If you are looking for statement jewellery for the lady in your life, then you can hardly do better than to buy women’s jewellery based on a theme that was very popular among the famous actresses at the Oscars this month.
As Hello! Magazine noted, the 95th Academy Awards saw quite a few actresses displaying jewellery with emeralds, as if green was a specific colour for the occasion.
Actress and singer Sofia Carson displayed a very prominent white gold necklace containing seven octagonal emeralds, measuring 122.49 carats in total, along with plenty of small diamonds.
She was not alone in her love of the green gems, with Jessica Chastain’s Gucci necklace also combining emeralds and diamonds, while Fan Bingbing wore square cut emerald earrings to go with her green gown.
Emeralds are, therefore, clearly an option that is in vogue just now. But what are the pros and cons of them?
On the plus side, they are rare, come in a deep and delightful colour and are very distinctive in appearance. All this makes them brilliant for special occasions. It is also the birthstone for May.
At the same time, they are less well-suited for everyday wear, such as in an engagement or wedding ring. The reason is in their relative hardness of 7.5-8 on the Mohs Scale. While this scale goes from 1 to 10, it does so with an upward curve, so while emeralds are quite hard, they are a long way short of the robustness of a diamond, the toughest material of all at 10 on the scale.
This means emeralds can be scratched and damaged relatively easily compared to some other stones, with rubies and sapphires also being harder and thus better everyday options.
It is also worth noting that if your budget won’t stretch to emeralds but your favourite colour is green, there are various alternatives. These include tourmaline, jade, green garnets and even green diamonds. The latter is very rare in nature and thus highly expensive, but can be created at lower cost through radiation treatment to generate the colour.