choice rather than a compromise.

Rose gold sets warm metal against cool stone, which is a striking contrast that some people love. It is worth looking at the same design in more than one colour before deciding.

Larger than you might for a saturated stone, if colour matters to you. Because aquamarine is light in tone, a small stone can read as nearly colourless while the same material at a larger size shows its blue clearly.

Sizes are stated in millimetres rather than carat weight, since millimetres describe what the wearer actually sees.

For earrings and a discreet everyday pendant, smaller stones are perfectly satisfactory - the size argument matters most where the stone is meant to be the focus.

Warm water, a little mild soap and a soft brush, then rinse thoroughly and dry with a soft cloth.

Avoid steam cleaning, and treat ultrasonic cleaning as unwise for any stone that might carry a fracture reaching the surface. Keep the piece away from household cleaning chemicals.

Prolonged exposure to strong light is best avoided as a precaution. In ordinary wear aquamarine is a stable, easy stone to live with.