Maybe you’ve heard of Andara Crystals before. They’ve become popular in the metaphysical realm of crystals the last few years. According to one popular seller they are natural glass which “come from one of the Earth’s high-energy vortex sites in the High Sierra Nevadas of northern California, Lady Nellies Land.” There are a vast range of claims about Andara glass and the amazing things they can do.

One is that it contains something called “entherium,” containing 70 different minerals. This is complete nonsense. Entherium is completely made up and these pieces of glass do not have 70 minerals in them.

They also claim to be Monatomic - which means of one atom. Doesn’t make any sense in this s scenario.

I have read claims that Andara glass can aid in time and space travel, raise our vibrations, detox negativity, heal you, cleanse the chakras and it seems that there’s nothing these people WON’T say it can do! And they have price tags to match, with small pieces going for hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Sorry folks but Andara glass, regardless of what the seller says, is slag glass. It is the garbage found at an old abandoned dumping ground of a glass factory. Several “healers” buy the slag glass and distribute it to each other, making up names and creating “certifications” for each other. It’s ALL a scam. People are paying thousands of dollars for beautiful, lovely garbage. And hey- they are pretty! But you can buy the same exact thing for almost nothing from honest slag glass sellers.

There is a thread about the Andara scam on Mindat (one of the most reputable sites and forums for those who are truly interested in learning about minerals - frequented by many true experts of mineralogy and geology!) and one entry is a woman that says she is the only one who has a certain color of the glass, called “King Solomon,” and found out one of her buyers was reselling her glass as Andara glass. The woman expressed that she was very angry that her material was being used to scam others. In the thread, they even name some of the people responsible for the whole scam.

It just so happens that ‘new’ color variations of Andara glass happen to be ‘found’ at the same times that glass companies start dumping those same new colors. Huh. I can see how one could easily believe in the story of Andara glass, because Obsidian exists, but with a bit of research the evidence stacks up ridiculously tall against it being anything but an elaborate scam. I hope that this can save someone from wasting a lot of their hard earned money on a piece of slag glass they could get elsewhere for a few bucks.

What other fakes, frauds or scams have you heard of??

Please comment below!

-Shawna

Citrine has many forms, but not all of the stones called by this name are truly Citrine. Amethyst in disguise is only the tip of the iceberg!

First of all, let's start with what Citrine IS. Citrine is a variety of Quartz, Silicon Dioxide, that has yellow, yellowish green, or yellowish brown coloring. Citrine is found in locations all over the world but is considered rare in its natural form, as seen here.

The most common way that false Citrine is created, is to heat Amethyst at high temperatures until it turns orange. All bright and dark orange Citrine is in fact heated Amethyst. Below is an Amethyst geode that has been cut in half, with the right side heated to produce orange Citrine. The orange can range from bright to dark, brownish orange but always orange. True Citrine is never this color, although sometimes Amethyst is heated to orange naturally.

Genuine Citrine will always have yellow based coloring. It can be pale yellow, yellowish brown, yellowish green, bright yellow, or even yellowish orange like this Citrine:

It can sometimes be so similar to light Smoky Quartz that it is impossible to discern between the two, in which case either name is correct. This rare Smoky Citrine here is from the Congo and often called Kundalini Quartz. This coloring can also be referred to as "honey" Citrine.

This one has dark, smoky phantoms in yellow Citrine, cut and polished into a point:

These are also natural Citrines that have been cut and polished into points. These ones are from Brazil:

There are other instances where crystals are mistakenly called Citrine due to their color, even though they are completely natural.

One example is when clear Quartz is coated in iron oxides that are yellow or orange in color. These naturally occurring coatings can be opaque or translucent, but some people mistake the overall orange or yellow coloring for being Citrine.

Spirit Quartz is another crystal that I see being called Citrine quite a bit. These crystals feature a Quartz or Amethyst crystal that has a second generation of smaller Quartz or Amethyst crystals formed along the sides.

They occur as Amethyst, or white Quartz, but never actual Citrine, or Ametrine, though both often have some orange or gold colored iron oxidation. 

True Ametrine, the bicolor mix of Amethyst and Citrine, is very rare and only legitimately mined in Bolivia at the Anani Mine site. It is also called Bolivianite. Sometimes Amethyst has orange iron oxides in it and will appear similar to Ametrine, but you need to be very careful about location and identification.

This is a genuine, bicolored Ametrine from Bolivia that has been faceted for jewelry. 

So keep in mind that there is much more to Citrine than just the color of the stone! And maybe keep a real one in your pocket or on your desk if you're looking to make better money ;)

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