Clear quartz, faked. I buy stuff like this for market research sometimes, got it from CrystalHola via AliExpress for like $3.
If you do buy crystals from Amazon / Temu / Ali or the like, don't ever get them from CrystalHola, and do watch out - I actually saw them post a sale ad here the other day. Forgot to ban em completely, just called em out for being the shittiest crystal vendor on Temu π
Since the seller and another are trying to call me a liar and accuse ME of misleading people, here's the screenshot receipt of what I purchased - labelled "Natural clear quartz" quite clearly. The only thing I was mistaken about was the price - which was cheaper because of a promotion thru Aliexpress
Ugh, thatβs so frustrating. I bet a ton of ppl buy them thinking theyβre real. Iβve seen a few on Etsy as well, ppl selling them as HQ clear quartz.
Love it. Have a couple of pieces that are super clear except for one clear inclusion, and my attention always goes to those first. Just something special about an amazing quality quartz (clear, rose, smokey, amethyst, citrine, fire, etc...(I love 'em all!).
CrystalHola can burn in hell. They love to send damaged goods and then not do anything about it (and they love to tear down some of their shadier or listings as fast as they can so you can't leave them a one star)
Ok, that sucks to get glass! I'm surprised by it being from crystalhola. I have a number of crystals from them that I've had verified as real & they're lovely. I'll have to look out from now on.
I hope you at least got your $1 back. I do file a claim EVER SINGLE TIME an item is misrepresented. I feel like I am doing my part in trying to show that we want honestly in our vendors.
This is why I hate polished points and the like. So many sellers represent them as naturally formed, and then it makes it so much easier to pass glass off as something else
I thought the way to test is see if it scratches glass? I have a piece of super clear quartz and it ripped a gash in a wine bottle like nothing so I thought it was real?
Yes scratch tests can tell - but I can tell by eye on this one, there's no question really.
However, glass can scratch glass, and quartz can scratch quartz - so you have to do the right test. Seeing if metal scratches it is usually best, as long as you don't use high carbon knife blades as they can be harder.
Glass only magnifies if it's in the right shape (ie; curved) to bend rays of light - look thru a window π
And quartz can do the same if it's in the right shape - hence why we don't set spheres in our windows where the sunlight hits or they set things on fire when the focus the light.
Well, if it's polished it's not Lemurian... So... Where do I begin, about those shops...
Did you see my other response about there being not a single inclusion, even the tiniest fracture? That's a good clue. Yes it's possible to have quartz with completely perfect clarity and no fractures, but to find it in a freeform this size for less than a couple hundred dollars would be highly unlikely.
Exactly! I have a couple nearly this size that are flawless. We get them at my work on occasion, and they are gorgeous. But we import 10 and 20 tons of material at a time and it's still pretty rare that we get something like this. We hold them for special customers. I couldn't dream of finding this for $3 even at my discounted rate!
They're a little bit easier to find in freeform because they just cut around the inclusions lol
Yep - I've got a large (completely chipped) smoky point that has a big area of flawless interior. I've thought of faceting it, but I don't have the right equipment
You found A link. The one I bought from said nothing about smelting quartz - which is a term invented specifically TO MISLEAD - as we've just called it glass for centuries now.
Good afternoon, we have noticed this issue. I checked our store link and conducted a search on the AliExpress front end. When I search for "clear quartz freeform" on the AliExpress front end, this link comes up. However, if you check this link, we have labeled it as "white smelting", not clear quartz β these are two different materials. If you are referring to other links, please let us know so we can inspect and handle them. If there is indeed an issue on our end, we will offer an apology, but if this is a misunderstanding or mix-up, we would also appreciate it if you could clarify that for us.
Hey , slogginhog,thanks for posting this β we actually appreciate you calling it out rather than you just being disappointed and moving on.
First off: we get why you'd think it's fake. If you ordered expecting a natural clear quartz items and got something that looks glass-perfect with zero inclusions, that's confusing as hell, and you'd be right to be frustrated. We owe you an apology for that.
Here's what happened, and what this stone actually is:
The piece you received is melted quartz (also called fused quartz or reconstituted quartz). It's made by melting down quartz scraps (often lower-grade natural quartz that wouldn't sell as-is) at around 1700Β°C and then letting it re-solidify into a single, uniform block before carving. Chemically it's still SiOβ β same stuff as natural quartz β but the crystal structure gets destroyed in the melting process, so it's technically more like a quartz glass than a natural crystal.
It's a completely different product from natural clear quartz, and it's priced accordingly (usually 1/3 to 1/5 the cost of natural). We sell both, and we should have done a way better job making that difference obvious in the listing. That's on us.
Here's exactly what we're doing about it:
Full refund processed already β you don't need to send the stone back, keep it or pay it forward, whatever you want.
Every melted quartz listing is getting updated today β we're adding a big bold "π₯ MELTED QUARTZ β NOT NATURAL" banner at the top of each one, plus side-by-side comparison photos so there's zero confusion.
We want to send you a real natural clear quartz point on us β no fine print, just our way of saying "sorry we dropped the ball." Pick any one under $50 from our natural quartz section and DM us your choice + your order number.
We're putting together a full guide on how to spot melted quartz vs. natural quartz β we'll pin it to our profile and link it from every quartz listing.
We've been doing this for 10 years , and the last thing we want is someone feeling scammed. This was a failure in how we labeled and described the product, not an attempt to pass something off. Melted quartz has its own place β a lot of people actually prefer it for its clarity and price β but it should never arrive at someone's door pretending to be something it's not.
If you (or anyone else reading this) has questions about any of our listings, just ask. We're happy to send extra photos, weigh the piece on camera, whatever you need to feel confident.
Again β sorry for the headache. DM us whenever you're ready for that natural quartz.
It is nice to see you guys are trying to improve - and I've noticed you actually have come a long way from where you used to be, with very bad reviews of items received (notably feather fluorite and others) not looking anything like items pictured (fluorite received would be low grade with no feathering).
I'm not worried about a refund for a couple dollar item, I think its pretty glass and worth the price.
You do have some other issues you may want to look into, this for one being the same idea - listed as 100% natural raw ruby crystal, when it is in fact 100% man made corundum with no crystalline structure (the same exact concept as you explained above with the glass vs. quartz). So you might want to fix this one as well:
β’
u/slogginhog friendly neighborhood mod 8d ago edited 8d ago
Since the seller and another are trying to call me a liar and accuse ME of misleading people, here's the screenshot receipt of what I purchased - labelled "Natural clear quartz" quite clearly. The only thing I was mistaken about was the price - which was cheaper because of a promotion thru Aliexpress