Education

The 4Cs Of Diamonds

This short information explains the 4Cs of Diamonds - cut, color, clarity, and carat weight - the most important characteristics to understand when making a diamond purchase.

Diamond Cut refers to two important aspects of the diamond. First, "cut" is used to describe the shape of the diamond, whether it's pears, rose, round, princess, radiant, marquise or any of the other commonly seen shapes. 

OVAL

  ROUND       CUSHION       HEART       MARQUISE       OVAL         PEAR        SQUARE        TRILLION

The second usage is how the diamond is physically cut. Second "cut" gives the diamond its brilliance and sparkle – how light is reflected, dispersed and scintillated. Unlike color and clarity, there is not a single grade that defines it. Furthermore, two diamonds equal in carat weight, color and clarity can differ in appearance and value because of differences in cut quality.

Diamond Colors are naturally found in a wide range like White, Fancy, Yellow, Black, Red, Grey, Brown, Dark Brown, Light Yellow, Transparent, Semi Transparent, Orange. Choosing a diamond color is a personal preference.  

The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) uses a 12‐letter alphabetical scale of D to Z as per below information. Diamond color is the hue of a diamond based on the GIA’s color scale, which grades the diamond’s color on a spectrum of D (colorless) to Z (light yellow hue). Diamond color is actually a lack thereof. The absence of color is what determines both its grade and value, as well as has a significant impact on its appearance. Diamond color grade is typically determined with the diamond face down and the culet facing up set against a pure white surface, following a grading scale of D (colorless) to Z (faint yellow).

Diamond Clarity refers to the degree to which these imperfections are present because they are formed deep within the earth, under extreme heat and pressure. 

The GIA Diamond Clarity Grade scale has five main categories of clarity characteristics with 11 grades in all.

The grading scale starts from Flawless / Internally Flawless (FL/IF), Very Very Slightly Included (VVS1/VVS2), Very Slightly Included (VS1/VS2), Slightly Included (SI1/SI2) to Included (I1, I2 and I3).

Diamond Carat simply denotes a measuring scale where each 1 carat = 0.2 grams. As the carat weight increases, so does the size of a diamond and price too. Carat Weight considers two factors - Diamond's Top Diameter & Diamond's Cut Grade.

Two diamonds of equal carat weight can have very different costs based on other factors (such as Cut, Color, and Clarity).