The Ceylon Blue Sapphire is known for its beauty – possessing the glorious cornflower blue shade – as well as for being one of the few sapphires in the world that can be sold as a completely natural stone without heat treatment.

The blues aside, Ceylon sapphires also come in beautiful hues including pink, yellow, orange, green, purple, lavender and of course, the inimitable padparadscha sapphire – named after the lotus flower.

All these highly marketable qualities of Ceylon sapphire has created brand recognition world wide - a brand not created by the producers of the stone, but by the sellers and consumers.

Sapphires that show a star-like light effect are called star sapphires; the most famous star sapphire from Sri Lanka is displayed in the Museum of Natural History in New York. Star sapphires or star rubies display a star-like marking and this effect, commonly known as asterism, occurs when light falls on the cut stone, cut in the cabochon form, and three rays appear giving a six-point star. However, stones with six rays have also been known to occur.

Most fine sapphire on the market today comes from Sri Lanka, which produces a wide range of beautiful blues from delicate sky blue colours to rich saturated hues.