A gemstone that can come from far and wide, tourmalines also have a large variety of colours – perhaps one of the widest known in the gemstone industry. 

This gemstone can be found in pale to deep pink, flaxen red, rich red, purplish red, lavender purple, inky blue, deep sky blue, bluish violet, magenta violet, light and dark teal, lime green, golden green, emerald green, warm yellow, fiery orange, cappuccino and mocha brown, onyx black, and even the very rare colourless tourmaline. The rarest coloured tourmaline is known as Paraiba tourmaline, it is the bright neon shade of greenish-blue or bluish-green, coloured by traces of copper. On the RGB colour chart it closely resembles shades of cyan. 

The crystal's name tourmaline, was derived from the word “toramalli”, meaning “mixed gems”, in the Sri Lankan language of Sinhalese. Tourmaline’s hardness measures as a 7 to 7.5 on the Mohs scale of mineral and gemstone hardness, meaning its toughness is considered fair. Tourmalines can be crafted into jewellery pieces that can be worn frequently so long as they are well looked after, cleaned and checked by an expert jeweller often. 

Tourmaline is somewhat famous for its two or even three coloured tones in one gem. The most well-known variety of these bi-colour/tri-colour range is known as the watermelon tourmaline. Much like the colours of a watermelon, this tourmaline features a gradient which fades from a light coral pink to a pale lime green, it also sometimes features bands of white. These style tourmalines can appear in several combinations and are a highly prized version of tourmaline.

Tourmaline is a birthstone for October, along with opal. Tourmaline is also the gemstone used to commemorate the eighth wedding anniversary.