Don’t panic about a science lesson here. We just want you to know: Garnet is a fascinating mineral. If you always picture a dark, inky brownish red when someone says “Garnet is my birthstone” then today is your lucky day. Green is your favorite color? Garnet is up to the challenge. You love to wear orange? Garnet’s gotcha there too.
How is this possible? Let’s just say the recipe for Garnet is a bit like your family’s winter chili recipe that’s been handed down for generations. If you’re out of one ingredient, you put a little more of something else and without fail it ends up tasty, albeit different, every time.
Garnet’s recipe is flexible – the essentials are all necessary, but it has an optional ingredient for flavoring: Manganese for Spessartine, Chromium and Vanadium for Grossular and Tsavorite, Iron for Almandine, and and a little bit of the kitchen sink for Rhodolite.
Rachel says “No other gem gives us such a variety of deeply saturated colors as Garnet. Those of us lucky enough to call Garnet our birthstone are in for a magic recipe!”
