Check Out the “Midnight Aqua” One Designer Debuted in Vegas

I got to see so many beautiful, exceptional gems at all the shows in Las Vegas, but it was on the show floor of Luxury that I saw something that really stuck with me.

On the way to an appointment with a coworker, we stopped by the Graziela Gems booth where they introduced us to a gem they were launching in a new collection--“Denim Aqua,” or, as they’re calling it now, “Midnight Aqua.”

I had seen the gemstone posted on a few other Instagram accounts and was excited to finally view it in person. The stone, sourced from Brazil, is a deep, steely blue, similar to the shades that Santa Maria aquamarine can have but with its own unique coloring like, not surprisingly given its original name, a good pair of blue jeans.

The gemstone isn’t exactly new, but the brand is bringing it to the forefront.

According to designer Graziela Kaufman, the aqua with that particular shade of blue was discovered over 100 years ago in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, an area already known for producing fine quality gemstones.

Its story “sounds more like a legend,” she said, and, I have to say, I don’t disagree.

According to her, the town in which the gemstone was discovered has a large population of armadillos and one day, while an armadillo was digging, he or she left a large pile of dirt on the ground.

When a farmer walked by, he noticed a beautiful blue sparkle in the middle of the dirt, which led to him discovering the deep-blue aquamarine amid the detritus.

“The armadillo has all the credit for finding the denim aqua,” Kaufman said.

The production remains very small because no one has found a vein of the deep-blue aqua. Miners can spend days around the area and only find small quantities from time to time.

“When I saw this aqua a year ago, I couldn’t believe that I didn’t know about it since it was from my native country, Brazil,” Kaufman said, “but then I found out about its history and tiny production, and it all made sense.”