Lavender, in gemstone grading, refers to a specific colour: a light to medium tone of purple with a noticeable blue component, typically between 5 percent and 35 percent saturation in the GIA coloured-stone grading vocabulary, and a tone in the range of 40 to 65 percent. The reference is to the colour of the lavender flower (Lavandula species), and the grade is used most prominently in jadeite (where lavender jade is a major commercial classification), in sapphire (lavender sapphire being a category between blue and pink), in spinel, and in amethyst.

The lavender designation distinguishes the colour from related grades. Lilac is a slightly redder shade with less blue. Violet is darker and more saturated, with a stronger blue component, often used to describe higher-value tanzanite or sapphire. Mauve is a greyer, less saturated lavender. Orchid is a pinker, slightly darker variant.

For jadeite, lavender refers specifically to the natural manganese-iron-bearing material from Myanmar (Burma) that displays the colour. The trade distinguishes light lavender, medium lavender, and intense lavender (sometimes called royal lavender), with the latter commanding the highest prices, particularly when the stone is also translucent. Lavender jadeite is far rarer than green jadeite of comparable quality, and stones of saturated colour and good translucency reach auction prices comparable to top-quality green imperial jade.

For sapphire, lavender is the colour band that lies between blue sapphire and pink sapphire. It is graded under the same colour-tone-saturation framework that GIA applies across coloured stones, with the highest prices reserved for stones in the medium-tone, moderately saturated range that read as a clear, neutral lavender without a strong shift toward grey, brown, or any complementary modifier. Sri Lanka, Madagascar, and Tanzania (Songea, Tunduru) produce lavender sapphire in commercial quantities.

For spinel, lavender is associated with material from Mahenge in Tanzania (where it occurs alongside the famous red and pink spinels) and from Mogok in Burma. Lavender spinel can be a complement to or a stop along the way to grey, and the trade distinguishes carefully between lavender (with a clear purple character) and grey-violet (which the trade tends to discount unless the stone is otherwise exceptional).

For amethyst, the lighter pale-purple varieties from Brazil, Bolivia, Uruguay, and Zambia are sometimes marketed as lavender amethyst, particularly when the stone shows a lighter, blue-leaning hue rather than the darker, redder Siberian amethyst classification. The trade distinction is informal and tends to overlap with the rose de France marketing term used for the lightest purples.