Editorial standards
How we create, qualify, and correct crystal guides
ICHA Crystal Guide separates visible features from seller statements and confirmed findings. Our pages can help readers compare possibilities and decide what to ask before buying, but photographs and basic observation cannot establish every stone identity, treatment, composition, or origin.
How pages are prepared
Content is created and maintained by the site editor through a small editorial workflow. The work includes comparing labeled specimens, seller photographs, listing descriptions, and reliable geological or gemological references relevant to physical properties, treatments, terminology, and testing limits.
Guides are organized around a reader decision: comparing similar materials, checking an observable feature, reviewing a seller claim, or recognizing when stronger evidence is needed. Descriptions begin with what can be observed before considering possible interpretations.
Claims and disclosures
Seller labels, origin statements, and treatment claims are attributed to the seller unless independent evidence supports stronger wording. Marketplace examples illustrate a listing pattern; one example is not treated as proof of how common that pattern is.
Natural, treated, dyed, synthetic, reconstructed, and imitation materials are kept distinct when the available evidence permits. Where alternatives cannot be excluded, the uncertainty stays beside the relevant clue instead of being hidden in a general disclaimer.
Commercial relationships are addressed separately in the Affiliate Disclosure.
Corrections and revisions
Published pages are revisited when terminology, examples, seller practices, or testing limits need clearer treatment. Corrections may replace unsupported wording, distinguish an observation from an inference, add a plausible alternative, or narrow a conclusion that exceeds the evidence.
Readers can report a specific wording, image-context, or factual concern through the editorial contact page. Reports are checked against the cited context and suitable reference material before a page is changed.
Scope of the guidance
The site provides beginner-focused comparison and buying guidance. It does not issue gemstone identifications, appraisals, laboratory reports, or certificates, and it does not guarantee seller honesty, purchase outcomes, treatment status, origin, or authenticity.
Spiritual meanings may be discussed as cultural or personal interpretations, but they are kept separate from physical identification and health claims. The full distinction is set out in Identification and Wellness Boundaries.
More information about the person responsible for this work appears on the site editor record.