Opalite Beaded Bracelet

Opalite is man-made glass and can be brittle; a broken piece may leave sharp edges. Cleanse gently with lukewarm water and a soft cloth, avoid harsh chemicals and prolonged salt, and do not use it to make drinkable elixirs.

Opalite is not mined but manufactured. The wider field of lab-created opal traces to French chemist Pierre Gilson, who developed the first synthetic opal in 1972 with commercial sales beginning in 1974; the simpler opalescent glass sold today as Opalite is a separate, later product that borrows opal's name and glow rather than its internal structure. Makers melt silica-based glass with dolomite and metal oxide additives, then let it cool and solidify, producing its signature milky blue-to-white sheen. It has since become a popular, affordable alternative to genuine opal and moonstone.

Opalite is a man-made glass composed primarily of silicon dioxide (silica), typically fused with dolomite and metal oxide additives, rather than a naturally occurring mineral; a few versions are made from resin or plastic instead. Like all glass it is amorphous, with no ordered crystal structure. Its milky color comes from light scattering off those additives, not from the stacked silica spheres that create true opal's play-of-color, so it looks blue against a dark background and milky white with an orange or pink glow against a light one. Tiny air bubbles left from manufacturing are common. Its Mohs hardness is roughly 5 to 6, depending on the source and glass formulation.

• As a modern man-made glass, Opalite has no ancient legend of its own; the lore around it is borrowed from natural opal and moonstone.
• Because it mirrors opal's shimmer, sellers have lent it opal's old reputation as a stone of vision and inner sight.
• Its pale, moonlit glow has led modern crystal circles to link it, like moonstone, to the moon and to intuition.