Garnet Specialist Mini Course
Garnet Engagement Rings
at Custom Made
What is a Garnet?
Garnets actually comprise a group of mineral species. There is no single garnet species but rather several distinct species. However, they virtually always occur in blends. Garnets can show almost any color, but most have red hues, from wine-like burgundy brownish reds to shades that rival rubies. Although red is the most traditional garnet color, some of the most highly valued varieties are orange or green. Eye-catching orange garnets have become very popular, and rare green garnets can rival emeralds in appearance and price.
As far as faceted ring stones go, the five most important species of garnet are pyrope, almandine, spessartine, grossular, and andradite. Gemologists may refer to garnets by blended names, such as almandine-pyrope, though sometimes they use only the name of the dominant species in the gem. In addition, some blends have their own names. For example, rhodolite, a popular purplish red garnet, consists of almandine and pyrope. This name is easier to remember and, thus, more marketable than "purplish red almandine-pyrope."
How to Pick a Garnet Engagement Ring Stone
Although the physical properties of garnets can vary, in general, all facetable varieties make durable jewelry stones. Consult our Garnet Buying Guide to learn how these gems are graded.
For larger sized garnets, color and clarity have the greatest importance. Inclusions, tiny internal crystals and fractures, shouldn't be visible to the naked eye or interfere with the stone's beauty. (Demantoid's "horsetail inclusions" are a notable exception). For smaller stones, cut is more important.
In general, choose a garnet with rich, beautiful color. For the best performance when set in a ring, it should have no windowing (patches with little to no color) and little extinction (dark patches with no light return).
Popular Garnet Colors
Start your search for your garnet engagement ring stone by deciding on a color. Shades of red, orange, and green are the most popular choices.
Red Garnets
Click through this mini-gallery of red garnets.
- Purplish red, crimson, or dark red rhodolites have a richness and intensity of color that can rival ruby and red tourmaline. This makes them the most valuable type of red garnet on the market today. However, they're still relatively affordable and common. Thus, they often receive more experimental, freeform cuts. They sell for $20 to $150 per carat in small to medium sizes and for roughly $300 per carat in sizes ten carats and up. Dark purple red rhodolite, 39.10 cts, 22.7 x 19 mm, oval brilliant cut with checkerboard top, Tanzania. © The Gem Trader. Used with permission.
- The name malaya or malaia comes from the Swahili word for "outcast," because the first buyers who saw these garnets in the 1960s rejected them in favor of rhodolites. These pyrope-spessartine blends can range from red to orangish or yellowish pink. They can sell for $20 to a little over $200 per carat. Faceted malaya garnets. © All That Glitters. Used with permission.
- Most fiery red pyropes are colored principally by iron, so they have a brownish tone. However, a few are colored by chromium, like rubies, and even approach their color. In Arizona and Utah, ants eject these gems from their nests onto the surface of the ground. Thus their nickname "ant hill garnets." Pyropes sell for roughly $20 a carat. Faceted pyrope garnet with rich slightly brownish red color. Photo by Мухин Кирилл. Licensed under CC By-SA 4.0.
- The most widespread type of garnet, almandine usually blends with pyrope or spessartine. In large sizes, these gems have very dark tones. Gem cutters often hollow out the backs of dark garnets to lighten the color. Sometimes, they may purposely cut windows into these gems. Very affordable, almandines cost up to $30 a carat per carat. Dark red almandine-pyrope, 1.14 cts, 7.1 x 5.1 mm, oval brilliant cut, Massachusetts. © The Gem Trader. Used with permission.
Red Value Factors
For red garnets in general, tone (its relative lightness or darkness) plays a very important role. Reds tend towards desaturation and darker tones, and if a red stone is too dark, it will appear black. To counter this, some gem cutters will create windows in dark stones to lighten them. However, red garnets are relatively affordable, so invest in a high-quality stone with a good cut, instead. A windowed stone will still appear washed out, even if it was dark before.
The redder and less brown, the more valuable a red garnet. The most expensive reds approach rubies in color. Nevertheless, dusty rose-pink garnets make beautiful ring stones, too.
Orange Garnets
Click through this mini-gallery of orange garnets.
- Spessartine garnets have fiery colors, from yellow orange to bright orange to dark brownish red, like the wings of a monarch butterfly. Spessartines with "aurora red" color, a highly saturated reddish orange with medium to medium-dark tone, can sell for $200 to $1,200 per carat. Large reddish orange oval-cut spessartine garnet, 6.60 cts. © All That Glitters. Used with permission.
- Bright orange spessartine blends, mandarin garnets are beautiful to behold. In recent years, they've increased in popularity and price. Mandarin spessartine garnet crystal, 1.3 cm across. Loliando, Tanzania. © Rob Lavinsky, www.iRocks.com. Used with permission.
- Hessonite garnet, the "cinnamon stone," can show warm yellow-orange to reddish orange colors. Since these gems almost always have a brownish tint and many inclusions, they are less popular than other orange garnets. However, that also makes them more affordable, usually selling for around $20 to $150 per carat. Some hessonites have an attractive, hazy "whisky in water" effect due to their inclusions. Oval-cut hessonite garnet, 2.66 cts, Madagascar. © All That Glitters. Used with permission.
Orange Value Factors
For orange garnets, the more reddish orange and fiery, the more valuable. The most expensive orange stones have a deeply saturated, "intense," blood-orange or pumpkin color. Cinnamon or amber colors generally cost less.
Green Garnets
Click through this mini-gallery of green garnets.
