Strawberry quartz is clear quartz peppered with tiny red to pink flakes of iron minerals, usually hematite or lepidocrocite, which really do make it look like strawberry pulp frozen in ice. Genuine material is scarce and comes in modest sizes from sources including Kazakhstan, Russia, Mexico and Brazil. And that scarcity leads to the elephant in the room: an awful lot of what is sold online as strawberry quartz is actually pink glass filled with sparkly flecks. The real thing is subtler, with irregular, plate-like flakes scattered unevenly through genuine crystal.
Being quartz, the genuine stone has a hardness of 7 and wears comfortably in everyday rings, pendants and beads. It is cut as faceted stones, cabochons and beads, with the inclusions doing all the decorating. To check what you are holding: glass imitations often contain round gas bubbles and uniform glitter, while natural stones show random, layered flakes. At Unearthed Gemstones we only sell the genuine article. Care is easy, just warm, soapy water and a soft cloth.
Rose quartz is its cousin but with pink colours, while rutilated quartz and aventurine share the look of sparkling inclusions.
