I'm working on a project, a ring, and the only two details I've figured out about the project, are I want it to remind me of ice/winter, and I'm gonna use a blue stone. I don't really want a light blue stone, I'm gonna go with a dark blue stone. So I was looking at ChrisCZ's site, cause I was thinking about using a sapphire, but under this lab-created sapphire section, there's "medium blue" and "top blue" and I have no idea what the difference is. I get the general idea, but I don't want the stone to be so dark that it's black, but I don't want it to be really light or pale or grayish or whatever either. Also, I was looking at lab made spinels at JTV (which I'm sure noone here really likes, but I've bought from them before and liked what I got) and the pictures look really nice. I know they might look different in person, so I was wondering if anyone knew generally what the differences between spinels and sapphires were. I've heard lots of spinels look kinda grayish, like a steel blue color, but I wasn't sure if that was just natural spinels or synthetic ones too. There's a storm coming so I'm gonna end this post here. Thanks for any help anyone can give.

i have an 8.5mm medium blue cushion cut ChrisCZ and it's a very pretty blue.

i haven't seen his top blue, so i don't know how they compare.

i had it for sale on DB but the listing expired, i think.
(eta: no, it's here: http://diamondbistro.com/category/200/Man-made-(lab-grown)/listings/29948/sale!-85mm-med-blue-cushion-ChrisCZ-lab-sapphire.html )

it's the stone on the left in this picture:

Thanks. May I ask what the other stones in the picture are? Also I feel now I should mention I'm a guy, which is part of the reason I don't really want stuff that's too pale, I don't really want a stone that looks feminine, if that makes sense. I don't really know how to explain it, I just want a stone that looks neutral, not too feminine or masculine.

the one on the left is the 8.5mm Medium Blue ChrisCZ lab sapphire
the one in the middle is an 8mm Old Mine Cut ChrisCZ blue CZ
the smallest one on the far right is a 7mm round Kashmir blue Avarra sapphire from BTD.

(and there's a stray bit of fluff on top of the middle stone - that makes it look cracked or something, but it's just fluff!)

considering sapphires of all sorts of shades of blue have been worn by royalty for centuries, i don't know if there's any shade (except perhaps clear and pale pink) that leans heavily on the girly side.
wear what makes you happy

oh, and we're pretty open minded about shopping from all sorts of places around here.

hence my comparing blues from three different price points. i wondered what the difference was, too!

JTV can be hit and miss, but by and large the folks on this forum truly don't care where sparklies are from. if it makes you happy and it sparkles and you share pictures with us? we'll like it too.

Thanks. I keep looking at that picture trying to decide lol.

Does anyone have any pictures of a top blue sapphire? And does anyone have any thoughts on spinels?

The top blue is more saturated and deeper in color. Similar to kashmir blue.