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The Complete Guide to Gemstones: Meanings, Birthstones & Healing Properties
The Complete Guide to Gemstones: Meanings, Birthstones & Healing Properties
Every piece of Lolabean jewelry starts with a stone. Some of our customers know exactly what they're looking for — a birthstone for someone's birthday, a specific color to match a favorite piece, a crystal they've read is good for calm. Others just know they love a color and want to understand it better before they buy.
This page is the starting point for all of it. Below you'll find every gemstone we work with, organized three ways: by birth month, by color, and by healing property. Wherever you start, you'll find a link through to the full meaning guide for that stone — history, symbolism, durability, and how to wear it.
What Are Gemstones?
A gemstone is a mineral, rock, or organic material (like pearl or amber) prized for its color, durability, and rarity, then cut or polished for use in jewelry. Gemstones are often grouped into "precious" (traditionally diamond, ruby, sapphire, and emerald) and "semi-precious" (nearly everything else — amethyst, peridot, garnet, and so on) — though that distinction is more about historical pricing than actual quality. A well-cut amethyst can be more beautiful than a poorly cut sapphire. What matters more day to day is durability, color, and what the stone means to you.
Not sure where to start? Most people choose a gemstone one of three ways:
- By birth month — personal and symbolic, tied to the calendar
- By color — driven by styling, what you already wear, or what you're drawn to
- By meaning — an emotional or symbolic connection, independent of birth month or color
This guide walks through all three, plus how to compare stones and pick the right metal to set them in.
| Looking For | Jump To |
|---|---|
| A birthstone by month | Birthstones by Month |
| A specific color | Gemstones by Color |
| A healing or calming stone | Crystals & Healing |
| A gemstone that isn't a birthstone | Other Gemstones |
| Help telling two stones apart | Comparisons |
| What metal to pair with a stone | Choosing Your Metal |
| Which stones handle daily wear | Hardness Chart |
| A gift for a specific occasion | By Occasion |
Gemstones by Birth Month
Every month of the year has at least one birthstone — some have two or three. If you're shopping for a birthday, an anniversary, or just want to know your own stone, start here. For the full year at a glance, see our Birthstones & Their Meanings hub, or jump straight to a specific month below.
| Month | Birthstone(s) | Meaning Guide |
|---|---|---|
| January | Garnet | Garnet Meaning |
| February | Amethyst | Amethyst Meaning |
| March | Aquamarine | Aquamarine Meaning |
| April | Diamond (and accessible alternatives) | April Birthstone Guide |
| May | Emerald | Emerald Meaning |
| June | Pearl, Moonstone, Alexandrite | Pearl Meaning & Moonstone Meaning |
| July | Ruby | Ruby Meaning |
| August | Peridot | Peridot Meaning |
| September | Sapphire | Sapphire Guide |
| October | Opal | Opal Birthstone Guide |
| November | Citrine | Citrine Meaning |
| December | Turquoise | Turquoise Meaning |
Shopping for a birthday gift specifically, not just researching the stone? Our Birthstone Jewelry Gifts by Month guide points you straight to pieces, organized the same way.
Shop the Full Birthstone Collection →
Every month, handmade in 14k gold-filled, rose gold-filled, or sterling silver
Gemstones by Color
Sometimes the stone matters less than the shade. If you know you want something green, blue, or otherwise, our color guides group every gemstone we carry in that family — with the same meaning, durability, and styling detail as the individual birthstone guides.
- Green Gemstones: Meanings, Types & Jewelry Guide — peridot, emerald, green aventurine, malachite, and more
- Blue Gemstones: Meanings, Types & Jewelry Guide — aquamarine, sapphire, turquoise, labradorite, and more
More colors — pink, purple, red, white, and black gemstones — are on the way. Check back here as each guide goes live, or follow our Journal for new posts.
Crystals & Healing Properties
Beyond birthstones and color, many of our customers come to a stone because of what it's believed to do — calm anxiety, support sleep, open the heart. These traditions are personal and symbolic rather than scientific, but they're meaningful to a lot of people, and they shape which stone someone reaches for on a hard day.
