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- Appearance of glass beads versus crystal beads
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This is the biggest difference yet. While glass beads different shapes and sizes and are irregular, crystal beads have uniform shapes and sizes and are very regular. This is the best possible way to differentiate the two. The main reason as to why crystalline beads are uniform in shape and size is because typically, crystal is much harder than glass due to its strong chemical bonds –much harder than glass. These strong bonds help in creating uniform and aligned shapes that will make crystal facets to line up. This is true only for genuine crystals. Anyone who gives you irregular shaped stones claiming that they are crystals is probably taking you for a ride on dupe highway.
APPEARANCE OF GLASS BEADS VERSUS CRYSTAL BEADS
Crystals have always shown their beauty by the way they reflect light. Crystals are naturally shiny and sparkly to the eye. And although glass beads are shiny and sparkly as well, you just cannot compare the glitz and glamour of the two. Crystals are by far the shinier of the two. You should be keen on this when you go shopping for a crystal beaded necklace.
The reason why crystal beads are way shinier is because of their chemical composition and lead content which makes them sparkle. The Lead makes light to be reflected more on crystal beads than glass beads. This essentially means that the more the lead content on the crystal beads, the more light will be reflected. Also imitated glass beads usually contain bubbles and scratches within them. This will never happen with crystal beads so look out for this.