Rose quartz is a variety of quartz that has a light pink color—so it’s a pink rose not a red rose. The color can be caused by several different minerals, including iron, manganese, or titanium, in very tiny quantities. Usually, you find rose quartz in chunks rather than crystals, and it’s usually just translucent and sometimes satiny looking, like satin spar gypsum. Some rare crystals of rose quartz do exist, though, and that’s the only time it’s totally transparent. The chunks are plenty nice as is, but they can also be cut and polished as gemstones. If you’re lucky, sometimes rose quartz can include tiny fibers of other minerals, like rutile or dumortierite, that will give polished pieces a cat’s eye effect or produce a star inside like in a star sapphire.