A few ground rules before you start:
- No single test is proof. Every test below can produce false positives and false negatives. Tests work best in combination. When several point the same way, you can be reasonably confident.
- Passing isn't proof of real, failing isn't proof of fake. A test that "works" on genuine material may do nothing on treated, stabilized, or composite versions of the same real material. Read each section's caveats.
- When in doubt, ask us. We'd rather answer a question than let you wonder. See Claims We Don't Make for what we promise about our own materials.
Amber
- Salt water test: dissolve several tablespoons of salt in a glass of water until no more dissolves. Real amber floats. Most glass and plastic imitations sink.
- UV light: real amber fluoresces a soft blue-green under a UV/blacklight. Most plastics don't, or fluoresce a different color.
- Static test: rub amber firmly on wool, then hold it near small paper scraps. Real amber picks them up. Many plastics won't.
- Napkin test: rub amber firmly on wool, then hold it near a suspended napkin. Real amber will attract the napkin.
- Going Nuclear: using a drill and appropriate PPE, drill a hole into the amber and take note of the scent. Sweet, pine-like scent? Often real. Acrid chemical immediate nose cancer scent? Often fake. This will, obviously, destroy the value of the bead - proceed with caution.
Full material page: Amber.
Turquoise
- The water test: drop the stone in water. Genuine, untreated turquoise is porous: you may see tiny bubbles gather on the surface, and the stone may darken slightly as it drinks. This is the important caveat: stabilized, treated, and composite turquoise won't react, because their pores are sealed or filled. No bubbles does not mean fake, but visible bubbling and darkening is a genuinely good sign of untreated stone.
- Dye check: rub an inconspicuous spot firmly with a white cloth dampened with plain water, then check for color transfer. Bright dye on the cloth is a warning sign. (Avoid acetone on strung pieces, it can damage cord and fillers.)
- Use your eyes: natural turquoise is rarely uniform. Perfectly even, electric color across the whole stone is more often dyed, stabilized, or reconstituted. Matrix (the dark veining) should look like it grows through the stone, not like lines drawn on top.
Full material page: Turquoise.
Jade
- Know the two real minerals first: nephrite (软玉, ruan yu) and jadeite (硬玉, ying yu) are both genuine jade, and they feel different from the imitations. Most fakes are serpentine, quartzite, aventurine, or dyed glass wearing the name. See Jade for the distinction.
- Look at the texture: hold jade under a strong light and look into it. Nephrite shows a fine, oily, tightly interwoven structure. Jadeite a brighter, granular one. Serpentine looks waxy, quartzite sugary, glass empty. Note: Extremely high quality jade may appear empty, as glass does.
- Black Hetian specifically: hold the bead to a strong light. Genuine black nephrite (墨玉, mo yu) shows a deep dark-green or brown glow at the edges where light passes through. Absolute, light-swallowing black usually means dyed stone, onyx, or glass. See Jade.
- Price as evidence: real Hetian and imperial jadeite at suspicious prices is the single most reliable fake signal there is. The test you're really running is on the seller.
Agar Wood
- The scent evolves. Perfume doesn't: genuine agar wood is complex: warm at first touch, shifting as it meets body heat, deepening over months of wear. Perfume sprayed onto plain wood smells identical every time and fades to nothing by month six. Wear it for a week and it tells on itself. Grade, age, exposure are the caveats here.
- Weight and sink tests are unreliable: modern treatment can weight plain wood. A sinking bead is not proof of grade.
- Look at the resin: genuine resin zones are irregular: they follow the grain, vary in density, and look grown rather than printed. Perfectly uniform "resin lines" are a question mark.
Full material page: Agar Wood. Process: How Agar Wood Is Made.
Pearls
- The tooth test: gently rub a pearl against the edge of your front teeth. Real nacre feels faintly gritty or sandy (microscopic layers catching). Glass and plastic imitations feel glassy-smooth.
- Look for imperfection: perfectly round, flawless, identical pearls at low prices are almost always imitations. Slight surface variation is a good sign.
- Check the drill hole: under magnification, real nacre shows layered structure at the hole. Coated imitations show a uniform core, and cheap coating flakes there first.
- Going Nuclear: smash it with a hammer. Plastic/Resin generally doesn't shatter. Drill a hole in it. Does it smell like a stagnant pool of salt water that someone farted on? Real. Does it smell like chemicals? Fake.
Full material page: Pearl.
Sandalwood
- Warmth reveals it: genuine sandalwood releases its scent with the warmth of your hand and changes over years. Pressed powder and perfumed woods smell strong on day one and vanish by month six. Caveat: same as Agar Wood. Dampening scents vary across grade, age, and exposure.
- No home test beats time. The honest test is wearing it: real sandalwood deepens. Substitutes flatten. Can you "revive" it by rubbing it in your palms? Good sign.
Full material page: Sandalwood.
Bodhi Seeds
- Phoenix eye (凤眼菩提, feng yan pu ti): the "eye" is a natural raised ridge around the seed's germ point. On real seeds it sits off-center as often as not, and the surrounding surface carries fine, irregular texture. Fakes, usually dyed date or other seeds, show a drilled or burned dot dead center on every seed.
- Star & moon (星月菩提, xing yue pu ti): the "moon" is the pale germ hole, the "stars" tiny radial marks around it. Real: the moon is naturally placed, the stars irregular. Fakes: dots drilled or bleached in, dead uniform, and dye from mass-produced batches rubs off on a damp white cloth.
- Price as evidence works here too. A strand of large, perfectly matched "phoenix eye" at sandwich prices is not phoenix eye.
Full material page: Seed & Nut Beads.
Cat's Eye
- Move the light, not the stone: fiber-optic glass "cat's eye" shows a bright white line that slides across the surface when you move the light source. Real chrysoberyl cat's eye shows a sharp silver band fixed to the stone. It opens and closes as you rotate the stone, like an actual pupil.
- Hardness tells: chrysoberyl is 8.5 on the Mohs scale and scratches glass. Fiber-optic glass is far softer, and worn beads show it at the drill holes within months.
- Price as evidence: genuine chrysoberyl cat's eye at bazaar prices is fiber-optic glass. The gap is roughly four orders of magnitude.
Full material page: Other Precious & Semi-Precious Stones.
Cinnabar
- There is no reliable home test for lacquered cinnabar versus resin composite. This is why disclosure matters more than testing here. The honest dividing line is what the seller tells you: genuine lacquered cinnabar (汞砂, gong sha, cinnabar lacquer) versus resin-composite "cinnabar-style" beads, which are most of what's sold today. See Cinnabar Safety and the composite section of Cinnabar. Most sellers (us included) will generally refuse to sell "real" or "pure" or "full" cinnabar as it's extremely heavy, impractical to wear, corrosive, and dangerous.
Dzi
- Ancient vs. modern, at a glance: under magnification, ancient etched agate has organic, slightly irregular lines with genuine weathering inside the grooves. Machine etching is uniform, crisp, and identical bead to bead. Price is the loudest signal: authentic ancient Dzi sells for tens of thousands and up. A $20 "ancient Dzi" is a modern bead, honestly described or not, but modern either way.
- Full guide: Tibetan vs. Modern.
Related: Claims We Don't Make · Amber · Turquoise · Jade · Pearl · Dzi Bead General · Cinnabar Safety