Cubic zirconia — what is it?

cubic zir­co­nia – the word “cubic” refers to the sym­me­try of its crys­tals, and “zir­co­nia” refers to its chem­i­cal com­po­si­tion (zir­co­ni­um oxide). Cubic zir­co­nia stones are made from a mix­ture of high puri­ty zir­co­nia pow­ders sta­bi­lized with mag­ne­sium and cal­ci­um.

Cubic zir­co­nia is vir­tu­al­ly flaw­less com­pared to zir­cons that have inclu­sions or oth­er imper­fec­tions.

External features

Many peo­ple can­not under­stand the dif­fer­ence between cubic zir­co­nia and dia­monds. Opti­cal­ly flaw­less and usu­al­ly col­or­less — equiv­a­lent to a D on the dia­mond col­or scale — cubic zir­co­nia has less bril­liance than dia­mond, but with brighter bursts of col­or. Cubic zir­co­nia can also be cre­at­ed in a rain­bow of col­ors by adding var­i­ous met­al oxides in the process. Cubic zir­co­nia can be cus­tom made in dif­fer­ent shades. Col­or is uni­form, lighter col­ors such as pink and pur­ple may have slight col­or vari­a­tions.

The durability of cubic zirconia

Scored at 8.5 on the Mohs scale, cubic zir­co­nia is high­ly durable and suit­able for use in all types of jew­el­ry. The world-famous Pan­do­ra jew­el­ry house offers bracelets, ear­rings, rings, charms and neck­laces with zir­cons in its assort­ment.

Processing features

The pro­cess­ing uses state-of-the-art Ther­mal Col­or Fusion (TCFTM), an inno­v­a­tive and envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly chem­i­cal heat treat­ment patent­ed by Swarovs­ki. This approach allows you to main­tain the integri­ty of the crys­tal, pro­tect­ing it from exter­nal destruc­tive influ­ences.

Care rules

In order for jew­el­ry to retain its flaw­less appear­ance and incred­i­ble radi­ance for as long as pos­si­ble, it is rec­om­mend­ed to store them sep­a­rate­ly in a jew­el­ry box or a spe­cial bag to avoid scratch­es. Clean with warm, soapy water and a gen­tle brush. Ultra­son­ic clean­ers should be used with cau­tion. It is strict­ly for­bid­den to drop heavy objects on jew­el­ry.

Mythology and associations

Cubic zir­co­nia lacks the his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance that nat­ur­al gem­stones have. How­ev­er, it was the per­fect crys­tal struc­tures that made the beau­ty and pop­u­lar­i­ty of the inno­v­a­tive stone unde­ni­able. In the 1970s, it became an afford­able alter­na­tive to dia­monds. It is dif­fi­cult to deter­mine the ori­gin of the mined nat­ur­al dia­monds, but cubic zir­co­nia is ful­ly trace­able.

Pan­do­ra offers the fol­low­ing vari­eties of zir­co­ni­um: trans­par­ent, sun­ny yel­low, yel­low, unusu­al gold, pink, light red, fuch­sia, cubic zir­co­nia, red, orange, light gold­en, frosty mint, blue, blue, turquoise, green, black . The price of prod­ucts depends on the type of prod­uct, mate­r­i­al (gold, sil­ver), com­plex­i­ty of pro­duc­tion and grade of zir­con used.

Origin of crystals

In the mid-1970s, Russ­ian sci­en­tists dis­cov­ered how to grow cubic zir­co­nia crys­tals in the lab­o­ra­to­ry. Orig­i­nal­ly cre­at­ed for use in laser tech­nol­o­gy to make up for the lack of nat­ur­al rubies to gen­er­ate laser beams, the stone was devel­oped using tech­nol­o­gy sim­i­lar to today’s microwave oven. Grown in a con­trolled envi­ron­ment with intense heat to cre­ate per­fect crys­tal struc­tures, this hard man-made mate­r­i­al was soon dis­cov­ered to mim­ic the nat­ur­al beau­ty of dia­monds and was quick­ly intro­duced into the jew­el­ry indus­try. Arti­fi­cial stone is more pop­u­lar than ever as a beau­ti­ful, durable and dec­o­ra­tive stone in jew­el­ry. Cubic zir­co­nia is Pan­do­ra’s most wide­ly used stone.

Frequently asked questions about cubic zirconia