Originally published April 15, 2020. Updated June 1, 2026.

What Are Rhinestones and How Do They Sparkle?

Rhinestones are glass or crystal stones made to look like gems. They are used for apparel decoration, costume design, dancewear, skating outfits, cheer uniforms, crafts, accessories, jewelry, shoes, tumblers, and many other creative projects.

Unlike natural gemstones, rhinestones are manufactured. That makes them more affordable, more consistent in size and shape, and easier to use for decoration. Rhinestones come in many styles, including flat back stones, hotfix stones, sew-on stones, point back stones, rhinestone shapes, jewels, and cabochons.

What Is the Difference Between Rhinestones and Gemstones?

Gemstones are natural minerals that are cut, polished, and used in fine jewelry. Diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds are traditionally called precious gemstones, while many others are called semi-precious stones.

Rhinestones are different. They are not natural gems. They are glass or crystal stones designed to imitate the look of gemstones at a much lower cost. Just like gemstones, rhinestones vary in quality, cut, size, color, brilliance, and price.

What Types of Rhinestones Are There?

Rhinestones come in several common categories.

Flat Back Rhinestones
These have a flat underside and are used for gluing, mounting, or hotfix application. Round flat back rhinestones are often called Chaton Roses.

Hotfix Rhinestones
Hotfix rhinestones are flat back stones with a heat-activated glue already applied to the back. They are applied with heat using a hotfix applicator, heat press, or similar tool.

Sew-On Stones
Sew-on rhinestones have holes or settings that allow them to be stitched onto fabric.

Point Back Rhinestones
Point back rhinestones have a pointed underside, similar to a diamond shape. They are often used in jewelry settings or specialty applications.

Rhinestone Shapes
These are smaller shaped crystals such as hearts, stars, teardrops, ovals, navettes, squares, and other decorative cuts.

Jewels
Larger faceted stones are often referred to as jewels.

Cabochons
Cabochons have a smooth, rounded surface instead of faceted cuts.

Even though these categories have different names, they are all decorative glass or crystal stones.

How Do Rhinestones Sparkle?

Rhinestones sparkle when light enters the stone, reflects inside it, and returns through the cut facets. The sparkle depends on the clarity of the crystal, the precision of the cut, the shape of the facets, and the reflective layer on the back of the stone.

Traditional flat back rhinestones usually have a foil or reflective backing. This backing acts like a mirror. Light enters through the top of the stone, hits the mirror-like layer underneath, and reflects back through the facets. That reflection creates the bright sparkle rhinestones are known for.

The cleaner the crystal and the sharper the cut, the better the sparkle.

What Makes One Rhinestone Sparkle More Than Another?

A rhinestone’s brilliance depends mainly on two things: crystal quality and cut precision.

Crystal Quality
Higher-quality glass or crystal allows light to pass through more cleanly. Clearer material creates better light reflection and a brighter appearance.

Cut Precision
Machine-cut rhinestones usually have sharper, more consistent facets than molded or pressed stones. Better facet precision improves light return, sparkle, and overall brilliance.

High-quality rhinestones are engineered so the stone, facets, color, and reflective backing work together as a complete optical system.

What Is the Rhinestone Guy Sparkly Scale?

At Rhinestone Guy, we use our own Sparkly Scale to help customers compare rhinestones by visible sparkle, brilliance, clarity, and overall light return. The scale runs from 0 to 10, with 10 being our highest sparkle rating.

A 10 on the Sparkly Scale represents our brightest, most brilliant rhinestone category. In our product lineup, Preciosa® MAXIMA is our top-rated rhinestone for maximum sparkle, precision, and performance. MAXIMA stones are designed for premium brilliance, strong light return, and consistent quality across professional rhinestone projects.

Preciosa® VIVA also sits at the high end of our sparkle scale and remains an excellent crystal option for customers who want beautiful European sparkle with strong performance and value.

Our mid-range sparkle lines, such as RG Premium Hotfix and RG 2088 Eurostar, offer excellent sparkle, dependable quality, and strong value for many apparel, craft, team, costume, and production projects. These stones are a great choice when you want beautiful shine and reliable performance at a more cost-effective price point.

Our budget-friendly rhinestone lines are also high-quality, cost-effective stones that deliver attractive sparkle and excellent value. They work well for basic projects, practice pieces, temporary designs, large coverage areas, team projects, crafts, and budget-sensitive jobs where you still want a bright, polished result.

The Sparkly Scale is not about calling one rhinestone good and another bad. It is about helping you choose the right sparkle level, quality level, and price point for your project. A premium crystal may be the best choice for high-end performance wear or professional resale work, while a cost-effective rhinestone may be the smarter choice for large designs, team orders, practice garments, or projects where value matters most.

