Synthetic Alexandrite is a excellent alternative and a fraction of the cost of natural Alexandrite, exhibitings the color change effects under different light conditions.

Alexandrite is one of the rarest of all colored gemstone and is famed for its color change from Blue/green in daylight to purple under incandescent light. Fine faceted alexandrite over 1 carat is more valuable than sapphire ruby or emerald.

Alexandrite is a strongly pleochroic and tend to change color in artificial light compared to daylight. The color change is due to strong absorption of light in the yellow and blue portions of the spectrum.

According to a popular but probably apocryphal story, alexandrite was discovered by the Finnish mineralogist Nils Gustaf Nordenskjold, (1792 -1866) on the tsarevitch Alexander's sixteenth birthday on April 17, 1834 and named alexandrite in honor of the future Tsar Alexander II of Russia. It is apparently true that alexandrite was first identified (but not discovered) by Nordenskjold, but likely some years earlier, around 1831. It was Count Lev Alekseevich Perovskii (1792-1856) who named the gem alexandrite.

Alexandrite is a variety of chrysoberyl , with an excellent hardness of 8.5 on the Mohs scale. chrysoberyl has a reflective index of 1.746-1.763 and a density or specific gravity of 3.70-3.78.

Alexandrite is very rare because of its chemical composition. While it is a form of chrysoberyl it has an extra trace element in addition to iron and titanium. It is the presence of chromium that gives it the Blue-green hue in daylight. Alexandrite exhibiting chrysoberyl or the cat's eye effect is known, but very rare.

The original source of Aalexandrite in the Ural mountains in Russia has been worked out. An important alexandrite deposit was found in 1987 in Minas Gerais in Brazil, and other deposits are found in Burma, Madagascar, Sri Lanka and Tanzania.