Strawberry Quartz Jewelry
Clear quartz peppered with red mineral flakes, like strawberry pulp frozen in ice
Unearthed Gemstones Strawberry Quartz Jewelry
Click the photos for a closer look of the jewelry pieces
Hardness
7 (Durable): Great for daily wear.
Toughness
Good (Generally resistant to chipping under normal wear)
Mineral Family
Quartz
Transparency
Transparent to Translucent
Crystal System
Trigonal
Lustre
Vitreous
What Is Strawberry Quartz?
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.
Is Strawberry Quartz Durable Enough for Everyday Jewelry?
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.
How to Care for Strawberry Quartz Jewelry
Care is easy: just warm, soapy water and a soft cloth.
How to Tell If Strawberry Quartz Is Real
Its 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. 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.
Gemstones Similar to Strawberry Quartz
Rose quartz is its cousin but with pink colours, while rutilated quartz and aventurine share the look of sparkling inclusions.