Want the highest sparkle level we offer? Learn why Preciosa® MAXIMA is our top-rated rhinestone.  Learn why Preciosa® MAXIMA is our top-rated rhinestone

What Is the Difference Between Foiled and Unfoiled Rhinestones?

Foiled Rhinestones
Foiled rhinestones have a reflective backing on the underside. This backing helps reflect light back through the crystal, creating strong sparkle. Most traditional flat back rhinestones use this type of construction.

Unfoiled Rhinestones
Unfoiled stones do not have a mirror backing. They sparkle mostly from surface shine and allow some of the background color to show through. These are sometimes used when a softer, more transparent effect is desired.

Foiled stones usually provide more sparkle. Unfoiled stones provide a different look and are often chosen for special design effects.

What Are AB Rhinestones?

AB stands for Aurora Borealis. AB rhinestones have a special iridescent coating that creates flashes of multiple colors as the stone moves under light.

Crystal AB is one of the most popular rhinestone colors. It starts with a clear crystal base and adds an AB coating to create a rainbow-like effect. Crystal AB looks very different from regular Crystal, even though both begin with a clear stone.

AB and other effect coatings can change the appearance of the base color dramatically. On darker rhinestone colors, an AB coating can make many stones appear mostly blue, teal, or purple, with only a small amount of the original base color showing through. This is why a standard color and its AB version can look very different from each other.

Why Do Rhinestone Colors Look Different Online?

Rhinestone colors are difficult to judge from photos, screens, printed charts, or online images. Lighting, camera settings, screen brightness, monitor color settings, and viewing angle can all change how a rhinestone appears.

This is especially true for AB, shimmer, metallic, coated, and effect rhinestones. These stones change appearance depending on the angle of light, and darker AB stones may show more of the coating color than the original base color.

For the most accurate color selection, real sample cards are strongly recommended.

Why Should I Buy All My Rhinestones for a Project at One Time?

Rhinestone colors can vary slightly from one production run to another. This is true for all rhinestone manufacturers.

Standard colors are usually very consistent, but exact color matching cannot always be guaranteed across different production runs. Coated and effect rhinestones can vary even more because the coating thickness and application can affect the final appearance.

If your project requires a consistent color match, buy all the stones you need at one time. It is also smart to buy a little extra for waste, repairs, or future touch-ups.

No rhinestones truly go to waste. Extras can always be used for another creative project.

How Are Rhinestone Colors Made?

Rhinestone colors are created by adding different compounds to glass or crystal during production. Different minerals and elements help create different colors, such as greens, blues, reds, yellows, purples, and other shades.

Many rhinestone colors are named after gemstones. Examples include Peridot, Siam, Sapphire, Amethyst, Emerald, and Citrine.

Other colors are designer colors created by rhinestone manufacturers. These color names may not refer to natural gemstones but are used to describe fashion colors, seasonal shades, or specialty effects.

What Is the Most Popular Rhinestone Color?

The most popular rhinestone color is Crystal, which is clear and diamond-like. Crystal is widely used because it works with almost any fabric color, costume style, or design.

Crystal AB is also extremely popular. It adds an iridescent rainbow effect and gives more color movement than regular Crystal.

What Do Rhinestone Sizes Mean?

Round rhinestones are commonly measured using SS sizes. SS stands for Stone Size.

For example, SS7 or 7ss refers to a specific rhinestone size. The higher the SS number, the larger the stone.

SS size does not equal millimeters. An SS6 stone is not 6mm. Each SS size corresponds to a millimeter range.

Flat back rhinestones are available in very small sizes such as SS2 and can go up to much larger sizes such as SS48. Smaller stones create a fine glimmer effect, while larger stones create more visible flash.

Do Larger Rhinestones Sparkle More? 

Larger rhinestones can create a bigger flash of sparkle because they have more visible surface area. Flash is the bold burst of sparkle you see when light hits a larger stone, especially from a distance or under stage, event, or performance lighting.

Smaller rhinestones create a different kind of sparkle. They may not have the same large flash as bigger stones, but they can create beautiful glimmer, detail, texture, and all-over sparkle when many stones are used together.

Larger stones are not automatically better than smaller stones. The effect is just different. Larger stones create flash. Smaller stones create glimmer. Many rhinestone projects use both: larger stones for accents and smaller stones for detail, fill, or background sparkle.r.

How Do I Choose the Right Rhinestone Size?

The best rhinestone size depends on the project, viewing distance, fabric type, design detail, and budget.

Small stones are better for fine details, lettering, curves, and dense coverage. Larger stones are better for bold sparkle, stage visibility, accents, and designs meant to be seen from a distance.

