The 4c's of Color Diamonds

01

Cut

The most crucial of the Four C’s for generating the “sparkle” or light performance of a diamond, is the cut. In an ideal diamond cut, light should be reflected through the body of the diamond, and back out through the top, or table, of the stone. In lesser quality, or more shallow cuts, light will leak out through the bottom of the diamond. This dramatically affects our perception of the beauty of the diamond, and can affect in natural color diamonds, how deeply the color of the stone can be seen.

02

Clarity

Diamond clarity relates to the number of “blemishes” or “inclusions” that are visible inside the body of a diamond. Many gemmologists and experts believe this has little affect on the appearance of a diamond. In fact, in natural color diamonds, lower clarity stones often possess deeper color tones than those with better clarity. Better clarity grades are applied to diamonds with fewer or smaller imperfections, often not visible to the naked eye.

03

CUT GRADES

Poor Cut — Fair Cut — Good Cut — Very Good Cut — Ideal Cut

04

Color

In white diamonds, being “colorless” is ideal, however at the opposite end of the color scale are “Fancy” colored diamonds, which possess a rarity and uniqueness that gives them their own value scale. This scale includes: Light, Fancy Light, Fancy, Fancy Intense, Fancy Deep and Fancy Vivid.
Color in natural fancy colored diamonds occurs in a variety of ways, such as trace elements such as nitrogen, in the ground around the diamonds during formation, or radiation present during the creation process. Inclusions in the diamonds can in fact enhance the depth of color in fancy color diamonds, creating higher value, unlike their colorless counterparts.

CARAT WEIGHT

Carat weight is simply the measure of a diamond’s weight, but may not necessarily be indicative of a diamond’s size. A diamond’s size is generally judged by the carat weight in combination with the measure of the top of the diamond (the table), as this is the view of a stone when set in jewellery.