October Birthstone
The Joy of Multicolor Tourmaline
Tourmaline means "pretty gem" — and honestly, I've always thought it would make such a pretty name for a baby. It's been one of my favorite stones for the past three decades. I've bought it at every opportunity because no other gemstone offers such a huge range of colors.
If you've never held a piece of multicolor tourmaline, you're missing out on one of nature's best surprises. Come into the store and hold ours — we'd love to share them with you!
Every nugget is different. You might get a bead that fades from pink to green (that's the famous "watermelon tourmaline" look), or one that's a moody teal, or a warm golden honey. Sometimes all three show up in the same piece. That's the magic of natural tourmaline — it doesn't follow rules. It just is.
"Tourmaline has that in-between energy: grounding but not heavy, colorful but not loud."
October babies claim tourmaline as their birthstone, and I think it fits. October is that in-between month — still warm, but hinting at change. People have worn it for centuries believing it protects against negativity and encourages creativity. I don't know about all that, but I do know these stones make me happy when I look at them, and that counts for something.
All of our tourmaline is hand-selected, and honestly? It's one of the hardest stones to buy. When every single strand is completely unique from the next, picking "the best" becomes a labor of love. You can't just glance and grab — you have to really look.
Tourmaline is also surprisingly tough (7-7.5 on the Mohs scale), so you don't have to baby it. Wear it, love it, let it pick up your energy.
How to Spot the Real Thing
Here's something most bead sellers won't tell you: a lot of "multicolor tourmaline" on the market isn't tourmaline at all. It's dyed quartz or glass. This is especially common with those bright, candy-colored "watermelon tourmaline" strands you see for suspiciously low prices.
🚩 Red Flags
- Crackle patterns with color pooled in cracks
- Unnaturally vivid, uniform colors
- Too opaque — real watermelon has transparency
- Too cheap — $8 strands aren't tourmaline
✓ Real Tourmaline
- Pleochroism — colors shift when rotated
- Natural striations along the crystal
- Glassy, vitreous luster
- Organic color transitions, not perfect bands
The good news? Unlike some gems, there's essentially no synthetic tourmaline on the market — it's not economically viable to produce in a lab. So if you're holding real tourmaline, it came from the earth. You just have to make sure it actually is tourmaline.