Release Location: Shenzhen, China

Definition

Among aquamarines, Santa Maria aquamarine is renowned for its bright and extremely blue color without brown (yellow) undertones. It got its name "Santa Maria" because it was originally produced in the Santa Maria de Itabira mine in Brazil. In March 2020, the Guild Gem Laboratory launched the commercial name "Santa Maria Color" for aquamarines.

In the Guild color grading system, "Santa Maria Color" is used to describe the color of high-quality aquamarines. Only blue aquamarines with relatively high saturation and appropriate brightness are given the color description of "Santa Maria Color". Among them, those with higher saturation and better tone in the Santa Maria Color will receive the rating of "Exceptional Santa Maria Color"  [2, 3, 7].

Development History

Guild Gem Laboratory has been always concentrating on the inspection of colored gemstones. In particular, it has been focusing on the enhancement treatments, color grading and origin research of emeralds, rubies and sapphires. Besides, Guild Gem Laboratory has also conducted systematic research on emerging gemstones such as spinels and aquamarines and provided identification and grading services [1, 4 - 7].

Release: 

In March 2020, Guild Gem Laboratory officially launched the assessment of the "Santa Maria Color" for aquamarines, which has become synonymous with high-quality aquamarines (Figure 1).

Standardization:

 In September 2020, the Guild Gem Laboratory (USA) published an academic paper titled "Research on the Color Genesis and Colorimetry of Aquamarine" in the gemological academic journal "Gemological Frontiers", further standardizing the "Santa Maria Color" in a scientific way [3].

Marketization: 

Since the launch of the "Santa Maria Color" in March 2020, the popularity of aquamarines in China has been gradually rising. The sample collection volume of aquamarines by Guild Gem Laboratory clearly shows that the commercial name of "Santa Maria Color" has played a crucial role in promoting the vigorous development of the aquamarine market (Figure 2) [7].

In January 2022, Guild Gem Laboratory officially released the 2021 China Colored Gemstone Market Report, which includes the Aquamarine Market Report. The report indicates that the rapid rise of aquamarines in recent years is due to multiple factors. From the perspective of the gemstone industry, blue diamonds represent the top level among blue gemstones. Among numerous blue gemstones, the intense blue presented by aquamarines is the closest to that of blue diamonds. The release of the blue trend by Pantone in 2020 also played a facilitating role. Another important factor is that the application and popularization of the commercial name "Santa Maria Blue" has directly built a bridge between consumers and aquamarines. The statistical data in this report shows that the proportion of aquamarines sent to Guild Gem Laboratory that reached the "Santa Maria Color" rating was 80.82% in 2020 and rose to 85.11% in 2021. The growth of this share reflects the continuously rising consumer enthusiasm in the aquamarine market [7].

Statistics on the Sample Volume of Aquamarines Collected by Guild Gem Laboratory from 2017 to 2021

Grading System

Aquamarine is the blue variety in the beryl family. Due to its own characteristics, aquamarine usually has slight green or gray undertones (Figure 3). According to the Munsell color theory and by combining the three elements of color (saturation, tone, and hue), Guild divides the color of aquamarine into four grades: Blue, Vivid Blue, Santa Maria Color, and Exceptional Santa Maria Color (Figure 4).

figure 4. Aquamarine Color Grading

In the Guild color grading system, the "Santa Maria Color" is used to describe the color of high-quality aquamarines. Only blue aquamarines with relatively high saturation and appropriate brightness are given the color description of "Santa Maria Color". Among them, those with higher saturation and better brightness in the Santa Maria Color will receive the rating of "Exceptional Santa Maria Color" (Figure 5) [2].

figure 5. "Santa Maria" (left) and "Exceptional Santa Maria" aquamarines (right)