If you are in the market for gemstone jewelry, you are in for a treat. There are so many gorgeous pieces available your only problem will be choosing which one to buy. It is easy to find a piece to suit any occasion or purpose as you can find something in almost any color or shade. You will love wearing gemstone jewelry for formal or informal affairs and there is something to fit every budget.

Unlike diamonds, which are indeed beautiful in their own right, colorful gemstones are so versatile and appeal to so many different people, and yet another benefit is that they can also be considerably less expensive. Emeralds, rubies, and sapphires are considered to be among the most valuable of all the precious and semiprecious gemstones in the world and are available in a wide variety of values, settings, cuts, and types.

Sapphire rings are available in shades of blue along with several other colors, although the deep blue remains the most popular color of sapphires, which are the birthstone for the month of September and one of the hardest of all gemstones second only to diamonds.

Rubies have long been the gemstone representing love and passion. Emperors and kings the world over have coveted these beautiful gems for their beauty scarcity and they have been worn by royalty for centuries. Given as a token of love, rubies are also the birthstone for those born in July. These rich red gemstones are also hard and rank high on the Mohs scale which is the scale used to measure the hardness of a mineral.

Who doesn't love the beautiful deep green color of the emerald? These breathtaking gemstones are among the most expensive of all gemstones. They are, fortunately, being man made in laboratories, and these are much less expensive but look just as genuine. A natural emerald's value is also measured by their depth and color, the deeper and greener it is, the higher the value.

The cut of the stone influences its beauty. Gemstone jewelry is available in a variety of popular cuts that have been chosen to show up the particular gem. Larger stones are most often cut with the popular "brilliant-cut" which allows maximum light to pass through the gem and reflect back. This particular cut is used for marquise, round, oval and pear shaped stones. The princess cut is also popular, as is the heart shape, emerald shape, radiant and trillion shaped cuts.

Some gemstone rings may feature a single, solitary stone with either a plain band or one that's encrusted with other stones, while many others have groups of stones that can be identical or completely different.

Whatever type of gemstone jewelry strikes your fancy the most, always take the time to find out exactly how to care for the colorful stones as some are rather durable and will need little care, but others will require special measures in terms of what to use for cleaning and how to properly store your jewelry.

Be careful when you are cleaning a gemstone ring never to do it over a sink. It might slip accidently from your hands and be lost down the drain. Instead, use a bowl filled with water. It is worth the effort.