White sapphires, or clear sapphires, have been used as diamond simulates since the early twentieth century. Unlike other imitation, fake or man-made diamonds, sapphire is a natural gemstone

Sapphire is a variety of the mineral corundum. The mineral is aluminum oxide – diamond is carbon – that crystallized under high pressure and heat at a great depth in Earth’s core.

Sapphires make good diamond simulates because their radiance and brilliance are close to that of natural diamonds, but are less expensive. Sapphires are the second hardest natural mineral on the Mohs scale, exceeded only by diamonds.


Natural sapphire comes in many different colors, from the rare colorless to blue, pink, green, and purple. In its purest form, corundum is colorless. Blue sapphire is corundum that is contaminated with iron or titanium. Other elements turn corundum into red, pink, blue, black, brown, orange, yellow, green, indigo, or violet sapphire. Sapphires that are colors other than blue are called fancy sapphires. Red sapphires are called rubies and not red sapphires.

Because white sapphires are rare in nature, natural gray to light yellow stones are treated to remove the color to make them clear – or white.

Some companies also grow their own stones, creating synthetic sapphires that have the same properties as the real thing. A synthetic white sapphire, like a synthetic diamond, is usually less expensive that natural stones because consumers think of lab-grown gems as inferior to the real thing. However, man-made stones are usually better quality due to the controlled growing conditions.

Sapphire prices range from a few dollars per carat to thousands of dollars per carat. Just like the price of a diamond, the price of a sapphire can be gauged based on the four C’s: color, clarity, cut, and carat.

A sapphire’s birthplace also figures into its price. The most priced and expensive sapphires are from Kashmir. Next priced sapphires are Burmese sapphires, and then comes sapphires from Ceylon.

Sapphires are mined in Ceylon, Thailand, India, Burma, Vietnam and Cambodia. Other areas of the world where sapphires are mines are in Brazil, Australia, Columbia, Kenya, Madagascar and Malawi. Sapphires are also found in Montana and Colorado in the western United States.

Other Diamond Simulants:  cubic zirconia, Moissanite, Russian Brilliants, Diamond Nexus, white topaz