Before choosing a size, consider how the item will be used. A dance costume, cheer uniform, skating dress, tumbler, shoe, and T-shirt may all require different stone sizes and spacing.

See our rhinestone size guide.

What Makes a Rhinestone High Quality?

A high-quality rhinestone is measured by more than sparkle alone. Sparkle is important, but consistency and durability matter too, especially for apparel, costumes, team orders, production work, and professional projects.

High-quality rhinestones should have consistent sizing, reliable color, clean faceting, dependable backing, and a polished finished look from stone to stone.

A top-rated rhinestone on our Sparkly Scale should deliver strong brilliance, clean light return, reliable sizing, and dependable performance during application and wear.

Better rhinestones are not just prettier in the package. They are easier to work with, more consistent during application, and more dependable in finished designs.

Are All Rhinestones Glass?

Not all rhinestones in the general marketplace are glass. Some rhinestones sold elsewhere are made from acrylic or plastic.

At Rhinestone Guy, all of our rhinestones are glass or crystal glass. We do not carry plastic rhinestones.

Glass and crystal rhinestones offer better brilliance, sharper reflection, more depth of sparkle, and a more polished finished appearance than acrylic or plastic stones. That difference matters when you are choosing rhinestones for apparel, costumes, crafts, performance wear, team projects, and professional designs.

Are Less Expensive Rhinestones Worth It?

Yes. Less expensive rhinestones can be an excellent choice when they match the needs of the project.

A cost-effective rhinestone can work very well for crafts, practice projects, large coverage designs, temporary use, team orders, and budget-sensitive jobs. The key is choosing a stone that still offers good sparkle, consistent sizing, dependable quality, and the right application method for your material.

Premium crystal rhinestones usually offer the highest brilliance, strongest light return, and most refined cut precision. Less expensive and mid-range rhinestones offer strong value when you need attractive sparkle at a lower price point.

The best rhinestone is not always the most expensive rhinestone. The best rhinestone is the one that fits your project, your budget, and the look you want to achieve.

Why Are Sample Cards Important?

Sample cards are one of the best tools for choosing rhinestones. Photos and online color charts cannot show true rhinestone color, sparkle, coating effects, or size accurately.

A real sample card lets you see actual stones in person. It helps you compare colors, sizes, finishes, coatings, and sparkle levels before buying stones for a project.

Rhinestone Guy sample cards are made with actual stones, so you can place them over your fabric or material and see how the colors look in real life.

For professionals, sample cards are an essential tool.

Should I Use Flat Back or Hotfix Rhinestones?

Flat back rhinestones are applied with glue or mounted into settings. They are versatile and work on many surfaces, including fabric, shoes, accessories, crafts, and hard goods.

Hotfix rhinestones have heat-activated glue already on the back. They are designed mainly for heat application onto suitable fabrics and materials.

The best choice depends on your project, material, tools, and how the finished item will be used.

Can I Mix Different Rhinestone Types or Brands?

Yes. Many designs use a mix of rhinestone sizes, colors, shapes, finishes, stone types, and even brands.

Mixing rhinestones can add depth, texture, contrast, and movement to a design. For example, you can combine Crystal and Crystal AB, use larger stones for accents, add rhinestone shapes or jewels as focal points, or mix different sparkle levels to fit the project and budget.

When mixing brands, keep each color within the same brand whenever possible. For example, if you are using several sizes of Crystal AB, it is usually best to use the same brand for all Crystal AB sizes. This helps keep the color, coating, and sparkle more consistent across the design.

The key is to test the stones on your material first and plan the design before applying them.

How Should I Plan a Rhinestone Project?

Before choosing rhinestones, think about the item, the material, the viewing distance, the desired sparkle level, and your budget. The best rhinestone choice can change depending on whether you are decorating apparel, costumes, team uniforms, shoes, accessories, crafts, or hard goods.

Good planning helps you choose the right rhinestone size, color, quality level, quantity, and application method before you start.

For more detailed project help, see our related rhinestone guides on sizing, color selection, application methods, and estimating how many rhinestones you need.

Final Thought

Rhinestones may look simple at first, but every choice affects the finished design. The type of stone, glass quality, cut, backing, color, coating, size, sparkle level, and application method all work together to create the final look.

That is why rhinestone selection is not just about picking a color or size. It is about matching the right stone to the project, the material, the viewing distance, the budget, and the result you want to achieve.

Start with the basics, compare real samples when color matters, plan your project before applying the stones, and choose the rhinestone line that gives you the right balance of sparkle, quality, and value.

Most importantly, have fun, be creative, and Sparkle Up with Style.