Discover the Sparkle: Top 10 Fun Facts About Corundum You Never Knew!

1. Skincare Superstar

Move over, diamond rings: corundum is your beauty-obsessed, exfoliating-crazy cousin who's sweeping the skincare world off its feet! Seriously speaking: Corundum is not only prized as gems for jewelry but also as a natural exfoliant in beauty products, renowned for its coarse surface, efficient for microdermabrasion, and hypoallergenic properties.
Source => socri.it

2. Gemstones and Abrasives Unite

If corundum threw a party, rubies and sapphires would be the life of it, while emery would be that guy tirelessly scrubbing up the aftermath: At the core of these dazzling gemstones and hardworking abrasives is the same mineral, corundum, ranking second in hardness to diamonds. It's used in emery and can be synthetically conjured for gemstone glam, with variations in colors determined by their origins – like brownish Thai rubies or Montana's deep blue sapphires.
Source => minerals.net

Did you know that sapphires come in a dazzling array of colors, including the extremely rare Padparadscha hue? Discover the secrets behind these colorful gems! 🎨💎

=> Fun Facts about Sapphires

3. Star-patterned Showstoppers

Like celestial beings playing a high-stakes game of Connect the Dots, corundum has a knack for giving us stars in unexpected places: When corundum, the very mineral that forms sapphires and rubies, contains needle-like inclusions of rutile (titanium dioxide) aligned just right, it can create a stunning six-rayed star pattern on the surface of a cabochon cut gemstone, resulting in awe-inspiring star sapphires and other star-studded gems such as garnets, diopsides, and spinels.
Source => geologyin.com

4. Frenemies with Benefits

Talk about a gem of a BFF: Rubies and sapphires, the head-turning frenemies of the gemstone world, have a knack for being adored and treasured by humans throughout history. These vibrant pals come to your rescue with a shield of power and a cape of envy-proof protection: actually, they are both corundum, just donning different colors, and have been admired for centuries - with ancient Greeks trusting sapphires for safeguarding them from harm, and the Burmese regarding rubies as symbols of might and defense.
Source => geology.com

5. Laser Babies

In a marriage of lasers and gemstones that would make Dr. Evil proud, CO2 laser technology has birthed synthetic babies that'll dazzle your eyes with their colorful brilliance: corundum can be used to produce synthetic sapphires and rubies, as experiments managed to create crystals such as black sapphire, ruby, and even the elusive blue sapphire within a mixture of aluminum oxide powder and other elements!
Source => laserpointerforums.com

6. Mood Ring Rivals

If you thought mood rings were the epitome of color-changing marvels, wait till you meet sapphires with commitment issues: Color change sapphires exhibit different shades in fluorescent lighting versus incandescent lighting, such as transforming from blue to purple, and have a value based on the intensity of this color shift. Mostly found in Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Madagascar, they are highly sought after by collectors willing to pay a pretty penny for their fickle hues.
Source => thenaturalsapphirecompany.com

7. Extreme Temperature Tolerance

It seems that corundum decided to pursue a career in extreme sports, withstanding temperatures that would make the Devil sweat: In reality, this heat-resistant material has a melting point of 2,045 degrees Celsius, making it highly suitable for industrial applications like furnace linings and crucibles to refine metals.
Source => geologyscience.com

8. Sneaky Treatments

The steaks have never been higher for the world of corundum: many treated rubies and sapphires have their value, much like Icarus' wings, take a staggering dive by up to 95% due to certain sneaky treatments! While heat treatment only gives the gemstones a mild hot tub moment and doesn't affect their worth, other undercover treatments can be quite the party crashers. It takes a gemstone Sherlock Holmes to spot the evidence and expose these value-sabotaging culprits.
Source => gemsociety.org

9. Fluorescent Detectives

If corundum were a crime detective, it'd be Sherlock Holmes, always sniffing out heated secrets… with science!: One of corundum's unique skills is displaying chalky short-wave fluorescence, which helps determine if a ruby or sapphire has been heat-treated – a curious clue first discovered by Robert Crowningshield in 1966 that remains quite helpful for gem dealers and gemologists to this day.
Source => lotusgemology.com

10. A Rainbow of Personalities

If corundum could talk, it would say, "I contain multitudes, and I'm quite the colorful character": This hard, multifaceted mineral is found in a rainbow of hues, including blue, yellow, green, pink, purple, and orange—with its glamorous alter egos, sapphires and rubies, making a name for themselves as precious gemstones, while its more industrious side hustles as an abrasive in sandpaper and manufacturing materials, scoring a solid 9 on the Mohs hardness scale.
Source => applesofgold.com