"Blue Moonstone"?

OakDragon

I just purchased last weekend a pendant containing what the proprietor called a "blue moonstone". I had never heard of blue moonstone before and a cursory search of AT and the web did not turn up much information on it. Can someone here tell me whether there really is such a stone, whether it goes by another name and if its properties are any different from standard moonstone? Thanks in advance.
 

OakDragon

Thank you both for your help. I have the feeling what I got isn't really moonstone. It doesn't look much like pictures I've seen online. I bought it because it's very pretty and the price was right, so it doesn't really matter much if it is moonstone or not to me, but it makes me wonder, too, what else it might be.
 

catlin

@Oak Dragon
Very often white Labradorite is also called moonstone. Maybe you got such a stone.
 

wizzle

Dear Oakie,

You didn't give us a whole lot to go on except the color. Light blue? Dark blue?

I think Catlin might be right in saying your aquisition is labradorite, which is also sometimes called rainbow moonstone. You can google that up. Other possibilities are

chalcedony
albite moonstone
microcline moonstone

http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~eps2/wisc/Lect14.html
http://www.theimage.com/gemstone/feldspar/feldspar.html

These website discusses the properties of this type of felspar (which is what moonstone is) and you can try googling up some of the descriptive words if you haven't found your stone. I've attached a pic of a hunk of labradorite so you can see the general color range. But there is a picture of a blue stone on the second website that might be what you are looking for.

I love all of the felspar group... labrodorite, sunstone, amazonite, etc. I hope you have much joy from your lovely purchase.
 

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Sulis

I used to make jewellery. Sometimes jewellers will put some blue paper underneath the stone in a pendant or ring to give it a blue sheen.

Love Sulis xx
 

OakDragon

I wonder if it's something like that, Sulis. The surface of the stone seems to be clear crystal with cloudy white streaks crisscrossing it. Underneath there is a medium blue sheen that looks like moonstone, but may not be. It's hard to tell if the blue goes all the way through or not. The pendant has a silver back, so I cannot see the other side. I'll try to take a pic of it when I get a chance. I wonder if it's quartz or something with moonstone underneath or maybe it's just quartz with something shiny blue attached to the back.
 

Ruby7

I've seen the name "blue moonstone" used in gemstone catalogues in reference to white moonstone that has a blue sheen in order to differentiate between white moonstone that has no blue sheen. Is your moonstone white with a blue sheen, or is the underlying body colour a true blue?

All the best,
Ruby7
 

Ruby7

Hi Oakdragon,

Just read your last post. If you look at the stone as you move it around, light hitting the surface at different angles, if it is a moonstone with a sheen, the sheen will come and go as the light hits or misses the angle needed. If it doesn't change as you move it then the sheen is fake as Sulis suggests.

Ruby7