Fake Crystals/Labradorite

Hi Everyone,
Recently I've been looking into crystal skulls and they really appeal to me.

I've bought one already (a quartz skull from my local store) the price was about right and it looks and feels like quartz. I've seen a couple on eBay for super cheap but they are from China. I know some are easy to fake like using glass for quartz and moldavite etc but there are some Labradorite ones for a good price and I was wondering how easy this is to fake? A Google search for fake labradorite seems to come up a dud.

Any help would be much appreciated - would you trust goods from China or should I stay away?

[FairyCrystal]

Labradorite isn't expensive, skulls from China usually aren't either. They are getting more expensive though, they've also found out us westerners are into skulls (and crystals) and that there's a huge market there.
Never seen a skull from moldavite, most pieces would be way to small to make a skull out of, if ever there are large enough pieces for that, it would prolly cost close to half a mill. So if you do see one, it defo is fake.
Rock crystal usually isn't crystal clear, glass is.
I've bought skulls & crystals from China in the past, only once had a fake item. Reported it and got my money back. You see a lot of fluorite skulls from China: rainbow fluorite is found in China so kind of logical. I'm not into it myself.

[Treehugger]

Tonytom1, I don't know what size Labradorite skull you're looking for, but here is a website I buy from once in a while. Their stuff is all real and they have great customer service.

http://www.healingcrystals.com/Cryst...ini-Skull.html

[Selbor13]

Although China is known to produce fakes, it doesn't mean everything from china is fake. They also have mines that produce crystals and they have been buying a lot of crystals from Brazil. When buying from Chinese dealers be very cautious of crystals that are known to be expensive, those are the ones that usually get faked a lot. Less expensive crystals not so much, sometimes making a synthetic one is more expensive that mining it. As for Labradorite, I wouldn't be too concern about fakes as it's a very abundant type of feldspar. A big factor in Labradorite pricing is the shine it produces known as Labradorescence, the more of it and the richer the color the more expensive to get. Carvings in china are also cheaper to make than other some other countries. If the skull has small amounts of shine then expect to pay less as it would be considered "lower" quality, Labradorite also tends to have lines/fractures which also devalues it. So it is possible to get it for cheap.

Be cautious of people selling Larvikite as Labradorite, Larvikite is grayish black and also has a shine similar to Labradorite. I've seen it being sold as black Labradorite which is misleading because they are not the same, both are very nice though.

I've seen real Moldavite skulls but they are very small and expensive, most are about 1 inch tall