How we describe a stone
Rubellite is the one stone we sell where the trade name is a judgement rather than a fact. So we publish the test we apply, and we publish what cannot be known.
Full saturation, in a red that runs from raspberry to purplish red. A light or washed pink is not rubellite at any price, and we will not list it as one.
Every stone is photographed twice, in daylight and under warm incandescent light, and both images are published. If the red holds, it is rubellite. If it browns out, it is pink tourmaline and it is priced as pink tourmaline.
Rubellite is the most included of the tourmalines and the trade accepts in it what it would reject in a green or a blue. We say what is inside rather than pretending it is not there.
The rough is strongly pleochroic, so orientation decides the face-up colour. We favour stones cut for colour over stones cut to hold weight.
Weight with exact millimetre dimensions. Large clean rubellite exists, which is unusual among red gems, and it is priced accordingly.
Undeterminable, and we will not claim otherwise. Tourmaline is commonly irradiated and heated, both undetectably, and the LMHC lists it among the materials whose colour authenticity cannot be established. Assume the colour may have been modified. Any dealer showing you a certificate that says otherwise is misreading it.