Without much experience in distinguishing glass from crystal, it can be challenging to identify them. A black light test may help – crystal should glow blue or purple due to its lead content while glass looks cloudy and dull under black lights.

How can one tell crystal apart from other gemstones? Feel is often the key. Crystal tends to be much softer and finer grained than glass, with narrower widths and finer details.

Clear Quartz

Clear Quartz is widely revered gemstone for its energy-cleansing, amplifying and clarifying properties. It has a long tradition of use in healing practices as well as spiritual practices across many cultures worldwide.

Physically, yoga may help balance body energy by strengthening immunity and relieving pain. Furthermore, its energy has been believed to increase mental clarity by aiding concentration and focus. Finally, its energy may stimulate intuition facilitating connection and alignment with higher realms of consciousness.

To fully harness and optimize the energy-cleansing potential of a crystal, place it in a moonlight bath or use it in smudging rituals involving sacred smoke from herbs such as sage or palo santo. Running under warm water or burying it are other effective means of clearing its energetic field, revitalizing its properties while infusing it with renewed clarity and intention. Clear Quartz may also aid emotional healing by encouraging release from negative attachments and energetic blockages.

Selenite

Selenite is widely recognized for its soothing qualities and is frequently employed during meditation, energy healing sessions and chakra balancing practices to increase clarity, focus and spiritual connection. Selenite may even cleanse one’s aura and remove negative energies while augmenting intuition and psychic abilities.

Liquid Light crystals have long been known to shift heavy energies, freeing up new ones. They are great for relieving anxiety and fear as well as addressing shyness or lack of confidence issues.

Selenite crystals can be used to cleanse and recharge other crystals, restoring their natural vibrations and heightening their energetic properties. This can be achieved by passing the crystal through smoke from a smudge stick, placing it overnight on a Selenite charging plate, tuning fork or singing bowl, etc.

Citrine

Citrine is the yellow to red-orange variety of crystalline quartz and once considered one of the “Rodney Dangerfield of gemstones”. However, thanks to clever marketing and an increase in earth tone fashions it now enjoys more respect from consumers. Citrine ranks highly on Mohs scale for hardness and boasts excellent clarity that makes it suitable for rings, bracelets and brooches.

Natural citrine is relatively uncommon, with most citrine found on the market being heat-treated amethyst or smoky quartz stones that have been subjected to intense heating treatments, typically through vacuum heating or radiation heating processes. When heated these stones lose their original violet hue and transform into bright yellow to brownish orange stones (sometimes with reddish tints). Natural citrine’s vibrant yellow to brownish orange hue comes from trace amounts of iron in its composition.

Citrine can be found naturally in Brazil, Argentina, Madagascar, the Urals and Scotland as well as many other locations around the globe. Most commercial citrine sold on the market is an amalgamation of colors; some genuine light yellow pineapple citrine may exist and is more frequently encountered than darker smoky or orange-reddish Madeira agate varieties.

Amethyst

Amethyst is an iconic crystal for spiritual development, healing the mind and body, promoting peace and tranquility, and inspiring peace among its users. For millennia it has fascinated humans with its vivid purple hue and myriad protective properties; ancient Greeks believed amethyst could protect against drunkenness while early Christians associated it with Christ as it also has deeper symbolic associations across cultures and civilizations throughout history. Discover more here about this ancient purple stone’s many interpretations!

Amethyst, February’s birthstone, is known for soothing both mind and emotions during stressful times. Stimulating the crown chakra encourages higher intuition and an intimate relationship with oneself. Furthermore, amethyst serves as an excellent aid for meditation and mindfulness practice, helping clear negative thoughts away and promote focus.