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GemStore team — written by the people who list and pack every stone.
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Real peridot (zabarjad) has a soft, slightly oily lime to grass green, small disc-shaped inclusions called lily pads, and back facets that look doubled through a loupe. Green glass has none of these. That one test, looking for doubling, sorts out most fakes sold in Pakistan, and you can do it at home with a cheap 10x loupe.
It is not the whole story. Some genuine green stones get sold as zabarjad, a few clever imitations pass a quick look, and the word itself is used loosely in parts of the bazaar. This guide works through the imitations you are likely to meet, the checks you can do yourself, the ones that need a laboratory, and how to buy so that a wrong stone can be returned.
What genuine peridot is
Peridot is the gem form of olivine, a mineral rich in magnesium and iron. The iron gives it its colour, so peridot only comes in shades of green: yellowish lime, grass green and deeper olive. It is never blue, never pink and never a strong emerald green with a bluish tint. It measures 6.5 to 7 on the Mohs scale, so its facet edges can wear and chip with years of use.
Pakistan matters here. The high valleys of Kohistan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have produced some of the finest large peridot known, and our Kohistan peridot origin page explains that story. Much of what is sold in Pakistani markets also arrives from Afghanistan and elsewhere. Origin affects how a stone is described and sometimes how it is priced, but it cannot be told reliably by eye, so treat spoken origin claims with care.
A word on the name
In older Arabic and Persian writing, zabarjad and zamurd were sometimes used for each other, and both words have drifted over the centuries. In the Pakistani trade, zabarjad means peridot. Some sellers still use it for any yellowish-green stone, and a few call peridot "Pakistani emerald". If a seller says zabarjad, ask directly: "Is this peridot, the mineral olivine?" The answer, and whether they are willing to write it on the invoice, tells you a lot. Our page of gem names in Urdu and English helps with other trade names.
The imitations you are most likely to meet
Green glass
By far the most common. Glass can be made in exactly the right shade, it is cheap, and it is often sold in bulk lots alongside real stones. It is singly refractive, so it never shows doubling, and it often contains round gas bubbles or curved swirl lines.
Cubic zirconia and other synthetic stones
Green CZ is sold in many jewellery shops. It is heavy, very bright and throws strong rainbow flashes (fire). Peridot has modest fire; a "peridot" sparkling in reds and blues under a phone torch is a warning sign. Green synthetic spinel and other lab-made materials also appear occasionally.
Other natural green stones
Green tourmaline, diopside, green apatite, green quartz (prasiolite) and pale green beryl can all be passed off as peridot, sometimes innocently. They are genuine gems, just not zabarjad, and they differ in hardness, durability and value.
Synthetic peridot
Lab-grown forsterite, the magnesium end of the olivine family, exists but is uncommon in the Pakistani market. It can only be identified with confidence by a laboratory.
Assembled stones
Doublets, with a thin peridot or glass top glued to a green base, are rare for peridot but do turn up. Look at the girdle from the side for a glue line or a change of colour.
Tests you can do at home
You need a 10x loupe, a white sheet of paper, a small torch or phone light and some patience. None of these tests harms the stone. Do them in this order.
1. Look for doubling
Peridot is strongly doubly refractive: light entering it splits into two rays. Look down through the table of a faceted stone at an angle towards the back facets. In real peridot the back facet edges and any inclusions look doubled, like a slightly blurred double line. It is easiest to see in stones of a carat or more and when you look at an angle rather than straight down. Glass, CZ and spinel never show it. Some look-alikes, such as tourmaline, show a weaker version.
2. Look at the inclusions
Peridot's signature inclusion is the lily pad: a small round feather, like a flat disc, often with a dark crystal at its centre. Fine needles and small dark crystals also occur. Glass shows perfectly round bubbles and swirls. A completely clean stone is not proof of a fake, since good peridot is often eye-clean, but if you find a lily pad you are looking at strong evidence.
3. Check the lustre and colour
Peridot has a slightly oily or velvety shine, quite unlike the glassy brilliance of CZ. Its colour stays the same green in daylight, tube light and a warm bulb. Place it on white paper and compare it with a known green stone if you have one: emerald looks bluer, green tourmaline often looks darker when viewed end-on, and glass tends to look flat and uniform.
4. Look at the facet edges
Glass is softer than peridot and its edges round off and scuff quickly, especially on stones that have rolled about in a dealer's tray. Peridot keeps reasonably crisp edges, though small chips at corners are common on worn stones.
5. The touch test
Hold the stone to your lip or cheek. Natural crystal feels cool for a moment longer; glass warms almost at once. It is a weak test on its own, but useful alongside the others.
Put the results together rather than relying on one. A stone that shows doubling, a lily pad and an oily shine is very likely peridot. A stone that shows none of them, with bubbles or rainbow fire, is very likely not.
What not to do: never try a scratch test on glass or a file. It damages a real stone as easily as a fake, and it proves little. Our wider guide to checking any gemstone before you buy explains why.
What needs a laboratory
Home tests sort out glass and CZ well. They cannot reliably tell you three things.
- Which green mineral it is. A gem lab measures refractive index and birefringence on a refractometer. Peridot gives readings that very few other green gems share, so this settles the question quickly.
- Whether it is synthetic. Lab-grown forsterite matches natural peridot in most simple tests. Detecting it needs magnification by a trained gemmologist and sometimes advanced instruments.
- Whether fractures are filled. Peridot is usually untreated, but a stone with surface-reaching cracks is occasionally filled with oil or resin to hide them. A lab can spot this.
If you buy a high-value stone, or one for astrological use where the identity matters to you, a lab report is worth having. A certificate is available on request for our stones, and independent lab testing can be arranged. Our guide on reading a gemstone lab certificate explains what each line means, and our lab-certified peridot page explains the process.
Treatments in peridot
Most peridot on the market is untreated, which makes it unusual among popular gems. That means an untreated stone is normal, not a premium feature to pay extra for. The main exceptions are fracture filling, as above, and occasionally surface coatings on very pale material to deepen the colour. A coating can wear off unevenly, showing as patchy colour near facet edges. Ask the seller to state in writing whether the stone is treated in any way.
Warning signs when buying
- Large, flawless and cheap. Clean peridot over several carats with strong colour is uncommon. A big, perfectly clean stone at a small-stone price deserves suspicion.
- Too much sparkle. Rainbow fire suggests CZ.
- A matched lot. A packet of identical, perfectly clean green stones looks more like glass or synthetic than natural rough cut by hand.
- Vague answers. A seller who will not write "natural peridot" on the invoice is telling you something.
- Origin as a sales pitch. "Kohistan" and "Pakistani" are attractive words. They are not proof of anything without a lab report.
How to buy peridot safely
- Ask for clear photographs of the actual stone, not a sample, in daylight and from the side.
- Get the weight in carats, and if a ratti figure is used, confirm it is the gemstone ratti of 0.91 carat. Our carat to ratti converter helps.
- Have the seller write on the invoice that the stone is natural peridot and any treatment.
- Buy where you can inspect before paying, and where returns are possible.
- For a significant purchase, arrange lab testing before or immediately after delivery.
Our own approach is simple. Each stone in our peridot collection is inspected and photographed on its own, for example this 0.85 carat Afghan peridot or this 1.75 carat Afghan peridot. Orders go out by Cash on Delivery anywhere in Pakistan, so you can open the parcel and test the stone with a loupe before paying the rider, and you have 7 days to return it.
If you are still deciding on size and colour, our peridot pricing guide explains how colour, clarity and size affect value, and the August birthstone page covers peridot as a birthday gift.
Shop the stones: peridot.
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