Sapphire comes is a variety of colors, which makes this gem among the most versatile birthstones around.  It doesn’t matter what the occasion or overall look that you are trying to achieve, there is a sapphire that can help you achieve it.  Among the different options, the blue sapphire seems to be at the top of most people’s lists, probably because of the rich and intense color that can easily work to compliment outfits in either casual or formal occasions.

You know that the right ring, pendant or set of earrings can make or break an outfit, but it’s also true that the perfect accessory containing a natural gem can completely break your budget – as beautiful and highly desirable as bold and brilliant blue sapphires are, they can also be very expensive.

For fashion conscious shoppers who are on a budget, buying a natural blue sapphire ring or pendant that costs several hundred dollars may not be possible, but just because you don’t have a huge budget for accessories it doesn’t mean that you can’t achieve the perfect look.

Lab created blue sapphire is readily available and every bit as bold and beautiful as naturally mined sapphire, but it is much more affordable for shoppers on a budget.  Lab created blue sapphire is created in a controlled atmosphere, so every single piece is optically flawless and capable of being turned into the most dazzling accessory.  If you are looking for bold, beautiful and intense blue jewelry, you don’t need to spend a fortune – all you need to do is find a jeweler that carries jewelry crafted from lab created blue sapphire.

Serendipity 3, a restaurant in New York City that is frequented by rock stars, actors and a host of other celebrity types has just recently unveiled the Guinness Book of World Records’ most expensive dessert – a $25,000 ice cream sundae.  This overly excessive treat contains 28 different varieties of cocoa, 0.2 ounces of edible 23K gold, a truffle that sells for more than twenty-five hundred dollars a pound and it is served in a goblet that contains an edible gold lining.  At the base of the goblet is a beautiful gold and 1 carat diamond bracelet and the sundae is decorated with flawless white and “chocolate” diamonds.

While it would be nice to be able to afford to spend twenty five thousand on dessert and walk away with some stunning jewelry, not all of us carry quite that much in our wallets when we go out to dinner – but the good news is that you don’t have to spend quite that much money to get a good dessert and an incredible bracelet.

There are plenty of ice cream shops around that will make you a wonderful dessert treat that won’t cost you twenty five dollars, let alone twenty five thousand – and if you’re in the market for beautiful jewelry that won’t break your bank account you can always look for Cubic zirconia and lab created gem jewelry.

Cz has all of the beauty, shimmer and shine of a natural diamond but it costs a fraction of what a natural diamond does, without sacrificing quality.  If you want to save money, but still look like a million bucks don’t get your jewelry as part of the world’s most expensive dessert, get it from a retailer that stocks cz and lab gem creations.

In an effort to cut down on organized crime involving jewelry, the world’s most active online marketplace is partnering with the Jewelers’ Security Alliance.  The close partnership and free sharing of information between EBay and law enforcement is intended make it much more difficult for criminals to sell their stolen or counterfeit wares by eliminating one of the largest customer bases for the stolen product.  Identifying and catching criminals in the act of selling stolen and fraudulent goods and ultimately eliminating one way for them to quickly redistribute stolen property could go a very long way toward cutting down on the criminal activity involving fine jewelry.

Hopefully, in time, the partnership between EBay and the JSA will help make owning and selling fine jewelry safer, but in the meantime while crimes involving fine jewelry are soaring, many fine jewelry hounds and some jewelry retailers are looking to lab created gem jewelry as a safer alternative.

Cubic zirconia mimics the look of natural diamonds so well that only a trained professional can tell the difference between the two, but in terms of money cz has some unique advantages over natural diamonds for retailers and end users.  Due to cost and availability, cz doesn’t have the same resale value as a natural diamond, this makes a jewelry store that stocks mainly cz and lab gems jewels much less attractive to prospective criminals.  For the people who are actually wearing the jewelry, cz jewelry looks every bit as good as natural gem jewelry but because the cost is so low in comparison to natural gem jewelry it is usually reasonably easy to replace if it were to get stolen or lost.

