Garnet, the traditional birthstone for the month of January, is a favorite of gem connoisseurs, who can’t resist adding more garnet to their collection. There are garnets that change color in different light, translucent green garnets that look like jade, garnets with stars, garnets that have been mined for thousands of years and garnets that were just discovered in the last decade.

Garnets are found around the world. It used to be said that garnets come in every color but blue but recently a few, perhaps unique, greenish blue stones discovered in Africa put that maxim to the test.

Break open a pomegranate: see the tiny glossy red seeds? Now you can see why garnet comes from the Latin name of pomegranate, granatum . To the ancient world, garnet was a tiny glossy red gem, bursting with fire and brilliance.

Thanks to an amazing string of discoveries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, if we were to name garnet today we would need a whole fruit salad of references. There’s the raspberry of rhodolite, the Welch’s juice color of grape garnet, mandarin garnet’s fresh orange, and, the lime green of tsavorite and demantoid. There is a garnet to match every color in your wardrobe: you’re sure to find one that complements your personal style.

But variety isn’t all that garnet has going for it. The members of this extended gem family are all brilliant, durable, all natural, and generally affordable. They are brilliant and beautiful in jewelry, a favorite of designers around the world. Unlike many gemstones, garnets are not routinely enhanced - their color and brilliance is natural.

Garnets in legend light up the night and protect their owners from nightmares and garnets have long been carried by travelers to protect against accidents far from home.

This durable and brilliant gem is easy to care for, with a hardness of 7.5 to 7.25. Clean with mild dish soap: use a toothbrush to scrub behind the stone where dust can collect.