Tanzanite Color Chart: What Colors are Tanzanite?

Blue & Violet: The Classic Tanzanite Color

This is the tanzanite everyone knows. Fine tanzanite can range from predominantly violet to a strong sapphire-like blue, with plenty of stones falling somewhere between the two.

One of the things I pay close attention to when cutting tanzanite is the balance between blue and violet. Crystal orientation and the way a stone is cut can have a major impact on the color you ultimately see face-up.

Classic Blue-Violet Tanzanite

This 7.34 carat emerald cut tanzanite is a great example. I graded its color at approximately 65% blue and 35% violet. It's a heated stone and I cut it here at Moriarty's Gem Art.

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Why Does Tanzanite Look Blue One Minute and Purple the Next?

This is something tanzanite owners notice all the time.

A tanzanite may look noticeably bluer in daylight and more violet or purple under incandescent lighting. Most tanzanites show some degree of this color shift.

In the video above, I show an unusual natural stone that takes this much further. In daylight, it appears almost completely blue. Under incandescent light, it becomes almost completely purple. I would consider that a true color-change tanzanite rather than simply the normal color shift we see in many stones.

Brown or "Diesel" Tanzanite

When people see natural tanzanite rough for the first time, they're sometimes surprised that it isn't bright blue.

Much of the untreated material has a brownish or reddish-brown appearance mixed with flashes of blue, violet or other colors. In the trade, you'll sometimes hear us describe this appearance as "diesel" because the mix of colors can resemble the iridescent appearance you see looking into diesel fuel.

Some of this material can be heated to produce the familiar blue-violet color. Occasionally, though, a natural-color stone is interesting enough that I prefer leaving it exactly the way it came out of the ground.

Fancy Tanzanite: The Colors Most People Never See

This is where tanzanite gets really interesting.

Over the years I've encountered unusual tanzanites in green, yellow, peach, pink and mixtures of colors that don't fit neatly into any one category.

You'll sometimes hear these stones called Fancy Tanzanite, while some people prefer technically describing them by the mineral name zoisite. We commonly use Tanzanite because these stones come from the same Tanzanian deposits associated with traditional blue-violet tanzanite.

Greenish Yellow Tanzanite

Here's a color many people would never guess was tanzanite. This 1.62 carat elongated hexagon has a natural greenish-yellow color. It is untreated and was cut by me here at Moriarty's Gem Art.

VIEW THIS FANCY TANZANITE

Green & Greenish-Blue Tanzanite

Green can mix with blue to create some remarkable stones. This 3.44 carat freeform tanzanite has a natural greenish-blue color, received no treatment, and was cut by me in an unusual freeform design.

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Peacock or Chameleon Tanzanite

One particularly interesting variety is sometimes described as Peacock Tanzanite or Chameleon Tanzanite.

Think of a blue tanzanite with a noticeable amount of green mixed into it. Depending on the stone and lighting, you may see combinations of blue, violet and green. It's completely different from the traditional deep blue-violet look, and I've found that collectors either discover these by accident or immediately become fascinated with them.

Periwinkle Tanzanite

Then you get colors that are difficult to put into a traditional category. This large 10.37 carat fancy tanzanite has a beautiful periwinkle color — somewhere in that fascinating territory between blue, violet and lavender. I cut this stone into what we call our "Sailboat" cut.

VIEW THE 10.37CT TANZANITE

Purple Tanzanite

Some tanzanites lean so heavily toward violet that I would simply describe their dominant appearance as purple. These are different from the balanced blue-violet color most buyers associate with tanzanite.

For someone who likes amethyst-like violet colors but wants something considerably more unusual, these can be beautiful stones.

Yellow Tanzanite

Yellow is another fancy color I've encountered. Some stones are distinctly yellow while others show greenish-yellow combinations.

These stones can look so different from traditional tanzanite that if you placed one in front of most jewelry buyers without telling them what it was, I doubt tanzanite would be their first guess.

Peach Tanzanite

Peach is one of the prettiest fancy colors I've seen. The examples I've handled can have a warm, delicate appearance somewhat reminiscent of certain fancy sapphires or Malaia garnets.

In my experience, good peach-colored tanzanite has been considerably harder to encounter than yellow or purple fancy colors.

Pink Tanzanite

And then there's pink.

Pink tanzanite — or pink zoisite, if you prefer that terminology — is one of the rarest and most memorable colors I've encountered.

Years ago, pink material was almost impossible for me to find. On a trip to Tanzania in 2014, I suddenly encountered several pink stones. At the time I thought I'd hit the mother lode. More material appeared in the market afterward, but fine pink examples are still unusual compared with traditional blue-violet tanzanite.

Four Tanzanites. Four Very Different Colors.

These four stones from our collection show just how misleading it is to think of tanzanite as simply a "blue gemstone."

BLUE-VIOLET 7.34 Carats	GREENISH YELLOW 1.62 Carats • Untreated
GREENISH BLUE 3.44 Carats • Untreated	PERIWINKLE 10.37 Carats