Have you seen crystals pop up on some of your favorite Instagram accounts? Or maybe you’ve had a friend tell you about her crystals and you’re curious. Either way, you’re ready to learn how to use these essential crystals for beginners.
Good news–you’ve come to the right place!
We’re all about making wellness fun and happy (the opposite of a stuffy ‘ol textbook ;), and we take a whimsical view of the best beginner crystals–if they make you smile, they’re helping you!
With that in mind, here’s what we’ll cover in this beginner’s guide to crystals:
- What are crystals used for?
- What are the best crystals to start with?
- What healing crystals do I need?
- How long does it take for crystals to work?
- How to charge/cleanse your crystals
- How to pair crystals with oils
So much crystal amazingness to cover. Ready? Let’s go!
What Are Crystals Used For?
Crystals are used for relieving stress, helping you sleep better at night, improving your self-esteem, helping you forgive, helping you focus or concentrate or be more creative–almost any trouble you’re having, there’s a crystal for that.
A few things you can do with crystals:
- Hold them
- Place them where you’ll see them often
- Meditate or pray
- Keep them in your pocket
- Wear them
- Combine them with your essential oils
- Place them under your pillow at night
Crystals are little pieces of earthy goodness–minerals that have hardened and formed into stunning colors and shapes due to a combination of nearby materials, heat, and pressure.
Amethyst and quartz, for example, are both types of clear quartz–but amethyst owes its color to irradiation (don’t worry, it’s safe!) and/or iron, while quartz is totally clear.
How Crystals Heal
Due to their atomic structure, crystal’s energies are super stable.
That’s how they heal–their stable energies bring our energy into balance and alignment. Ancient cultures from all over the world (literally–everyone from the ancient Hebrews to the ancient North Americans) have prized and valued crystals for their healing abilities.
Over the years, a kind of ancient wisdom has developed, and we’ve learned to use certain crystals for specific purposes–rose quartz, for example, is known as the ultimate love stone (more on that in just a sec!), while citrine is known as one of the best crystals for beginners because of its ability to motivate and inspire creativity (and don’t we all need a little motivation these days?).
Crystals for Beginners–What Are the Best Crystals to Start With?
Here are our favorite crystals for beginners:
- Amethyst (emotional balance, protection, and confidence)
- Rose quartz (relationship love and self-love and appreciation)
- Amazonite (block negative energy, worry, and fear, and increase truth and courage)
- Pink opal (renewal, calming, emotional balance)
- Clear quartz (the ultimate healing stone)
- Citrine (success, abundance, creativity, and power)
- Smoky quartz (detoxifying, blocking negative energy, and settling fears)
- Aquamarine (Courage, calms the mind, useful for closure, and promotes self-expression)
These are some of our favorite crystals for beginners for a few reasons. First, they’re all beautiful. Like, can’t-keep-my-eyes-off-them beautiful!
Second, these must-have crystals for beginners are all relatively easy to find. You can find five of them right here in our Crystal Beginnings starter kit–but you can also find individual stones, like this gorgeous amazonite palm stone.
Finally, all of these crystals are completely affordable–however, I will say this: cheaper isn’t always better when it comes to crystals.
You want crystals that are ethically chosen and sourced. Almost all of our crystals are sourced directly by our founders, and they’re all cleansed as soon as they arrive at our studio (more on the cleansing process below).
The Beginner’s Guide to Crystals–What Healing Crystals Do I Need?
Here’s what eight of our favorite crystals for beginners can help with:
- Stress, tension, or worry; help with balance or grounding and protection (amethyst)
- Better communication and dispelling negative energy like worry or fear (amazonite)
- Help with relationships, whether family, romantic, or friendly, or with yourself (rose quartz)
- Powerful, flexible stone that can amplify any affirmation or intention (clear quartz)
- Lack of energy or motivation, lacking creativity, want to grow an abundance mindset (citrine)
- Courage and the ability to speak truth to power; soothing and balancing (aquamarine)
- Renewal, calming, and emotional balance (pink opal)
Let’s talk a little more about each of these crystals, shall we?
Amethyst
Amethyst is a beautiful purple stone that can range from truly lavender to a really saturated purple. It’s actually a kind of quartz!
Amethyst is such a balancing, centering stone–that’s one of the reasons you see it used for home decor so often. It’s beautiful, but it also has a soothing effect on everybody in the room. If you want a crystal to display, try amethyst!
Rose Quartz
Yes, this pale pink stone can definitely help with relationships, but we like to think it does that (at least in part) by helping you with your relationship to yourself. You know that saying, you can’t pour from an empty glass?
Rose quartz helps increase compassion, empathy, and love–all of which can help you set boundaries, communicate your truth, and state what you need in a relationship. We love to wear rose quartz and pair it with essential oils that help us feel grounded and centered.