Our Healing Stone Jewelry guide is the best starting point — it covers chakras, crystal meanings broadly, and how to actually wear healing stones day to day rather than just keep them in a drawer. From there:
- 7 Best Crystals for Anxiety — our most-read wellness post, covering the stones people reach for most during stressful stretches
- Crystals for Sleep — stones associated with rest, calm, and easing a racing mind at night
- Rose Quartz Meaning — the stone most associated with self-love and emotional openness
- Moonstone Meaning — intuition, new beginnings, and the June birthstone with the most ethereal reputation
Other Gemstones
Not every stone we work with is a birthstone. Some are chosen purely for color, texture, or the meaning they carry outside the birthstone calendar. This section will grow as each new guide is published — for now:
- Rose Quartz Meaning — the stone of self-love and emotional openness, not tied to any single birth month
Coming soon — grouped by what they're known for:
- Warm neutrals: smoky quartz, carnelian, onyx
- Brightness & texture: rutilated quartz, apatite, prehnite, green aventurine
- Deep & dramatic: iolite, spinel, lapis lazuli, labradorite
Check back here as each guide goes live.
Gemstone Comparisons
A few stones get confused for each other often enough that we've written dedicated comparison guides:
- Ruby vs Garnet — both are red, both are real gemstones, and the fastest way to tell them apart is holding one up to a light
- Freshwater vs Cultured Pearls — what the difference actually means, and why almost all pearl jewelry today is cultured
Choosing Your Metal
The stone is only half the piece — the metal it's set in matters just as much for how the jewelry actually holds up. Every gemstone guide above notes which metals we recommend for that specific stone, but if you want the fuller picture on what "gold-filled" actually means and how it compares to solid gold, gold-plated, and sterling silver:
Gemstone Hardness at a Glance
Durability comes down to Mohs hardness — a 1–10 scale measuring how resistant a stone is to scratching. Diamond sits at 10; talc, the softest mineral, sits at 1. Here's where the stones we work with fall, and what that means for everyday wear:
| Stone | Mohs Hardness | Everyday Wear |
|---|---|---|
| Ruby | 9 | Excellent |
| Sapphire | 9 | Excellent |
| Emerald | 7.5–8 | Good |
| Amethyst / Citrine | 7 | Good |
| Aquamarine | 7.5–8 | Good |
| Garnet | 6.5–7.5 | Good |
| Peridot | 6.5–7 | Moderate |
| Turquoise | 5–6 | Moderate — avoid harsh chemicals |
| Opal | 5.5–6.5 | Delicate — better for earrings/necklaces than rings |
| Pearl | 2.5–4.5 | Very delicate — avoid chemicals, ultrasonic cleaners |
As a rule of thumb: anything above 7 handles a ring worn every day without much worry. Below that, necklaces and earrings (which take far less physical impact than rings) are the safer everyday choice. Every individual meaning guide linked above goes deeper on care specific to that stone.
Gemstone Jewelry by Occasion
Meaning matters most when it's tied to a moment. A few of our most popular occasion-based guides pull specific gemstones into context:
- Jewelry Gifts for Mom
- Anniversary Jewelry Gift Guide — including the traditional gemstone associated with each anniversary year
- Best Bridesmaid Jewelry
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find my birthstone?
Match your birth month to the table above, or visit our full Birthstones & Their Meanings guide. Three months — June, August, and December — technically have more than one recognized birthstone, so you have a choice if one doesn't resonate.
What's the difference between a birthstone and a healing crystal?
A birthstone is assigned by birth month, following a list that's been standardized since the early 20th century. A healing crystal is chosen for its believed metaphysical properties — calm, protection, clarity — regardless of when you were born. Many stones, like moonstone and rose quartz, function as both.
Do all gemstones work for everyday wear?
No — durability varies significantly by stone, and it comes down to Mohs hardness. Ruby and sapphire (9) hold up extremely well daily, while softer stones like pearl (2.5–4.5) and opal (5.5–6.5) are better suited to necklaces and earrings than rings worn constantly. See our full hardness chart above for where each stone falls.
What metal should I pair with my gemstone?
Warm-toned stones (peridot, citrine, ruby) generally pair beautifully with gold-filled or rose gold-filled. Cooler stones (aquamarine, sapphire, amethyst) work well in either gold or sterling silver — it comes down to preference more than any hard rule. See our gold-filled guide for the full breakdown of why we use it across almost every piece.
Are your gemstones natural or lab-created?
The overwhelming majority of our gemstone jewelry uses genuine, natural stones. Where a stone is lab-created (as noted on the individual product), we say so directly — we never represent lab-created stones as natural.
Explore the Full Collection
This page will keep growing as we publish new color and crystal guides — bookmark it as your home base for anything gemstone-related on Lolabean. In the meantime, browse our Birthstone Collection or the full handmade jewelry range to see everything in one place.
Every gemstone on Lolabean is handmade in our New York City studio, with genuine stones set in 14k gold-filled, rose gold-filled, or sterling silver.