When I received this necklace, I was actually delighted that the color is darker than in the picture, it is usually the other way around and I prefer a deeper purple. The faceted beads are small and look like nicely matched chips, a nice, informal look. BUT - the necklace is only 16.5 inches long, not 18, it fits me like a choker and would be too short for a lot of women! I wore it for the first time last weekend and received compliments on its lovely and delicate look. And then I got home and saw that it had discolored both sides of my neck - blue! No amethyst jewelry has ever discolored my skin before. It couldn't have been the clasp, silver turns my skin green, not blue. My suspicion is that the stones have been dyed or "coated" in order to appear darker. The discoloration washes off easily, but still, this is not a good thing. I am going to keep it because I paid only $8.70 (Gold Box deal, 70% off) for it, but I am not going to wear it a lot and only for short periods of time. This is NOT a piece of fine jewelry. For cheap costume jewelry, it's OK.

I'm not familiar with faceted amethyst, but this is not what I expected. This necklace looks very cheap. The "stones" look like beads, it is like something a child would make in a jewelry kit. My boyfriend saw it and thought it looked like a candy necklace. The stones do look very much like colored rock candy. I've seen similar things being sold at souvenir shops on spring break.

When I received this necklace I almost didn't recognize it as being one that I had ordered. The color was a much, much darker purple - almost a dark blue. It was a very pretty purple, but not nearly as light as the picture showed it. The stones were also smaller than they looked in the picture, and were very tiny.

Both the 18" necklaces I've gotten from Amazon have been shorter than they should have been. They're fine for people with small necks, but larger women will have trouble wearing them and I'll make it a point to avoid ordering any more, unless they're for presents for skinny-necked people.

Other than that, the necklace is really a beautiful shade of purple and seems to be reasonably well made. Since it's too small for me it will make an excellent Christmas present for my niece. It just wasn't what I expected.