The bejeweled pup also took more than seven hundred black diamonds and just over four hundred rubies to complete for a total of more than 200 carats of fine gems and a whole heck of a lot of sparkle.  While most will probably agree that it’s good to go all out for truly special occasions, this amazing homage, which took more than eight months to put together, may be a bit much for even such an iconic character.

The estimated value of the Snoopy, “Ever Shining Star” statue is nearly $375,000 but you can have a bling filled birthday or anniversary celebration for quite a bit less than that.  If you want to celebrate in style, how about a simple and classic pair of diamond studs or a high quality diamond pendant?  – And for those of us that want the look of natural diamonds and rubies for even less, amazing creations crafted from loose cz and lab gems provide the very same sparkle for a fraction of the cost.

AAAAA cubic zirconia can rival the beauty of the best diamonds, even those hand selected to be a part the finest jewelry or those used to assemble Snoopy’s 60th anniversary statue.  With high quality cz you’ll have no problem looking like you’ve spent thousands of dollars, but you’ll actually be able to achieve that look on a budget.

The Funktional Art line which contains pieces like “Baduwings” and Earwings,” which seem to fit right into the artist’s eclectic style are just part of what’s to come.  Badu remarked in a recent interview with Billboard magazine that she is continuing to work with different designers to come up with new pieces for the line that will match her style and the style of the fans that support her.

There seems to be no shortage of celebrities jumping on the jewelry design bandwagon lately and for jewelry lovers, that is certainly a good thing.  With the help of talented and experienced professions, much of what these celebrity designers are producing is on the cutting edge of fashion and many of them are keeping the costs reasonable by using more affordable resources in their designs like cubic zirconia and other lab created gems.

We all want to be able to look and feel as glamorous as our favorite movie, TV and music personalities when we go out, but there aren’t very many people who are willing or able to spend thousands of dollars on the fashion accessories that we see them wear on the red carpet.  With designs created from high quality lab created gems that are expertly set in fine metals, those of us on a budget can achieve the look of our favorite celebs without having to pay astronomical prices.

Though being able to own this beautiful and historic piece of pop culture would be an absolute dream come true for some, fifty thousand dollars in an awfully steep price to pay for an accessory – even one that was worn by one of the biggest fashion icons of the last century.

Those of us who have budgets that won’t quite allow for fifty thousand dollar necklaces might want to take a cue from Jackie herself and look to simulated gems for accessorizing.  Of course, this particular piece of simulated gem jewelry is a bit pricier because of the former owner, lab created gems as a whole are much more affordable than naturally mined gems.

An engagement ring, a pair of earrings or a pendant with a natural diamond, ruby or emerald might cost several thousand dollars from a retailer, but the very same piece crafted from cubic zirconia could be had for a fraction of what the natural gem jewelry cost.  You won’t lose and beauty, any sparkle or even any quality from a lab created gem piece that’s in the same setting as a natural gem piece – but you will save quite a bit of money.  Cz and other simulated gems give all of us the opportunity to look like fashion icons and celebrities, without having to pay the astronomical prices of naturally mined gems.

Brinkley’s wears seem to have launched at the absolute perfect time – her line includes plenty of color, lots of movement and each and every piece is certainly capable of turning heads.  Christie Brinkley seemed to learn something from her past days in the fashion industry and has managed to stay completely current with today’s trends in her 1st attempt at jewelry design.

As an added bonus for shoppers on a budget, the Uptown Girl has managed to keep the majority of the pieces accessible to even those of us with overly wallets and purses  – with prices as low as forty five dollars, this is certainly a line that has the ability to sell despite the still lagging economy.

Affordability seems to another more recent trend in the fashion and jewelry world, and hopefully it’s not one of the ones that will be short lived.  More and more designers are recognizing that people simply don’t have the money to spend on accessories that they did a few years ago and are responding with excellent low cost efforts that don’t sacrifice quality.

Instead of using natural diamonds, rubies and emeralds, designers are turning to the much more affordable and readily available cubic zirconia and lab created versions of these gems to bring down the costs of their finished products.  Cz lets a designer put together a piece or an entire collection that is just as beautiful as anything with a natural diamond, and still make a profit with a much smaller price tag.  With Cz and other lab created gems, anyone can look like a celebrity or super model, regardless of their line of work.

