I am going to start with these beads are fabulous and I love them so much!!! That said from a distance on your wrist they are very non-descript, pretty dull black. When you hold them up to the light though they shine with every color of the rainbow, red, blue, green, gold. Each bead has flash and each bead hole is cut very well. Again though that said be prepared for tiny tiny seed beads that will take a long time to thread. Is it worth it? Yes it is, the energy off of them is phenomenal and really an AAA stone.