Turquoise is one of the most imitated stones in the bead trade. It is soft, porous and often sold in small quantities, which makes it easy to substitute and hard for a buyer to check. Most of what is described as turquoise on open marketplaces is something else: dyed howlite, dyed magnesite, or reconstituted powder pressed back into a bead.
None of these substitutes are dishonest in themselves. Dyed howlite is a perfectly good blue bead, and reconstituted turquoise does contain turquoise. The problem is only ever what a piece is called. This is a guide to telling them apart.
What natural turquoise looks like
Natural turquoise is a copper aluminium phosphate. It forms in dry, mineral-rich ground, filling seams and cavities in host rock, which is why so much of it carries matrix — the veining or webbing of the surrounding stone, in brown, black, rust or grey.
Some markers of untreated material:
- Colour that varies across a single bead, and from bead to bead in a strand. Turquoise is rarely uniform.
- Matrix that reads as part of the stone rather than sitting on top of it. Veining should continue through the bead and around its curve, not stop at the surface.
- A waxy to slightly dull lustre when polished, rather than a glassy shine.
- Real weight. Turquoise is denser than howlite or magnesite and feels heavier in the hand than it looks.
Dyed howlite and magnesite
Howlite is a white borate mineral with fine grey or black veining. Magnesite is a white carbonate with a similar look. Both are cheap, widely available and take dye readily, which makes them the standard turquoise substitute.
Dyed material tends to give itself away in a few ways. The blue is often flat and even across every bead in a strand — a consistency natural turquoise seldom achieves. Colour pools darker in the drill hole and in surface cracks, where dye has collected. The veining is grey or black and rather uniformly spidery, without the rust and brown tones that iron in the host rock produces. And the beads feel light.
Held next to natural turquoise, the difference is usually obvious. Held alone, it is not, which is why the labelling matters.
Reconstituted and stabilised stone
These two terms are often confused, and they are not the same thing.
- Stabilised turquoise is natural turquoise that has been impregnated with clear resin to harden it and stop it absorbing oils. The stone is intact; the resin fills its pores. Most turquoise on the market is stabilised, and reputable sellers say so. It is still turquoise.
- Reconstituted turquoise is turquoise dust and fragments — often offcuts from cutting — mixed with binder, dyed, and pressed into a block that is then cut into beads. The material is turquoise-derived but has been remade.
- Imitation turquoise may contain no turquoise at all: dyed howlite, dyed magnesite, resin, ceramic, or plastic.
Reconstituted beads often show a very even texture with tiny flecks distributed too regularly, or a faint seam where the block was cut. The colour is uniform in a way that looks convincing in a photograph and less so in the hand.
Practical checks before you buy
- Read the wording. “Turquoise colour”, “turquoise style” and “howlite turquoise” all mean not turquoise. A seller who deals in the real thing will name it precisely and mention stabilisation.
- Look at the price against the size. Natural turquoise in larger bead sizes is not cheap, and a wide strand of uniform 10mm beads at a low price is telling you something.
- Ask for the photograph of the actual piece rather than a stock image. Variation between beads is easier to judge on a real strand.
- Look at the drill holes in close-up. Dye concentration there is one of the more reliable signals.
How we handle it
Turquoise appears in our collection alongside amethyst, nanhong agate, green agate, green fluorite and moonstone. Every piece is strung by hand in Xingyi, in the karst highlands of Guizhou, by makers we name — Wu Yunhua and Fanfan among them. Beads vary; that variation is why we do not photograph one bracelet and send another. You can see what is currently available in the Mistfell shop, where the piece in the photograph is the piece that arrives.
If a stone is stabilised, or if a strand is not turquoise at all, the listing says so. That is the whole of it.
Questions & answers
How can I tell if turquoise is real or dyed howlite?
Look for uneven colour across the beads, matrix veining that runs through the stone rather than sitting on the surface, and real weight in the hand. Dyed howlite is light, evenly coloured, and shows dye pooling in the drill holes and surface cracks.
Is stabilised turquoise still real turquoise?
Yes. Stabilised turquoise is natural stone impregnated with clear resin to harden it. The turquoise itself is unaltered in composition. Reconstituted turquoise is different — it is powder and fragments bound and pressed into a block, then cut.
Why is natural turquoise more expensive than the blue beads sold as turquoise?
Natural turquoise is mined in limited quantities, much of it too soft or thin to cut, so usable material is a small fraction of what comes out of the ground. Dyed howlite and magnesite are common minerals and cost a fraction as much.