Quick answer: Peridot is the gem variety of the mineral olivine, and it's one of the few gems that comes in exactly one colour: green — because iron, the element that colors it, is part of its basic chemistry rather than a chance impurity. The finest stones are a pure, saturated grass green. At Mohs 6.5–7 it suits everyday jewelry with slightly gentler habits (it dislikes rapid temperature swings and harsh chemicals), it's essentially never treated, and some peridot literally fell from space. It's the August birthstone.
What is a peridot?
Peridot is gem-quality olivine, a magnesium-iron silicate — and it's what gemologists call idiochromatic: colored by an element built into its own formula. Iron isn't a visitor in peridot the way chromium is in ruby; it's a resident. That's why every peridot on earth is green — lighter or deeper, yellower or purer, but always, unmistakably green. It's also a deep-earth gem, carried up in volcanic rock — and, remarkably, found in pallasite meteorites: a small amount of gem peridot is genuinely extraterrestrial, older than the planet it landed on.
What colour of peridot is most valuable?
The finest peridot is a pure, richly saturated grass green with as little yellow or brown as possible — a colour that historically earned it the nickname "the evening emerald," because it holds its glow under lamplight. Yellowish green is the common range; the deeper, purer greens come mostly in larger stones from the best sources, and that's where value climbs.
How is peridot graded?
Colour leads: purity and saturation of green set the price. Fine peridot should be eye-clean; its characteristic inclusions (see below) are charming under a loupe but shouldn't intrude on the eye. Cut matters for liveliness — peridot's strong double refraction gives well-cut stones a soft, velvety depth, and a good cutter orients the stone to keep the colour even.
How durable is a peridot — can I wear it daily?
Yes, with slightly gentler habits than a sapphire. At Mohs 6.5–7 peridot resists normal wear but sits below the quartz threshold, so years of desk-edge knocks will tell. Its two genuine sensitivities: rapid temperature changes and acids/harsh chemicals — hairspray, household cleaners and hot-cold shocks are its enemies, not daily life. Earrings and pendants: carefree. Rings: protective setting, sensible habits, and it thrives.
Is peridot treated?
Essentially never — peridot joins garnet and spinel in the small club of gems the trade doesn't routinely treat. The green you see is the green it grew with. That untouched-by-default honesty is part of its appeal.
How can you tell if a peridot is real?
Peridot carries two of the friendliest tells in gemology.
Doubling. Peridot's double refraction is strong enough that under a loupe you can see the back facet edges doubled — like faint ghost lines — through the stone. Glass and cubic zirconia are singly refractive: no doubling, flat interior. This one tell eliminates most imitations in seconds.
Lily pads. Natural peridot's signature inclusions are "lily pads" — tiny disc-shaped stress halos around a minute crystal, floating in the green like their namesake. Nature draws them; glass factories don't. Synthetic peridot is rare in commerce (natural is affordable enough), so imitations are usually just green glass — bubbles, swirls, and none of the above. A lab's refractometer settles anything ambiguous, and an important stone deserves that report.
Where does the finest peridot come from?
Myanmar supplies most of the world's large, fine-colour peridot, and the historic source is the volcanic island of Zabargad in the Red Sea — pharaohs' peridot, sometimes argued to include stones history recorded as Cleopatra's "emeralds." Arizona produces much of the world's commercial calibrated material, and Pakistan's high-mountain deposits have yielded superb crystals. Plus, of course, the occasional meteorite.
How do I care for a peridot?
Warm water, mild soap, soft brush — nothing more aggressive. No ultrasonic or steam cleaners, no acids or strong chemicals (put the ring on after perfume and hairspray), and no thermal shocks. Store it padded among its own kind and it stays lively for generations.
What does a peridot mean? (birthstone and symbolism)
Peridot is the August birthstone and the traditional 16th wedding anniversary gift. The ancients associated it with light and protection from the dark — fitting for a gem that glows under lamplight and occasionally arrives by meteorite.
