The stone that was in the engagement ring given by Prince Charles to Lady Diana Spencer, sapphire is often associated with royalty and romance. Sapphire comes is many colors, but provides the most beautiful blues of all the gemstones. Sapphire doesn’t come in red because a “red sapphire” is really a ruby, sapphire’s gem sibling.

The most common color is blue, and the most valuable is the vivid pure blue. Another valuable color is a delicate pinkish orange that is known as “padparadscha.” Pronounced like "pawd-paw-raj-ah".

All colors of sapphires are mined in Sri Lanka. Kashmir and Myanmar (Burma) are known for fine blue sapphires that are highly valued because of their rarity.

Sapphire is the mineral corundum, which has a hardness of 9 on the Mohs scale.

Clean sapphire with mild dish soap in warm water: use a toothbrush to scrub behind the stone where dust can collect.