Swarovski

Swarovski crystals are man-made gems, manufactured in Austria. As the world’s most recognized crystals, they are revered and used as luxurious and precious components of fine jewelry. In 1892, Daniel Swarovski invented a machine to made precision-cut, beautiful, high-quality lead glass crystals using quartz, sand and minerals. Although the exact proportions of these raw materials is a company secret, they are about 32% lead which helps maximize the refraction in the crystals. Chemical coatings are used to create colors, but clear crystals are more difficult and costly to produce since they cannot contain any impurities.