We believe in Customer Education and make concerted efforts to ensure that purchasing a diamond (an often confusing process) is a stress free and thoroughly enjoyable experience. Please have a look at our How to Buy a Diamond Guide to familiarize yourself with the process.
When deciding to purchase a diamond, the International Diamond Grading System is the most important tool one has to compare and evaluate diamonds. This system, developed in the mid-twentieth century, consists of the 4 Cs: Carat Weight, Color, Clarity, Cut
Carat Weight
The weight of a diamond is one consideration when determining the price.
All gemstones are weighed using metric carets. One caret weighs 0.2 grams. A full carat is made up of 100 points and therefore, a diamond weighing 50 points equals 0.5 carats.
Thought, intuitively it would make sense to assume that two diamonds of equal carats would cost the same price, the cost between these two diamonds could differ substantially when factoring in the other 3 diamond characteristics.
Color
The less you see, the better.
The second diamond consideration is colour. Importantly, the less the colour a diamond has, the higher the value of the diamond. GIA's diamond colour grading scale is the most widely accepted grading system. The scale begins with the letter D, symbolizing colourlessness, and continues with progressing presence of colour, to the letter Z. The slight colour difference makes a significant difference in a diamond's quality and cost.
The exception to this system is are fancy - colour diamonds that increases in values as the colour intensifies. The are completely natural and can come in blue, pink, brown, and yellow.
Clarity
Clarity refers to the presence or absence of certain diamond identifying characteristics, known as inclusions. The location, size, types and color of these inclusions all help to determine where a diamond falls on the clarity grading scale. Clarity is only one characteristic of quality, so don’t use the terms interchangeably. Keep in mind that the higher the clarity, the more rare, and consequently more expensive. Only about 2% of the world’s diamonds are flawless.
Diamond Clarity Grading Terminology
Internally Flawless: No inclusions visible at 10x magnification.
VVS1: Minute inclusions, extremely difficult to see at 10x magnification.
VVS2: Minute inclusions, very difficult to see at 10x magnification.
VS1: Minor inclusions, difficult to see face-up at 10x magnification.
VS2: Minor inclusions, somewhat easy to see face-up at 10x magnification.
SI1: Noticeable inclusions, easy to see at 10x magnification.
I1: Obvious inclusions at 10x, visible to the unaided eye.
I2: Obvious inclusions, easily visible to the unaided eye.
I3: Prominent inclusions.
Cut
The cut of your diamond will determine its brilliance, fire, and scintillation. The traditional round diamond has 57 to 58 facets. It is the precision and the definition of the cut that can distinguish one diamond from the rest. The most important factor is the cut.
The cut of a diamond has three attributes:
Brilliance refers to the total light reflected from the diamond.
Fire refers to the total light reflected from a diamond.
Scintillation refers to the flashes of light or sparkle when a diamond is moved.
The cut scale goes from excellent, very good, good, fair, and poor.
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