How Rudraksha, gemstones, crystals and organic gems are tested and identified — written by the laboratory, for anyone who wants to understand what they own.
Rose quartz is cheap but still imitated by pink glass and dyed material. How it is identified, why it is cloudy, and what star rose quartz is.
A return policy only protects you if it leaves time for independent testing. Why two weeks is the minimum and how to sequence the test inside it.
Thread is a mala's weakest part. When re-stringing is due, which cords suit which beads, whether to knot, and how to avoid losing beads in a break.
How a refractometer measures a gemstone's refractive index, the RI values of common gems and imitations, and why one number rules out most alternatives.
Precious red coral has a distinctive grain. How it is separated from dyed white coral, pressed coral powder, dyed bone and shell, plastic and glass.
The questions about equipment, methods, independence, verification and limits that separate a testing laboratory from a certificate printer.
The specific questions about identity, treatment, weight, certification and returns whose written answers protect a buyer from any seller.
The polariscope tells single from double refraction; the dichroscope shows pleochroism. Two ten-second tests that eliminate whole families of imitations.
Only an X-ray sees inside a pearl. What the radiograph shows for natural, bead-nucleated and tissue-nucleated pearls, and how nacre thickness is read.
The tooth test separates nacre from smooth coated imitations and nothing more. Why it cannot tell natural from cultured, and the better home check.
Almost every pearl sold is cultured. What separates natural from cultured (an X-ray question), how imitations are caught, and which treatments need disclosure.
Gold, silver, panchdhatu and other setting metals explained — what each is, what tradition prescribes, what a setting can hide, and why to test before setting.
Pearl, coral, amber, jet and shell are soft and chemically sensitive. What damages them, how to clean and store them, and what a lab can say about condition.
Genuine round one-mukhi Rudraksha are extraordinarily rare; half-moon beads are common. Most 'round one mukhi' are neither. How a lab sorts them.
Obsidian is natural volcanic glass, so glass tests cannot separate it from man-made glass. The inclusions, flow banding and colours that do.
Every routine gem and Rudraksha test works by light, weight or X-ray and leaves the article unchanged. What non-destructive means and the rare exceptions.
Both are genuine Rudraksha, but Nepali beads are larger and far dearer. The size and surface differences a lab uses, and why origin is an opinion.
Moldavite is itself natural glass, which is why green glass imitates it well. The surface sculpture, lechatelierite and flow features that separate them.
The laboratory examines Rudraksha, gemstones, malas, bracelets and crystals and issues a numbered, PIN-protected report you can verify online at any time.