The first time I saw Larimar was in an “In-Flight” magazine advertisement.  I recall that the stones and settings reminded me of southwestern style turquoise jewelry.  Not being much of a fan of turquoise, I mentally dismissed it as being another quick fad.  Fast forward a few months later and we received our first Mara Lago Larimar Collection at ShopDI.   It was, to my suprise, definitely not the sort of gemstone you’d see in a bolo tie.   Instead, it was love at first (real) sight, and since then, I’ve had a growing infatuation with Larimar’s beauty and rarity. 

Larimar has a gentle blue hue that, as you may have heard, is uncannily like the blue of the Caribbean ocean.  It works well with silver and white gold, though admittedly I’ve never seen it with yellow gold to know why it wouldn’t look good with it as well.   Larimar is more rare than even tanzanite, yet prices on this very unique gemstone are typically a fraction of tanzanite. 

Sales of Larimar hit full stride after People magazine reported that Brad Pitt bought Angelina Jolie a Larimar ring in its January 16, 2006, issue.   In the industry, a lot of jewelers speculated publicly and privately that Larimar sales would fizzle after the initial hoopla died down.  That was over three years ago, and since that time, Larimar has become more popular than ever.   According to one industry trade publication, Larimar sales have grown exponentially every year since 2006 and are now becoming a major source of GDP for the Dominican Republic. 

Looks like Larimar is here to stay.