It used to work for PC players on 5.5.1 release, but they downgraded steam version to keep in line with mobile.
In 5.5.1r27572 player could convert lycan gems to yellow with Alchemist, or convert blue gems to lycan with Asha, for example. For now (5.5.1r27557) whenever player picks gem, it is reduced to base color (lycan → purple, uberdoomskulls, doomskulls → skulls)