Major jewelry retailers like Zale’s often have a wide enough selection of inventory that jewelry lovers can “shop around” without having to travel to a bunch of different stores, but despite that feeling of convenience many smaller scale jewelry retailers are starting to grow and make names for themselves in this rough and competitive business.

Par t of the reason that smaller sized retailers can thrive in an industry that is dominated by retailers with large store fronts is the evolution of internet retailing.  Over the course of the last decade or so, smaller jewelry retailers have learned that they can increase their “showroom” infinitesimally with the use of the World Wide Web.  Internet sales can let you show each prospective customer thousands of pieces, without having to pay the rent of a store front.  As long as you have enough space for storing your items (which takes considerably less space and effort than properly displaying them) you can offer more than enough inventory to satisfy a wide array of customers.

Another big step for small retailers comes in the willingness to stock pieces crafted from cubic zirconia and other lab created gems.  For a long while, fine jewelry stores were reluctant to carry lab gem pieces because they were often considered to be of a lower quality than pieces containing natural gems.  With the recession came an increase in demand for more affordable jewels and that helped open the door for smaller jewelry retailers. 

When inserted into a high quality platinum or gold setting, cubic zirconia can easily rival the beauty of any natural diamond, and with a much lower material cost cz jewelry can be offered with a much smaller price tag.  With the recent success of many cz lines and more and more innovative designers choosing cz to work with, it probably won’t be too long before a larger portion of the inventories of even the largest fine jewelry retailers are filled with cz and lab gem pieces.

The numbers don’t reflect “necessary” jewelry like watches  and research has shown that the majority of the purchases have not been made as gifts – so why, during a time when so many people are struggling to make ends meet are some men feeling the need to splurge on fashion accessories?

Perhaps more and more men are realizing that fine jewelry can really work to improve their overall appearance and that looking better can do wonders in terms of making you feel better.  With so many problems and so much negativity going on, some people can really benefit from the extra push that looking better will give – and one of the easiest ways to improve your outward appearance is by putting on a gorgeous accessory.

The perfect ring or necklace, a brilliant bracelet or even something as simple as the right cufflinks can immediately make a man feel more confident and better about himself and those feelings can translate into an elevated mood and better performance.

For those of us who want to reap all of the wonderful benefits of accessorizing with fine jewelry but who can’t quite afford a naturally mined diamond pinky ring, there are affordable alternatives.  A ring crafted from cubic zirconia or a stunning pair of cz cufflinks will accomplish the very same goal of enhanced appearance that natural diamond jewelry will, but cz jewelry will come at a much more reasonable price.  For men who want a splash of color in their “look better” accessories, cz can be crafted in a wide variety of colors to capture the look of just about any natural gem.  Cubic zirconia lets any man, even those on a restricted budget; quickly improve their outward appearance to both look and feel better and to be able to stand out from the crowd.

Sarah did get a bit of help with her naturally inspired leaf designed pendant and earrings from design veteran Susan Fielder, who has helped to create plenty of other amazing pieces for concert tours – including a line for the one of the top rock bands of all time, the Rolling Stones.

Having a jewelry option as a concert keepsake is an incredible idea in terms of versatility, it allows the fans the opportunity to wear memories of the event with them even on occasions where a t-shirt wouldn’t be appropriate – and a well made pendant or pair of earrings will certainly outlast even the most finely stitched cotton shirt.

Once the 2010 Lilith Fair numbers are tallied up and other promoters see the success of the jewelry line designed by Sarah McLachlan and Susan fielder, we’ll probably see plenty quite a few more tours in the future turning to jewelry as a souvenir option for the fans.

With cubic zirconia and other lab created gems there is no limit to the incredible and affordable options that could be offered at concert venues.  Sterling silver and cz rings, bracelets and pendants in all shapes and styles to match the individual tastes of the celebrity onstage – a creative designer could even put together some very high quality replica grillz for concert goers.

With creative design and readily available materials like cubic zirconia, even the most incredible visions can be achieved for affordable prices – so don’t be surprised when you head out to see your favorite band on tour in the coming months if there is more than just hats and t-shirts for sale at souvenir booths.