We compared the top blue gemstones for jewelry - Here are the best 9

Gemstones come in a variety of colors but, whether it is to match an outfit, your eyes, your skin tone, a fond memory or for spiritual meaning, sometimes it has to be blue. Which gemstone should you choose? We have come up with the 9 best blue gemstones for jewelry - so you don't have to!

First let's establish our criteria for this particular list. We are selecting gemstones that are usually faceted, mostly translucent, definitely blue (no turquoise, purple or green), all one color and readily available. In addition the specimen should be hard and tough enough to resist scratching and chipping when placed into a jewelry setting.

Little doubt which stone will come out on top of our list but who will fill out the next 8 spots. Let's find out shall we?

No prizes for guessing the world's top blue gemstone. We chose this iconic gem because the best examples have a matchless deep cornflower blue to a slightly violet blue. They have a dark tone but not so dark as to affect the brightness of the blue and the saturation is powerfully vivid and even throughout. Sapphires have an unsurpassed history, and age-old mythology and a connection with royalty meaning you cannot go wrong in choosing this gemstone.

Blue Topaz is considered an exceptional gemstone due to its stunning blue color, remarkable size availability, and minimal flaws, making it universally adored. Among the preferred blue variations, the vibrant 'Swiss Blue' and the deeper 'London Blue' stand out. Not only is Blue Topaz highly attractive, but it is also reasonably priced and consistently accessible, making it a cherished choice among jewelry makers.

Blue Diamonds can appear as natural untreated gemstones but are incredibly rare - the Hope Diamond, coming in at 45 carats is insured for $250 million - so should not really make our list but enhanced blue diamonds are natural diamonds that have been irradiated or exposed to high heat and pressure to turn a colorless precious stone into a vivid blue gem, still expensive but relatively affordable and simply beautiful. Along with outstanding beauty you get the prestige of owning a diamond.

Blue Zircon is a very underrated gemstone. It is underrated, because it is often wrongly confused with the man-made Cubic Zirconia. The blue zircons are usually heat treated, have a wonderful fire and brilliance, excellent clarity, come in lovely big sizes and reasonable prices compared others on this list.

Aquamarines have special pastel blue colors that are so like the ocean you are tempted to dive in! Their clarity, transparency and evenness of color are almost unsurpassed especially in the bigger sizes that are available in this unique gemstone.

Tanzanite is known as a blue gemstone but it is so much more than that. Its colors vary from light almost sky blue all the way up to a deep midnight blue. Add to this blue some flashes of red and touches of violet and purple and you can see why this gemstone really catches the eye. Tanzanite is basically always heat treated, very clear and can come in quite large carat sizes. With a tanzanite you are possessing a very special gemstone, very rare and found only in one small part of the earth.

Tourmaline comes in the widest array of colors in the gemstone world including a couple of outstanding blues. The blue ones are called "Indicolite Tourmaline". Indicolites have a color range from neon blue to dark blue and they usually come with excellent clarity. The color range is indeed very unique and almost exclusively found in this gemstone.

Spinels come in a variety of colors with the deep red version being the most expensive but the almost equally rare blue gemstones are very valuable and much sought after especially the transparent cobalt blue ones. Spinels are rarer than sapphires and any clean examples in this almost otherworldly blue are quickly snapped up.

Iolite is a deep blue gemstone sometimes veering towards violet, it is usually all natural as it cannot be heat treated and has three distinct colors when viewed at different angles. Gemstones good enough to be cut tend to be transparent with very few inclusions and anything over 5 carats is very rare.

So there we have the nine blue gemstones we consider the best of the best. We would like to give an honorable mention to a few that did not quite make the list. Apatite and Kyanite are gorgeous blue gemstones but are a bit too low on Mohs hardness scale to make perfect jewelry pieces.
See the our article on the Mohs hardness scale right here

Lapis Lazuli and Turquoise are two beautiful and quintessentially blue gemstones but they are both opaque stones and rarely if ever faceted. Color-change Fluorite is a lovely blue gemstone, but only in the daylight, take it indoors and, under incandescent light, it turns purple!