The intense blue and violet associated with Tanzanite is more often than not due to treatment. Although, Tanzanite is sometimes found to occur naturally in its highly coveted colors, most of them will cost the Earth, and frankly speaking the colors displayed in heated Tanzanite are far more pleasing to the eye.

When sourced, the majority of Tanzanite is brown, yellow or orangey-brown. The process of heating the crystals between 350 Celsius and 600 Celsius burns out these undesirable colors, leaving behind only the required nuances. After treatment, Tanzanite’s trichroic effect becomes clearly visible: trichroic means that three different colors can be seen when looking at the gemstone from different angles. The reason for this trichroic coloration is that Tanzanite has three different crystallographic axes that can exhibit blue, pink or purple. The overall color you see through the table results from the angles cut in conjunction with these axes.