A Sparkling Update on Princess Sofia’s Latest Tiara Toppers

Last week, Princess Sofia showed us that her dazzling diamond palmette tiara is even more versatile than we had previously thought–and today, I’ve got an update on the latest setting of the jewel.

On April 23, Princess Sofia accompanied her husband, Prince Carl Philip of Sweden, as they attended a state banquet at the Royal Palace in Stockholm. The banquet was given in honor of the new President of Finland, Alexander Stubb.

For the banquet, Sofia wore a dark blue gown from her wardrobe archives. She previously wore the Oscar de la Renta evening dress in December 2015 for the Nobel Prize ceremony and banquet. This was her first time attending the event as a Swedish princess, and she was expecting her first child, Prince Alexander. She wore her diamond palmette tiara in its original shape and emerald setting, just as she had worn it at her royal wedding earlier that year.

For last week’s banquet, she wore the new, more open setting of the palmette tiara with a new set of gemstone toppers. These dark blue gemstones are the sixth set of toppers for the tiara, joining emeralds, pearls, turquoises, blue topazes, and citrines. The tiara can also be worn in an all-diamond setting without any additional ornaments.

When I wrote about last week’s banquet, I made a tentative guess that the stones might be briolette-cut sapphires. Of course, that would be an extremely expensive addition to the tiara, and some gem experts among my followers made additional guesses, including iolites or London blue topazes.

It turns out that the last guess was the correct one. UFO No More has confirmed that the toppers are new and that they are London blue topazes.

I’ve seen some skepticism that Sofia now has two separate sets of blue topaz toppers for the tiara, but that does indeed seem to be the case. The newer set, on the left, is significantly darker–that “London blue” variety–while the older set, on the right, is a lot lighter in color.