It is a crystal silicate mineral which is compounded with several elements including iron, aluminum, magnesium, lithium, sodium and potassium. It is a brittle black, almost gray mineral that naturally occurs in prismatic crystals that are within granite or within other varieties of rocks. This semi-precious stone comes in all varieties of colors and most of the time in combinations, like bicolor and tricolor tourmaline. These are actually favored by many. There are also some types that have their coloring with one shade and a different shade on its center. 'Watermelon tourmaline' is the kind that has pink in the middle and has green surrounding it.

Tourmaline has a hardness of 7.5 on the Moh's scale. It is a stone that has also been used for the creation of electrical instruments and optical instruments because of its polarizing and pyroelectric properties due to the boron aluminosilicate that makes up the stone's trigonal crystal structures.

It is a stone that could become magnetic and could have the ability to attract lightweight objects. Tourmaline also has quite a lot of holistic benefits that it has been known to provide. There has been an association on wearing it to giving a protective impact for the wearer. It is also believed to have the ability of healing mental disorders and could enable the wearer to have the power to face and handle difficult changes and challenges.

Red and pink tourmaline can be mined in Madagascar and Russia, Burma, the US, Brazil and East Africa.