- A dark bluish green to green variety of grossular garnet, tsavorite closely resembles emerald. These colors are highly valued. Yellowish green and light-toned tsavorites are less expensive. Tsavorites typically come in small sizes, with only 15% of cut material weighing over one carat. Larger stones tend to be included. High-quality stones not only look like emeralds, they can also rival emeralds in price. These tsavorites sell for $300 to $800 per carat in sizes smaller than a carat and up $10,000 per carat in sizes two carat and up. Step trillion-cut tsavorite garnet, 0.87 cts, Tsavo National Park, Kenya. © Rob Lavinsky, www.iRocks.com. Used with permission.
- Demantoids are the green variety of andradite garnets. Their colors range from yellowish to brownish green to intense green and have a greater dispersion or "fire" than diamonds. They can also contain distinctive yellow "horsetail" inclusions of radiating fibers. If placed attractively within the stones, these can increase their value. Demantoids rarely occur in sizes larger than three carats. Prices for demantoids can also rival those of emeralds. They can go from a few hundred per carat in smaller sizes to over $10,000 per carat in larger sizes. Demantoid garnet crystal, Iran. Photo by Smallru. Licensed under CC By-SA 4.0.
- Mali garnets, sometimes called grandites, are rare blends of grossular and andradite. Although they tend towards yellow, they can also occur in yellow-green to near tsavorite green. Mali garnets, 3.4 x 2.9 x 1.9 cm, Sibinndi, Nioro du Sahel Circle, Kayes Region, Mali. © Rob Lavinsky, www.iRocks.com. Used with permission.
Green Value Factors
Green garnets that approach a rich emerald green will cost more, while yellowish and grass green stones will cost less, as will any gems with tones too light or too dark.
Phenomenal Effects
Some garnets can also display some unusual optical effects, such as color change and asterism. If properly cut and set, these gems could make very lively engagement ring stones.
Color Change
Very rare color change garnets most often result from pyrope-spessartine blends. Like celebrated alexandrites, they can change from bluish green under daylight or white light to red or purple under incandescent. (Some rare specimens even turn blue under artificial light). The more dramatic and complete the change, the higher the stone's price, and a fine specimen can command over $1,000 per carat.
This garnet from Madagascar changes color from very slightly bluish green in daylight to purple under incandescent light. 0.97 cts, 6.1 x 4.5 mm, oval mixed cut. © The Gem Trader. Used with permission.
Asterism
The "star stone" effect, the appearance of a four or six-rayed star apparently on the gem's surface, can sometimes occur in garnets, usually in almandine blends like rhodolites. Inclusions of rutile needles within garnets may cause these stars.
What are the Best Money Saving Options for Garnet Engagement Ring Stones?
Since red garnets are fairly common and inexpensive, little demand exists for synthetic, lab-created material. However, wine-colored glass simulants or imitations sometimes appear in fashion jewelry. In decades past, synthetic garnets, such as yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) and gadolinium gallium garnet (GGG) have been used as diamond simulants, but other simulants have now superseded them.
Green garnets do command higher prices in today's market, so green YAG as well as cubic zirconia (CZ) sometimes appear as imitations. Both of these materials have a greater density than natural garnet, which helps gemologists identify them.
If you want an inexpensive red garnet, you can likely find a natural stone to suit your budget. If you want a rare orange or green garnet, you likely won't settle for a cheaper imitation.
Cabochon-cut garnets do offer a less expensive alternative to faceted gems, typically selling for up to $50 per carat.
Caring for Your Garnet Engagement Ring
Many varieties of garnets suitable for engagement rings have a Mohs hardness of 7 or higher, which means they're hard enough to resist scratching by household dust (which actually contains quartz). These are fairly durable gems, resistant to light and most common cleaning solutions.
Before using a convenient ultrasonic system to clean your garnets, have a gemology lab confirm whether or not they've undergone fracture filling treatment. Although garnets typically don't receive any gemstone enhancements, a mechanical cleaning could damage your gems if they have been treated. Of course, you can always clean your garnets safely with a soft brush, mild detergent, and warm water. Never steam clean garnets.
Some garnets, notably demantoids and hessonites, can have a hardness of 6.5, which means dust will abrade these gems over time. However, resist the temptation to just wipe dust and grit off these stones. Instead, wash them with a soft brush, mild detergent, and warm water. Handle demantoid and hessonite with greater care than other garnets.
Garnet Styles
Red garnets tend to have a more vintage feel. In Victorian times, jewelers gave them rose cuts and set them in lacy festoons or clusters, whether in necklaces, earrings, brooches or bracelets. These highly detailed pieces also often incorporated flower or vine motifs with white pearls for contrast. For ring stones, jewelers surrounded garnets with filigree or milgrain.
Contemporary jewelers favor orange and green garnets, particularly in designs utilizing a mosaic of color. In high-fashion collections, you'll often see solitaire rings featuring a vivid mandarin garnet and luxurious jewelry pieces accented with green garnets. For example, Dior'sVersailles Côté Jardins collection features luscious gem bouquets accented with spessartine and tsavorite garnets. Van Cleef and Arpels creates jewelry with unusual color combinations, such as spessartine garnets contrasted with blue gems like chalcedony or pink gems like morganite.
What are the Best Metal Choices for Garnet Rings?
Yellow gold brings out the orange or brown tones of red garnets and creates a regal, antique look.
White gold makes the color of the stone stand out in contrast. Rose gold can give red garnets a more updated, modern appeal, lending warmth to the ring.
Jewelers often set orange garnets in yellow gold, which enhances the stone's warmth, while green garnets are very often set in white gold to give the jewelry a clean, cool appearance.
Phoebe Shang, GG
A gem lover and writer, Phoebe holds a graduate gemologist degree from the Gemological Institute of America and masters in writing from Columbia University. She got her start in gemology translating and editing Colored Stone and Mineral Highlights for a professor based in Shanghai. Whether in LA, Taipei, or New York, Phoebe spends her time searching for gems to design and being lost in good books.
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