The Four C’s

Choosing the diamond for your engagement is the single-most emotionally charged purchase you will make in a lifetime, even more than a home! It is important that you understand what you are buying, to further enhance the experience. The 4-C’s; Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat Weight are factors that will help you to make an intelligent choice with confidence.

Cut, color, and clarity are quality or rarity factors. Though some aspects of quality seem subtle, they may have a major impact on value. Carat weight is a value factor. When making a purchase, a consumer must balance the three quality factors with size to obtain the best value within their budget.

For example, given a specific budget:

rarer quality = a smaller size
or
lesser quality = larger size

Carat

A carat is the universal measure of weight for a diamond. It’s the easiest of the 4Cs to determine, but two diamonds of equal size can have very different values, because the quality is still determined by the color, clarity and cut.

Larger diamonds are found relatively infrequently in nature, which makes them more valuable than smaller sizes.

Did you know that fewer than one percent of women will ever own a diamond weighing one or more carats?

Clarity

Clarity is an indication of a diamond’s purity. In all diamonds, except the most rare, tiny traces of minerals, gasses, or other elements were trapped inside during the crystallization process. These are called inclusions, but are more like birthmarks. They may look like tiny crystals, clouds, or feathers and they’re what make each diamond different and unique.

Many of these birthmarks are not visible to the naked eye. The clarity of a diamond is graded by how many, how big and how visible the inclusions are. The fewer and smaller the inclusions, the more rare and valuable the diamond. Less than 1% of all diamonds ever found have had no inclusions and can be called flawless (FL) or internally flawless (IF).

The following is the GIA Diamond clarity-scale:

FL-Flawless

These stones have no imperfections inside or on the outside of the stone under the magnification of a loupe of 10 power.

IF-Internally Flawless

These stones have no inclusions under a loupe with a 10 power magnification.

VVS1,VVS2-Very Very Slightly Imperfect

These stones have very small inclusions which are very difficult to see under a loupe with a 10 power magnification.

VS1,VS2-Very Slightly Imperfect

These stones have small inclusions which are slightly difficult to difficult to see under a loupe with a 10 power magnification.

SI1,SI2-Slightly Imperfect

These stones have inclusions which are fairly easy to see under a loupe with a 10 power magnification, or visible to the naked eye.

I1,I2,I3-Imperfect

These stones have inclusions which range from eye visible to very easily seen to the naked eye.

Color

Definition

The amount or presence of body color in a diamond.

Diamonds come in all colors of the rainbow, even more shades than any colored gemstone. The most rare diamond colors are red, pink, green, and blue. Diamonds that display enough of a hue, or nuance of color to be desirable, are called fancy-colored diamonds.

The absence of color in diamonds is most rare and highly prized. Most diamonds mined in nature have traces of yellow, some brown or gray. Color is caused in diamonds by minute traces of other elements, such as nitrogen = yellow and boron = blue.

Color is an important factor to beauty, rarity and value because it is something a consumer can see without the aid of equipment. The range of color most often represented and sold in jewelry stores are:

GIA grades D – J

The colorless to the near colorless ranges.

Color and its Relation to Value

Color is an important factor in the purchase of a diamond and can effect the price by 5 – 20% on each increment of the diamond grading scale. Since it is a factor a consumer can see, careful examination of each diamond under consideration is advised. This is especially true when considering a fancy-shaped diamond. For example, an emerald shaped diamond reveals the body color and clarity much more than other shapes, where even a slight trace of color may be easily discerned.

Cut

Definition

In its rough state, a diamond’s beauty is well concealed. Through cutting, the magnificent optical beauty of a diamond is revealed. A diamond cutter’s challenge is to balance beauty with weight retention from the rough diamond crystal. In the best-case scenario, approximately 50% of the weight is lost from the original crystal in the cutting process.

Because size is important to many consumers, often cutters sacrifice diamond beauty in order to save weight, maximizing the size of the finished diamond. Note that cut is also referred to as make.

Shapes

When the term “cut” is mentioned, most consumers think of shape. But, shape and cut are different. Diamonds are cut and fashioned in different shapes, including round brilliant, pear, oval, marquise, emerald cut (rectangular), heart, and triangle.

The most popular shape is the round brilliant. The other shapes are referred to as fancy-shapes.

Round brilliant diamonds retain less weight from the rough diamond crystal and are generally more valuable than fancy-shaped diamonds.

Optical Beauty

The way a diamond reflects and refracts light is dazzling to the beholder. There are four factors that determine the optical beauty of a diamond: luster, brilliance, dispersion, and scintillation.

Luster

The quantity and quality of light reflecting from the surfaces of a diamond.

Brilliance

The amount of white light returned to the eye from the diamond.

Dispersion

The amount of rainbow colors returned to the eye from within the diamond.

Scintillation

The sparkle, which is the combination luster, brilliance and dispersion when there is movement by the wearer or light source.

Ideal Cut

A diamond cut to optimal proportions, with optimal polish and symmetry, with the most weight loss to produce maximum luster, brilliance, dispersion, and scintillation. Diamonds cut to this standard are the most valuable, with only 5% of the round brilliant diamonds on the market cut to this standard.

Well-Cut

Diamonds that have very good optical beauty that fall just outside of the parameters of Ideal Cut diamond. These diamonds are priced less than Ideal cuts because they are not as rare.

Deep Cut

This diamond will appear smaller than it weighs because it’s weight is retained in the depth. It is cut with a deep pavilion (bottom of the diamond) that does not reflect light back through the crown (top of the diamond). Light leaks out the pavilion producing a dark appearing diamond that lacks beauty. These diamonds are sometimes called nailheads due to their dark, face-up appearance.

Shallow Cut

Diamonds that are cut with shallow pavilions that do not reflect light back through their crown. The light leaks out from the pavilion, producing a washed-out or watery appearance that is not beautiful. Weight is retained in the diameter, making the diamonds appear larger than they weight. These diamonds are sometimes called fisheyes, due to unsightly reflections in the crown area.

Bow-Tie

Effect dark area in the center of some fancy-shaped diamonds. A large bow-tie in the center of a fancy shaped diamond detracts from beauty and lowers the value.