A Little Info About Diamonds: Color

Although I love jewelry and pretty much anything that sparkles, I've never really been a "diamond person".  I've always been drawn to colored gemstones---blues and greens especially.  However, recently I've been reading about diamonds and how they're graded, and also actual lab-created diamonds (not CZ) and I thought I'd share a little about what I've learned lately---in case there are others who, like me, never knew much at all about diamonds!

The Four C's

Okay, I have heard about this but I really didn't know what it meant:  Cut, Clarity, Color and Carat Weight.  The last "C" is obvious!  But what about Color?  Aren't all clear diamonds the same--clear?

• Color isn't the most important diamond characteristic---there are many beautiful stones that aren't perfectly clear (colorless).
• Not all diamonds are colorless--also called "White Diamonds"---and all other diamonds are judged against Colorless.
• The GIA (Gemological Institute of America)  has a set of guidelines to grade diamond color. Graded diamonds are compared to the color of control stones, which are preselected gems of a specific color.
• Diamonds are graded loose (so the metal setting doesn't affect the color).
• Diamonds are placed table (top) down with the pavillion up and are looked at with a 10x loupe.
• Diamonds are assigned a color grade from D (colorless) to Z (brownish).  Colorless "D" diamonds are VERY rare.

  

  VERY subtle!

•  D-E-F grades:  colorless
•  G-H-I-J:  nearly colorless
•  K-L-M:  faintly tinted, yellow usually
•  N-O-P-Q-R:  yellow tinted, visible with the naked eye
•  S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z:  yellow to brownish, visible even when mounted 

On the other end of the spectrum, colored "fancy" diamonds (blue, black, yellow, pink, green, purple, red) are even more rare and more expensive!


Other factors can affect diamond color:
Flouresence: GIA diamond reports and many other lab reports indicate whether or not a diamond exhibits fluorescence, which means the diamond's color changes when it is exposed to ultraviolet light. Since UV radiation is a component of daylight and is also present in fluorescent lit rooms, diamonds with this characteristic can appear to change color quite often.

Settings That Enhance Color:
A loose diamond that appears lightly yellow to the naked eye will usually appear more colorless when mounted in a white setting like platinum or white gold. 

Diamond Color Treatments:

Stages of HPHT Treatment

Sometimes diamonds are treated with HPHT (High Pressure/High Temperature) processing.  This is a permanent treatment.  This can turn an otherwise less-desirable brown diamond into a colorless diamond.  The Federal Trade Commission requires that any HPHT treatment be disclosed.

Coatings are sometimes used to temporarily enhance a diamond.  These will eventually wear off, and are almost always done with the intent to deceive the customer.   This brilliant orange coated diamond changed to yellow when it was heated during a retipping process:

Sometimes dots or larger areas of blue ink are applied to the underside of a yellowish diamond, hidden by the setting, to make the stone seem whiter.  This will wash off.

Creating Colorful Diamonds
Irradiation, followed by a high heat treatment, can turn brown and yellow diamonds into fancy colored diamonds.  The color is usually permanent.

"Fancy" Colored Diamonds

The Aurora Collection is made up of 296 naturally colored diamonds. Owned by diamond collectors Alan Bronstein and Harry Rodman, they are on display in a new gallery at the Vault, in London.

Natural colored diamonds come in all shades, hues and colors of the rainbow, with some of the most popular colors being shades and combinations of pink, blue, brown, yellow, orange, green and red. They are generally smaller than other diamonds and are used primarily in fashion jewelry. Yellow is the most commonly-occurring fancy color, while red, blue and green diamonds are extremely rare.

Faint Green, Very Light Green, Light Green, Fancy Light Green, Fancy Green, Fancy Intense, Fancy Vivid, and Fancy Deep

Fancy color diamonds are graded in two ways:  the stone's basic hue, such as pink, yellow, blue, green, etc.,  and the diamond's intensity. Both color characteristics form the basis for determining a fancy colored diamond's worth.  Usually, the more intense the color, the rarer and more expensive the diamond will be. For example, a fancy light pink diamond costs less than a fancy vivid pink diamond of equal size, shape and clarity.

The Blue Hope Diamond - est. worth $250 million!

The GIA uses nine categories to grade color diamonds.

1. Faint
2. Very Light
3. Light
4. Fancy Light
5. Fancy
6. Fancy Dark
7. Fancy Intense
8. Fancy Deep
9. Fancy Vivid

Color is the most important factor in determining a color diamond's value. Clarity is not as critical, and unless inclusions are directly on the diamond's table, most are not noticeable to the naked eye and will not affect the look of the diamond -- or its sparkle.

Pink Diamonds: Natural fancy pink diamonds are rare, and account for only a fraction of one percent of the Argyle Diamond Mine's entire production of pink diamonds. Pink diamonds mined in India, Brazil and Africa are usually lighter in color than the intensely pink Argyle diamonds.  Pink diamonds are primarily divided into five color categories:

• Pink
• Purplish pink
• Brownish pink
• Orangey pink
• Pink champagne

Pink diamonds with no secondary coloring are the rarest and most expensive of all pink diamonds. This color of pink diamond ranges from a faint pink, resembling a white diamond with just a slight pink hue, to very sweet colored fancy pink, to a vivid pink, also referred to as a "raspberry pink," and finally a deep, almost reddish pink. The closer to red a pink diamond's coloration is, the more rare it is and therefore the more expensive.

What is the rarest colored diamond?

The Moussaieff Red, a 5.11-carat, Fancy Red diamond with an IF clarity grade, is known as the largest internally flawless red diamond in the world, sold for $8 million in 2001.

Red. Diamonds that are certified as "red" are so rare that most diamond dealers have never seen one! Blue is the next rarest color. Blue diamonds are almost exclusively mined in Australia and South Africa.

Well, I am NOW a "diamond person"!  Definitely would love having one of those Fancy Blue or Green Diamonds!