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 Garnet species are found in many colours including red, orange, yellow, green, purple, brown, blue, black, pink and colourless. The rarest of these is the blue garnet, discovered in the late 1990s in Bekily Madagascar. It is also found in parts of the United States, Russia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Turkey. It changes colour from blue-green in the daylight to purple in incandescent light, as a result of the relatively high amounts of vanadium (about 1 wt.% V2O3). Other varieties of colour-changing garnets exist. In daylight, their colour ranges from shades of green, beige, brown, grey, and blue, but in incandescent light, they appear a reddish or purplish/pink colour. Because of their colour-changing quality, this kind of garnet is often mistaken for Alexandrite. Garnet species' light transmission properties can range from the gemstone-quality transparent specimens to the opaque varieties used for industrial purposes as abrasives. The mineral's luster is categorised as vitreous (glass-like) or resinous (amber-like).
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