Ah, yup, I just got on the way some inexpensive "supposed to be" natural sapphire. It looks like its legit, since they said that its heavily included, but Ill keep it just for the sake of testing it and for the collection. But corundum is another classical example of "why-should-i-get-a-natural-one".

I think the only situation where you don't want synthetics is when they dont have the same properties as the natural counterparts (one bad example that comes through my mind is inexpensive synthetic opal that has craptons of repeating patterns and usually a weird border at the base of the stone, talking about cabochons here, lets say this one is more visible and annoying than the curved parallel lines on synthetic sapphires)

Fool's tax, i.e.: bUt ItS nAtUrAl

Also, started some gemmology as a hobby, legit no one cares about diamonds, unless its about spotting immitators like cz or moissanite (although I find moiss beautiful on its own).

Signed by: chrysoberyl and corundum gang