Similar to rubies, sapphires come in many different shapes and sizes, providing great variety to gemstone lovers and ensuring the enduring popularity of sapphire jewelry. With hardness just below that of diamonds, sapphires are one of the toughest gemstones, and with no cleavage, breakage rarely occurs. Blue Sapphires Intense medium dark blue is the most sought after color for blue sapphires. However, very fine sapphires are extremely rare. Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Burma produce very fine pure blue sapphires, although Cambodian sapphires are sometimes slightly dark.
Australian sapphires tend to have green overtones and concentric hexagonal bands.
Midnight blue sapphires have traditionally been looked down on but today midnight blue sapphire jewelry is increasingly common particularly for sapphire earrings. Intensity, uniformity and purity of color are the most important considerations when making a decision about the purchase of a blue sapphire. Fine blue sapphires should not contain any overtones or secondary colors, for this will lessen the beauty of this precious gemstone. As the overall beauty of the stone will depend on the cutting, this characteristic must always be taken into consideration. Dark blue sapphires will appear black under low light settings, while fine blue sapphires will maintain their color in any light setting.