In this guide, we'll talk about which crystals are safe to cleanse with water.
With so many crystals available, it can be hard to navigate the ins and outs of caring for your crystals. Water cleansing is a quick and effective method but not all crystals are equal.
There is a common misconception that crystals ending in the suffix -ite shouldn’t be cleansed in water. This is not entirely true. The reality is more about how soft or porous a material is as well as its chemical composition.
The Mohs Hardness Scale is a scale which tells us how resistant a material is to scratching and abrasion, with 1 being the softest and 10 being the hardest. Materials on the lower end of the scale are more likely to get damaged by prolonged exposure to water as they are soft and sometimes porous. Anything from around 4 or lower on the scale should avoid water cleansing.
In other cases, materials with a lot of metal content can easily dull or rust with prolonged exposure to water. Materials that contain metal like iron and copper should not be cleansed in water.
There are some exceptions to these rules but rather be safe than sorry.
When shopping for crystals on my website, always check the “science” tab on the product page to find out the hardness and chemical composition.This will help you work out which are safe to expose to water if it is not explicitly stated.
Here is a list of crystals that you should avoid cleansing or immersing in water with their hardness in brackets. Consider all others safe.
- Angelite (3.5)
- Aragonite (3.5 - 4)
- Azurite (3.5 - 4)
- Calcites (3)
- Celestite (3 - 3.5)
- Chalcopyrite (3.5 - 4 contains copper, iron and sulphur)
- Copper (2.5 - 3)
- Desert Rose (2.5 - 3.5)
- Fluorite (4)
- Fuchsite (2 - 3)
- Galena (2.5 - 3)
- Halite (2 - 2.5 and is salt so will dissolve)
- Hematite (5.5 - 6.5 but contains iron)
- Howlite (3.5)
- Iceland Spar (3)
- Lapis Lazuli (5 - 5.5 but contains calcite and pyrite)
- Lepidolite (2.5 - 3 except polished stones)
- Magnesite (3.5 - 4.5)
- Malachite (3.5 -4 except polished stones)
- Peacock Ore (3.5 - 4)
- Pyrite (6 - 6.5 but contains iron and sulphur)
- Selenite (2)
- Silver (2.5 - 3)
- Sulphur (1.5 - 2.5)
- Vanadinite (2.5 - 3)