Browse crystal and mineral profiles with practical information about appearance, properties, origins, history, and responsible care.
For millennia, cultures across the globe have valued crystals for physical beauty and invested them with symbolic or spiritual meaning. Those traditional meanings are cultural history, not evidence that a mineral can treat a health condition.
Crystals have measurable properties including hardness, cleavage, crystal structure, refractive behavior, and chemical composition. Quartz is piezoelectric and some minerals, including tourmaline, are pyroelectric. These documented material properties do not demonstrate the spiritual, emotional, or medical effects claimed in modern crystal-healing practices.
In modern spiritual practice, cleansing is a symbolic ritual rather than a gemological requirement. Keep selenite, malachite, pyrite, porous stones, and assembled or treated pieces dry; protect light-sensitive stones from prolonged direct sun.
Explore 20 widely collected crystals and stones. Some entries, such as obsidian and lapis lazuli, are rocks or mineraloids rather than single crystals, but they are commonly grouped with crystals in collector and retail use.
Crystal profile
Clear quartz is a transparent variety of silicon dioxide valued for its crystal form, clarity, and measurable piezoelectric properties. “Master healer” and energy-amplifying associations belong to modern spiritual traditions, not established science.
Mohs hardness: 7
Read the Clear Quartz profile
Crystal profile
Rose quartz is a translucent pink variety of quartz long used in jewelry, decorative arts, and love symbolism. Claims that it restores relationships or provides inner healing are modern spiritual beliefs, not scientifically demonstrated effects.
Mohs hardness: 7
Read the Rose Quartz profile
Crystal profile
A purple variety of quartz ranging from pale lilac to deep, rich purple. Once valued alongside ruby, amethyst is associated with sobriety and calm in historical and modern spiritual traditions—not demonstrated psychological effects.
Mohs hardness: 7
Read the Amethyst profile
Crystal profile
Citrine is the yellow-to-orange variety of quartz. Natural citrine is uncommon; much commercial material is amethyst carefully heated to produce a stable golden color.
Mohs hardness: 7
Read the Citrine profile
Crystal profile
Smoky quartz ranges from pale gray-brown to nearly black. Its color develops when natural radiation interacts with trace aluminum in the quartz structure.
Mohs hardness: 7
Read the Smoky Quartz profile
Crystal profile
Black tourmaline, usually the iron-rich species schorl, forms strongly striated prismatic crystals and is one of the most abundant members of the tourmaline group.
Mohs hardness: 7.5
Read the Black Tourmaline profile
Crystal profile
Selenite is a transparent-to-fibrous variety of gypsum known for pearly luster and delicate, blade-like crystals. At Mohs 2, it scratches easily and should stay dry.
Mohs hardness: 2
Read the Selenite profile
Crystal profile
Labradorite is a plagioclase feldspar famous for flashes of blue, green, gold, and orange caused by light interference within its layered structure.
Mohs hardness: 6
Read the Labradorite profile
Crystal profile
Fluorite commonly forms cubes and octahedra in purple, green, blue, yellow, or colorless bands. It gives fluorescence its name but not every specimen fluoresces.
Mohs hardness: 4
Read the Fluorite profile
Crystal profile
Moonstone is feldspar that displays a soft, billowing sheen called adularescence. The effect comes from light scattering through fine intergrown mineral layers.
Mohs hardness: 6
Read the Moonstone profile
Crystal profile
Lapis lazuli is a rock rather than a single crystal, prized for intense blue lazurite with white calcite and metallic pyrite inclusions.
Mohs hardness: 5.5
Read the Lapis Lazuli profile
Crystal profile
Carnelian is translucent orange-to-red chalcedony, a microcrystalline variety of quartz. Iron oxides produce its warm color.
Mohs hardness: 7
Read the Carnelian profile
Crystal profile
Malachite is a copper carbonate mineral recognized by vivid green concentric banding. It is soft, sensitive to acids, and best handled with care.
Mohs hardness: 3.5
Read the Malachite profile
Crystal profile
Obsidian is a glassy volcanic rock formed when silica-rich lava cools too quickly for large crystals to grow. It breaks with exceptionally sharp conchoidal edges.
Mohs hardness: 5.5
Read the Obsidian profile
Crystal profile
Tiger's eye is quartz with a silky moving band of light called chatoyancy. Its golden-brown structure develops through alteration of fibrous precursor minerals.
Mohs hardness: 7
Read the Tiger's Eye profile
Crystal profile
Pyrite is an iron sulfide mineral that often forms crisp cubes, pyritohedra, or sparkling clusters. Its metallic brass color led to the nickname fool's gold.
Mohs hardness: 6.5
Read the Pyrite profile
Crystal profile
Amazonite is a blue-green variety of microcline feldspar, often patterned with pale streaks or grid-like twinning.
Mohs hardness: 6
Read the Amazonite profile
Crystal profile
Rhodonite is a pink-to-red manganese silicate often crossed by black manganese-oxide veins, creating distinctive polished patterns.
Mohs hardness: 5.5
Read the Rhodonite profile
Crystal profile
Green aventurine is quartzite or massive quartz colored by microscopic fuchsite mica. Plate-like inclusions create a subtle glitter called aventurescence.
Mohs hardness: 7
Read the Green Aventurine profile
Crystal profile
Red jasper is opaque chalcedony colored by finely dispersed iron oxides. Natural patterning can include veins, spots, or contrasting mineral bands.
Mohs hardness: 7
Read the Red Jasper profile