As pieces of glass soak in salt water and get tossed around by the waves of the ocean, their sharp edges fade and they become beautifully frosted. It takes anywhere from five to 50 years for this process to happen, but when it's done, beaches all over the world are left with beautiful treasures in the form of sea glass charms.

There are so many different colors and types of beach glass that it's difficult to determine how old they are and where exactly they came from. In case you were wondering, here's where some of those sea glass colors originated.

Green and Brown Sea Glass

Green and brown sea glass don't typically adorn things like sea glass rings, but they are quite common on beaches today. That's because these colors are largely still in production and come from wine, beer, and whiskey bottles.

Seafoam Green Sea Glass

This color is one of the most popular when it comes to sea glass jewelry. While rarer than green and brown, the source of this color isn't super rare. Most seafoam-colored sea glass comes from old Coca Cola bottles and window glass.

Cobalt Blue Sea Glass

While you can find a lot of blue beer bottles today, that isn't necessarily where all of the bright blue sea glass comes from. In fact, most cobalt blue sea glass comes from old milk of magnesia and perfume bottles.

Lavender Sea Glass

Lavender sea glass is common in some areas and completely nonexistent in others. Most of this glass comes from products made with manganese, which gave the glass a purple hue in production.

Red Sea Glass

Red sea glass is one of the rarest colors, and a sea glass ring lover's dream come true. One of the biggest sources of this color was Anchor Hocking Glass Company, which used red glass for many household glass fixtures and even in some bottles.

Milk Glass Sea Glass

Milk glass, or opalized sea glass, is extremely rare and comes only from decorative glassware. These colors, when found, are either kept as they are or put into sea glass rings and pendants to sell and make beautiful jewelry.

If you find any of these types of sea glass on the beach, consider yourself lucky. You've just found a treasure, a gift from the sea.