Turquoise is one of the oldest stones people have worn, and one of the most misunderstood on the market today. It is prized for a single thing above all: that opaque, sky-blue color, sometimes laced with a web of darker host rock called matrix.
Here is the honest part first. We source colored stones directly in Sri Lanka, and turquoise does not occur there. So we do not carry it as standing stock. What we can do is hunt a specific piece for you through trusted dealers, with the same rule we apply to everything: know the color, know the treatment, know the origin before money changes hands. If you want a particular turquoise, tell us what you are after and we will go looking.
Can't find the gemstone you're looking for? Submit a request and our stone hunters will source it for you directly from the mines.
Submit a requestTurquoise is judged differently from a faceted gem like sapphire. There are no 4Cs here. Value comes down to color, texture, matrix, and treatment, in roughly that order.
Color leads. An even, saturated sky blue sits at the top. As the color drifts toward green, or turns patchy and pale, the price drops. This is taste as much as rarity, and some buyers genuinely prefer the greener, earthier tones, so do not let anyone tell you green is simply worse. It is worth less on the open market, which is a different thing.
Turquoise forms with varying porosity. Finely textured material is denser, takes a better polish, and shows a soft waxy luster. Coarser, more porous stone looks duller and is more fragile. Matrix, the veins of host rock running through the stone, can lower value when it is heavy and muddy, or raise it when it forms a clean, prized pattern like the so-called spiderweb. Origin names you will hear, such as Persian or Sleeping Beauty, are really shorthand for a certain look and consistency, not a guarantee on their own.
Most turquoise on the market is treated, and that is not automatically a problem. Natural turquoise is soft, between 5 and 6 on the Mohs scale, with only fair to good toughness, so it is porous and easily marked. To make it wearable, a lot of it is stabilized, usually with wax, oil, or resin, which deepens color and hardens the surface. Dyeing and reconstitution are heavier interventions that change what you are actually buying.
None of this is hidden if you ask the right question. Before you buy, get the treatment stated plainly: natural, stabilized, dyed, or reconstituted. A stone described as natural and untreated should be backed by a report from an independent gem laboratory, not just a verbal promise.
We do not pretend to hold turquoise we do not have. If you want one, we treat it as a hunt: you tell us the color, size, and budget, and we source the stone to brief, with treatment disclosed in writing. Browse our certified colored gemstones to see how we handle the stones we do source at the mine, then tell us what you are looking for.