Labradorite, a beautiful stone related to Moonstone.

What is Labradorite I hear you ask?

Labradorite is a beautiful stone from a family of gemstones called Feldspar (which also includes Moonstone) treasured for it’s remarkable play of colour, known as opalescence. The blue flashes of colour through the greenish grey body colour, is an effect similar to that of oil on water. This is caused by refraction of light from thin internal layers within the gemstone.

Labradorite mainly comes from Labrador in Canada. There’s a version with a greenish colour called Spectrolite from Norway and Finland. The stone usually grey-green, dark grey or greyish-white exhibits iridescent flashes of peacock colours.

Freshwater Pearl Bracelet with Labradorite drop charms.

If I’m lucky enough to find labradorite cut as beads, it’s usually very expensive. Hence only small drops in this pretty bracelet.

Rainbow Moonstone, with it’s rainbow flashes of colour through a mainly whitish transparent body, is actually Labradorite. However Moonstone is from the same gemstone family of Feldspar so the name is understandable and widely accepted in the trade.