Can you say a crystal heals, calms or balances energy?

No. A statement that a stone heals, calms, relieves, protects or balances anything is a health claim, and the FTC requires health claims to be backed by "competent and reliable scientific evidence," which for health benefits generally means randomized, controlled human clinical trials [1]. The FTC says its advertising law "applies to all products and claims" [1], so crystals get no exception. You can sell the same stones honestly: describe the mineral, its locality and its beauty, and if you mention a tradition, describe it as history, carefully qualified and kept apart from the offer. This page shows where that line falls, word by word.

The rule, from the FTC's own text

The FTC's Health Products Compliance Guidance replaced its 1998 advertising guide for dietary supplements, but it is written for every health-related product [1]. The PDF carries no publication date; the FTC issued it on December 20, 2022, according to two law firms' published summaries [2][4], and this page treats that date as reported rather than confirmed from the FTC. Five points in it decide what a crystal seller may write.

1. It covers everyone. "FTC advertising law applies to all products and claims" [1]. Its examples are mostly supplements, but "the same legal principles apply to the marketing of any health-related product" [1].
2. Implied claims count. "Under FTC law, a marketer is equally responsible for the accuracy of claims suggested or reasonably implied in advertising" [1]. The FTC reads an ad by its "net impression," "including the text, product name, and any charts, graphs, and other images" [1]. A stone named "Anxiety Relief Amethyst" makes a claim with its name alone.
3. The evidence bar is clinical. Substantiation is "competent and reliable scientific evidence," meaning tests or studies "conducted and evaluated in an objective manner by experts" using methods "generally accepted in the profession to yield accurate and reliable results" [1]. "Randomized, controlled human clinical trials (RCTs) are the most reliable form of evidence and are generally the type of substantiation that experts would require for health benefit claims" [1].
4. Testimonials do not help. "Advertisers are liable for the misleading use of endorsements," and "It's not enough that a testimonial represents the honest opinion or experience of an endorser" [1]. A customer review you repost that says a stone cured their headaches is your claim.
5. Disclaimers do not cure a claim. The guidance says "pro forma statements or disclaimers may not cure otherwise deceptive messages" [1]. "For entertainment purposes only" under a list of healing properties leaves the claim in place.

Tradition and history: what the guidance allows

The guidance has a section on claims based on traditional use. Under FTC law such claims "are subject to the same requirement of substantiation in the form of competent and reliable scientific evidence as any other product" [1]. Then it opens a narrow door: "Advertising that merely describes the traditional or historic use of a product and that is carefully qualified to avoid any misleading implications about the product's efficacy or health benefits may be permissible" [1]. It also says marketers "shouldn't make claims about traditional use for the treatment or cure of serious medical conditions" [1].

In practice, a statement stays on the history side of the line when it:

• is attributed to a named tradition, culture or period, as something people believed or did;
• is written in the past tense or as belief ("was carried by," "was believed to"), never as a present effect on the buyer;
• is clearly qualified, close to the statement, that there is no scientific evidence for the belief;
• is not tied to a reason to buy (no "buy this for its calming power");
• never touches disease, injury, pain or mental health conditions.

When in doubt, leave it out, and let the stone carry the sale.

Phrases, and what they claim

Lines like those in the left column are common in decor listings. Write the right-hand column instead and the stone still sells on what buyers can see. If you use the history row, the history itself must be true: cite where the belief is recorded, and do not attach a tradition to a stone you cannot source.

Signs, captions and talk at the table

A health claim does not need to be printed to be a claim. The same standard applies to:

• signs and price cards at a show or market ("Citrine: abundance and healing");
• social posts and captions, including stories and short video;
• the product name in a shop or marketplace listing [1];
• inserts and cards in the bag ("Your stone's healing properties");
• what you say to a customer, especially when it is the reason they buy.

Marketplaces add their own rules. Etsy's prohibited items policy covers "any other item that claims to treat, prevent, mitigate, cure, or diagnose a disease or medical condition," and separately prohibits "Items making certain medical claims" (policy updated August 11, 2026) [3]. A listing that breaks it can be removed whatever the FTC would do. Other platform rules are on selling online.

Water, elixirs and anything put on the body

The moment you sell a stone to be put in drinking water, or a product to drink or apply to skin, you have left the specimen trade. The FTC guidance itself describes the separate role of the FDA over drugs, devices and other health-related products [1], and a drink or cosmetic brings in food, drug or cosmetic rules that are beyond specimen selling. Many minerals are also unsafe in water; the hazard side, and which species must never be soaked, is on crystals in drinking water.

What you can say, and say well

Leaving out healing claims leaves you a great deal to say. Buyers of decorative crystals respond to:

• the species and variety, correctly named (rules on what you may legally call it);
• the locality and how it was mined or collected;
• size, weight, color, clarity and habit;
• whether it is natural, treated, dyed, coated or lab-grown, stated plainly;
• how to care for it (no water for water-soluble species, away from sunlight for those that fade).

Building a crystal business on that footing

A shop that sells on beauty, origin and honest description has nothing to take down when a regulator or marketplace looks. The rest of what it takes to start one, from stock to sales tax, is on starting a crystal and decor business.

References

1. Federal Trade Commission, *Health Products Compliance Guidance*, PDF carries no date (see [2] for the announcement date), read October 22, 2026. https://ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/Health-Products-Compliance-Guidance.pdf
2. Libbie Canter, Laura Kim, Stefanie Doebler, Lindsey Tonsager and Elizabeth Brim, Covington & Burling, "FTC Issues New Guidance Regarding Health Products," Inside Privacy, January 9, 2023. https://www.insideprivacy.com/health-privacy/ftc-issues-new-guidance-regarding-health-products/
3. Etsy, *Prohibited Items Policy* (Our House Rules), updated August 11, 2026; page last updated October 6, 2026. https://etsy.com/legal/prohibited
4. Reed Smith, "FTC issues significant updated guidance for health-related claims," January 2023, read October 22, 2026. https://www.reedsmith.com/articles/ftc-issues-significant-updated-guidance-for-health-related-claims/