Peridot's oily colour

Peridot shows a characteristic oily green colour, for which it is prized! It is the transparent variety of the mineral olivine and it is widely used in jewellery. During ancient times, peridot was supposed to own magical powers, like healing properties 😮!

This gemstone has a hardness of 6.5 at Moh's scale and it usually shows a dull-vitreous lustre, which sometimes might be more like a greasy lustre. You should avoid wearing your peridot pieces of jewellery whilst doing any kind of job that can cause it to be knocked. Moreover, contact with fluids, hairsprays and perfumes is better not to be made. It belongs to the orthorhombic crystal system, showing orhthorhombic prisms and a side pinacoid. Because of its medium to low hardness it is very often found broken, so it is not so usual to find it on its perfect crystal form. When it is used in jewellery it is usually faceted or cut as a cabochon in order to increase its durability. On the photo below a faceted round cut peridot is depicted. As you can see its colour is so close to the colour of olive oil! Peridots might show characteristic inclusions known as 'lilly pads'! These are actually partially healed tension cracks around a crystal or a cavity and they look like a lilly pad!

Faceted round cut peridot

When it comes to jewellery, personally I prefer matching my peridot gemstones with gold metal and not with silver. But this is my personal taste. In case you prefer silver metal, you can find a wide variety of peridot jewellery. The first piece depicted below is a slider ball bracelet in a gold plated sterling silver metal with 6 peridot beads by Jajy Boutique. It is very easy to wear it and make it tight on your hand or loose, as you prefer it. This bracelet design, the slider ball, is perfect for everybody, because it can be adjusted on your wrist. I like wearing this bracelet with my autumnal outfits and matching it with brown, red,cream and blue t-shirts and jeans or alternatively with monochromatic dresses. It's metal is so shiny when you have it on your wrist that it makes your outfit look a bit more formal.

Slider ball bracelet in gold plated silver metal with 6 peridot beads by Jajy Boutique
Furthermore, the next piece is a necklace with a faceted round cut peridot in gold plated sterling silver metal by Alargino in Antiparos, Greece. If you like layering, this one is perfect for it! You can match it with a simple gold choker or even with one decorated with gold plated coins. T-shirts with stripes print or with polka dot print are perfect for this necklace if you want to create a statement outfit. Otherwise plain shirts in neutral colours can also be worn.

Necklace with a faceted round cut peridot in gold plated sterling silver metal by Alargino
 The unique colour of peridot is desirable by some people, whereas some others do not really love it! However the brown colour is so much in fashion right now and the oily colour of peridot fits perfectly with it.

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