Color Change Sapphire, Vanadium-Doped Lab Gem

These are faceted stones cut from Vanadium-doped color change sapphire. It has a cool color change from blue under normal lighting to purple under warm lighting, with a nice greenish/purple hue under fluorescent lamps.

This material is sometimes incorrectly sold as 'alexandrite', and since mislabeled stones were sold on cruise ships in the 70's and 80's jewelers sometimes call it "grandma's alexandrite".  Personally, I think this is cool enough that there isn't any reason to mislabel it - the color change is great, and has its own distinct charm.

With a hardness of 9 sapphire is ideal for use in all kinds of jewelry.