Amazonite
Amazonite comes in all different blue and greenish swirls and splotches–and because it’s really hard, it can be made into all different kinds of beads and polished hand stones, which makes it a great stone to wear or hold.
Amazonite blocks negative energies while it invigorates positive energies. If you need more truth and courage and less worry and fear, this stone is your new BFF.
Pink Opal
Pink opal tends to come with mauve and brown stripes (rose quartz is pink, too, but tends to be striated, with hard angles). The name sounds dainty and old fashioned, but pink opal is anything but. It’s a stone traditionally turned to for renewal; if you’re experiencing a lot of transition in your life, pink opal is a great choice to keep nearby, on your nightstand or on a shelf where you’ll see it often.
Pink opal can also help bring you back into emotional balance, and it has a calming effect.
Clear Quartz
Whether uncut or not, clear quartz is gorgeous and powerful. It is, in fact, the ultimate healing stone. If you have clear direction on what you want or need in life, clear quartz will partner with you to help bring the healing or forward progress you’re looking for.
Hold it while you speak affirmations or intentions over your day, first thing in the morning.
Citrine
Citrine can be yellow, orange, or brown, and is as energizing as any orange or lemon! It’s a classic creativity stone–keep it by your workspace or wherever you think your best thoughts (shower, anyone?).
Similarly, citrine can also help you shift from a scarcity mindset to an abundance mindset–it can also help energize you and fill you with that purposeful sense of power every day needs.
Smoky Quartz
Smoky quartz is a type of quartz, but instead of being clear, it’s this fantastic dark grey/brown color. Smoky quartz is something of a bouncer–it will stand guard over your house, blocking negative energies.
It will also help with a good detox, but not the juice kind–smoky quartz helps to focus your attention and mind on positive, forward thoughts, leaving behind fears, anxieties, and other negative emotions that are holding you back.
Aquamarine
Aquamarine, like amazonite, comes in blues and greens, but unlike amazonite, aquamarine tends to be clear and more gemstone-like.
If it brings to mind thoughts of relaxing tropical waters, you’re on the right track–aquamarine calms the mind so you can get your chill on. It also promotes self-expression, increases courage, and can help bring you that almighty closure. Take deep breaths while you hold it close to your heart.
How Long Does It Take for Crystals to Work?
Crystals aren’t a magic cure-all–they take time and consistency to work. As you use them regularly, you’ll start to see results. If you want to power up those results, you can do things like talk to a therapist (we love this option!), or use essential oils.
As you use crystals, you’ll help strengthen and grow your mind and emotional resilience. Afterall, we become what we think!
How to Charge & Cleanse Your Crystals
As crystals are busy helping you heal, they’ll eventually need a little maintenance, themselves. Here are several ways to cleanse your crystals. You’ll want to do this when you first get your crystals (particularly if they’re not from a reputable source), but you can also do these things anytime you feel their power dimming.
- The moon & sun (set your crystals out all night during a full moon, or even all day in the direct sun)
- Smoke cleansing or energy cleansing (you can cleanse your crystals the same way you’d cleanse your space)
- Selenite (selenite is cleansing crystal; placing your crystals on or near selenite to cleanse them)
- The earth (return your crystals to the earth by burying them for a night; in the morning, they’ll be fully charged and ready to go)
How Do I Clean My Crystals Inbetween Uses?
You don’t need to clean your crystals when you’re reusing or refilling your roller bottle, but you certainly can if you want. Simply remove the crystals and rinse them with water or soap and water, dry, and then place them back in the bottle.
How to Pair Crystals With Oils
If you’re already an essential oil lover, pairing crystals for beginners with oils is a no-brainer. We’ve got more about this whole process here, but first let us assure you that the process is simpler than you think!
Trust your intuition as you choose crystals and oils for yourself–your body knows what it needs and will tell you.
Our favorite way to combine crystals for beginners and essential oils is, of course, with our gemstone roller bottles. You can find our gorgeous essential oil roller bottles with crystals inside or even with gemstone roller tops!
You can even find crystal rollers by feeling + need, like this tourmaline and blue lace agate combination for stress.
To make it extra easy, here are a few great oils to pair with our favorite crystals for beginners. These oils will naturally support their crystal’s healing properties, bringing you that much closer to wholeness and joy.
- Amethyst (clove, cypress, frankincense, sandalwood)
- Amazonite (bergamot, geranium, orange, juniper, spruce)
- Rose quartz (ylang ylang, lavender, jasmine, rose, bergamot)
- Clear quartz (any oil!)
- Citrine (sandalwood, frankincense, orange, clove, ginger, patchouli)
- Aquamarine (clove, ginger, helichrysum, chamomile, lavender)
- Pink opal (frankincense, sandalwood, juniper, lavender, orange)
Crystals are absolutely some of our favorite things ever, and we hope this beginner’s guide to crystals has been everything you needed.
Have more questions? Comment below and let us know, or take a minute to browse the blog–we’ve got lots of great stuff there for you!
