Photo Courtesy of Instagram.com/pomellato

Every one of us wishes to own a ring that celebrates her birthday, especially if it’s one that she can wear on a daily basis. However, the latter should follow some golden rules in order to stand the test of time and the mishaps of everyday activities. With this in mind, we have come up with a few tips that will allow you to make the right choice and spare you a costly mistake.

First of all, you should make sure that your birthstone is hard enough to be worn on a daily basis and that’s when the Moh’s hardness scale comes in hand. Anything above 7.5 on the Moh’s scale is good enough to be worn daily and anything below that should get special attention.

With a 6.5-7.5 on Moh’s Hardness Scale, January’s birthstone garnet is not recommended for daily wear, neither is February’s Amethyst – which gets a 7.0. Moving to March, the Aquamarine gets a 7.5-8.0 on the Moh’s Hardness Scale and can be considered a good stone for daily wear. April reaches the top of the list with diamond getting 10 out of 10 on the scale – which justifies the reason for it being the star of all engagement rings. However, if you are born in May and Emerald is your birthstone, avoid wearing it daily because even if it gets 7.5 on the scale, this gem normally has inclusions that make it more fragile than it already is – so keep this treasurable piece for those special occasions only, or use it in a pendant in order to protect it from getting hit by anything while working. June has 3 birthstones, which are pearl, moonstone and alexandrite. With 2.5 on the scale, pearls should definitely be avoided and so are moonstones with a score of 6.0-6.5. That leaves us with alexandrites with a more solid score of 8.5. With a 9.0 on the scale, July’s birthstone ruby is a perfect choice for a daily wear ring. And for August-born ladies, spinel, one of the month’s three birthstones that also include peridot and sardonyx, is the suitable choice with a score of 8.0, while those who are born in September can easily use sapphire as a center-stone for a daily-wear ring. Unfortunately, October’s opal and tourmaline don’t make the grade with respectively 5.5-6.5 and 7.0-7.5 on Moh’s Hardness Scale. If you are born in November, choose topaz which scores 8.0 and avoid citrine (7.0). Finally, December ladies only get to choose the blue topaz from a rich list of four birthstones that also includes tanzanite, blue zircon and turquoise.

Mirella Haddad