3.05 Ct. Purplish Pink Sapphire from Ceylon (Sri Lanka)

This offering from The Natural Sapphire Company is a transparent, 3.05 carat cushion shape purplish pink sapphire, with precise dimensions of 9.17 x 7.18 x 4.40 mm, a mixed brilliant cut, and a clarity grade of very slightly included when evaluated at eye level. The stone presents a medium color intensity that is both lively and restrained, allowing the purplish pink hue to manifest without appearing overly saturated. The gem has received excellent polish, which produces crisp facet junctions and a glassy, reflective surface. Heat treatment has been applied to enhance color uniformity and to reduce the visibility of microscopic silk, a conventional and stable enhancement for Sri Lankan sapphires. Origin information is based on gemological characteristics consistent with Ceylon, Sri Lanka, where corundum frequently yields bright, medium tones with a satiny, luminous quality.

The mixed brilliant cut employed in this cushion shape has been executed to balance two competing optical objectives, color presentation and light return. The cutter has used a brilliant style facet architecture on the pavilion to maximize internal reflection and scintillation, while employing more open, modified facets on the crown to permit the purplish pink body color to transmit evenly to the observer. This approach produces a lively play of pinpoint and larger flash scintillation, particularly when the stone is moved, and it moderates the deep veiling that can occur when a saturated tone is combined with a tight pavilion. Precision of facet angles and symmetry is evident from the even return of light from the table, and the excellent polish ensures minimal surface diffusion, allowing specular reflections to remain sharp. The measured pavilion depth relative to the girdle thickness has been set to favor durability, while still optimizing optical performance for a gem with medium color intensity.

From a material perspective, corundum has optical constants that govern its reflective behavior, and this purplish pink sapphire conforms to those expectations. Corundum typically exhibits a refractive index between 1.762 and 1.770 and a birefringence around 0.008 to 0.010. Those values mean that a well cut sapphire will display strong internal light return and a noticeable but moderate separation of polarized light, which can give depth to faceted areas when viewed off axis. Dispersion in corundum is relatively low, approximately 0.018, so the gemstone emphasizes white light brilliance and pinpoint scintillation over spectral fire. The medium intensity purplish pink of this stone interacts with these optical parameters to create a velvet like scintillation, where flashes of white light are framed by the warm undertone. Very slight inclusions at eye level are consistent with responsibly sourced material from Ceylon, and the heat treatment has reduced the visibility of those features while preserving the natural zoning and pleochroic tendencies that allow the stone to present slightly different facets of pink and purple depending on the viewing angle.

When compared to other gems in the colored stone category, and to other members of the corundum family, this purplish pink sapphire exhibits distinctive reflective qualities. Relative to blue sapphires, which can appear deeper and more saturated under similar cuts, a purplish pink stone with medium intensity will permit more light leakage through the crown facets, resulting in softer overall contrast and a warmer brilliance. Ruby and pink sapphire share identical base optical constants, so the difference in appearance is driven by chromium concentration and resulting absorption. This stone, being purplish pink, sits on the lighter end of that spectrum and therefore shows a balance of color and brilliance that often reads as more luminous in indoor lighting than a heavily saturated ruby. When compared to spinel, which has a lower refractive index around 1.718 and is singly refractive, this corundum will exhibit stronger luster and a higher degree of light return under the same faceting strategy, because the higher refractive index increases total internal reflection. Tourmaline and garnet varieties typically have lower refractive indices and different absorption characteristics, which means they may display stronger color saturation but less crisp scintillation. Diamonds and other high dispersion gems show much greater spectral fire, owing to much higher dispersion values, but corundum, including this piece, excels at producing clean, mirror like reflections and controlled scintillation rather than pronounced rainbow flashes. Finally, the hardness of corundum at nine on the Mohs scale gives this sapphire an advantage in retaining facet sharpness and polish over time, making the reflective qualities durable for everyday wear. This purplish pink sapphire from The Natural Sapphire Company therefore represents a technically refined balance of cut, color, and clarity, offering a reflective character that is bright and lively, yet warm and velvety when held against comparable stones in its category.