Collinsite is translucent and brown, chocolate-black, light brown, yellowish white, white, or colorless.
It is colorless in thin section and light yellow-brown to colorless in transmitted light.
The zincian variety of collinsite is pale blue.
The mineral can occur with fibrous habit, as globular aggregates of crystals, as concentrically layered botryoidal masses, or as bladed or prismatic crystals up to 2 cm (0.79 in).

Collinsite is a member of the fairfieldite group.
Hillite is the zinc analogue of collinsite and collinsite is the magnesium analogue of messelite.
Collinsite is translucent and brown, chocolate-black, light brown, yellowish white, white, or colorless. It is colorless in thin section and light yellow-brown to colorless in transmitted light. The zincian variety of collinsite is pale blue. The mineral can occur with fibrous habit, as globular aggregates of crystals, as concentrically layered botryoidal masses, or as bladed or prismatic crystals up to 2 cm (0.79 in).
Collinsite is a member of the fairfieldite group. Hillite is the zinc analogue of collinsite and collinsite is the magnesium analogue of messelite.
Collinsite