Pink Tourmaline

Tourmaline is the alternate birthstone for October, along with the opal. The stone was first discovered by Dutch traders off the West Coast of Italy in the late 1600's or early 1700's. The name tourmaline comes from the Sinhalese term “turmali,” which the name was given to all colored crystals on the island of Sri Lanka at that time. Tourmaline belongs to a complex family of aluminum borosilicates mixed with iron, magnesium, or other various metals that, depending on the proportions of its components, may form as red, pink, yellow, brown, black, green, blue or violet. 

Pink tourmaline is also known as “rubellite,” which is the Latin word for red. Pink tourmaline is the rarest member of the tourmaline family. It is more rare than ruby in fact! The red color occurs because of impurities in the center of the stone. At one time in history, pink and red tourmaline were thought to be rubies. Pink tourmaline tends to be pinker in color than ruby. 

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