For most transparent gemstones which are available in transparent form, the highest clarity is an ‘eye-clean’ gemstone, meaning that it appears to have good clarity with only the naked eye, and not with a magnifying glass. A loupe, as it is called, is never used to judge the clarity of a gemstone.
There is a lot of similarity between the inclusions found in a diamond and a gemstone. The main difference lies in the distribution of these inclusions. They are not all bad, however, and provide us with distinguishing features that sometimes have their own names. For example, an emerald usually has so many inclusions that we call them ‘jardin’ which means a garden.
Gemstones can also have special inclusions which give rise to phenomenon, for example the ‘star’ ruby will have needle-like inclusions arranged in specific planes giving rise to a star-shaped pattern.
A ‘Star’ Ruby Gemstone
