We love Natural, untreated Gemstones and a large portion of the Gems we sell are completely Natural and untreated. That is just the way nature intended them to be.

However, nature’s intentions don’t always coincide with human tastes and preferences. The alchemists in humans have discovered over the course of hundreds of years that some gems respond favorably to certain treatments e.g. heating or oiling. We have seen several new sophisticated treatments being developed in the past 50 years, some more questionable than others.

Treatments in Gemstones are generally acceptable if they are stable, durable and disclosed. The Gemstones themselves have to be appropriately priced after undergoing these treatments.

We promote full disclosure of all treatments carried out on Gemstones. We strongly believe this is essential knowledge that must be passed on at every step of the chain, from mining to processing to manufacturing to the end consumer. That is the only way to maintain the confidence of the consumer, without which the industry doesn’t survive.

We will always disclose all treatments or enhancements on all Gemstones that we work with, and that we are aware of.* Fortunately, most of the time we work from rough (purchased from trusted miners and suppliers), and we control the processing of that rough including grading, sawing, preforming, cutting, and treating (if necessary). This means that we can confidently disclose any and all treatments done to the Gemstones.

As a matter of business policy we only work with trusted suppliers and primarily with Natural, untreated gemstones, as much as possible.

We use the following enhancement codes recommended by the American Gem Trade Association (AGTA) for disclosing treatments:

N – Not Enhanced
B – Bleaching
C – Coating
D – Dyeing
F – Filling
H – Heating
HP – Heat & Pressure
I – Impregnation
L – Lasering
O – Oiling/Resin Infusion
R – Irradiation
U – Diffusion
W – Waxing/Oiling in Opaque Stones
SC – Special Care Required
ASBL – Assembled
CMP – Composite

For more information about AGTA please visit their website https://www.agta.org

* on the rare occasion where we are unsure about whether a treatment or enhancement has been carried out to a particular gemstone we will clearly inform our customers about this.