4C's Diamonds

The 4Cs of a diamond—cut, color, clarity, and carat—work together to determine its overall beauty and worth. From the precision of its cut to the brilliance of its color, each aspect is meticulously graded to ensure that every diamond shines with exceptional brilliance and quality, making it a timeless symbol of elegance and sophistication.

Diamond Cuts

What is a diamond cut grade?

The term diamond cut refers not to a diamond’s shape, but the balance of proportions achieved by the diamond cutter. Diamond cut is essentially all about how well the facets of the diamond interact with light.

A cut grade is given only to a round brilliant diamond. Being the most sought-after diamond shape, GIA has spent decades developing a system to grade the cut quality of round diamonds.

How is diamond cut measured?

A diamond’s cut is measured using an international grading system developed by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). Cut grades range from Excellent to Poor. Very good and excellent cut grades guarantee the greatest brilliance and fire.

The cut grade combines three different types of reflections:

  • Fire

    The spread of white light which appears as flashes of all the colors of the spectrum. You’re more likely to see flashes of rainbow colors in a darker, more dimly lit environment that have fewer light sources.

  • Brilliance

    The brightness created by the combination of white light reflections inside and on the surface of the stone. In order to be brilliant, a diamond requires more than just bright light return. It also needs contrast, so that the light produced by the diamond appears brighter. When the diamond is moved, it ‘scintillates’ which we explain further below.

  • Scintillation

    The flashes of light and dark, and intense sparkle a diamond emits when the diamond or its light source is moved. Scintillation is most visible in well lit environments.

Dimond Colors

What is diamond color?

Diamond color is a grading system that determines the level of color present in a diamond. In fact, color grade determines the absence of color in a diamond.

White diamonds are graded from D (colorless) to Z (light yellow), a classification scale created by the Gemological Institute of America. As you go from D – Z, the diamond will go from having an icy, colorless appearance to exhibiting a brown or yellow tint.

What diamond color is the most popular?

The most frequent diamond color we see amongst our customers is F. This is closely followed by E and G.

E and F colors are in the colorless category while G is in the near colorless category – all diamonds in the colorless and near colorless category will appear bright and white in appearance.

What diamond color grade is the best?

When it comes to diamond color grading, a colorless diamond is incredibly rare and carries a premium because of this. The higher the color grade, the less color there is present in the diamond. The lower the grade, the diamond will likely exhibit a very slight yellow or brown tint.

Similarly to most diamond characteristics, choosing your diamond color really does depend on your personal preference.

If having the highest diamond quality is important to you, we’d recommend choosing a color D, E  or F diamond that is in the colorless. These diamonds are incredibly rare, which is reflected in the premium price point of diamonds in the colorless category.

If you’d prefer to spread your budget and balance the 4 Cs of diamond quality across other elements, it would mean you could select a color grade G-J. The color difference between these grades and the colorless category is minor and not visible to the untrained eye. This would allow you to choose a diamond with a greater clarity grade or carat weight, striking a great balance between value and overall aesthetic.

Diamond Clarity

What is diamond clarity?

Selecting your diamond is not just about the clarity, but it’s a great place to start.

When diamonds are formed deep in the earth, they develop natural birthmarks on their surface and internally – slight irregularities and features that are visible to a skilled grader under 10x magnification. These are collectively known as “clarity characteristics” or “inclusions”.

What diamond clarity is most popular?

The most popular diamond clarity grade we see amongst our customers is VS1, closely followed by VVS2.

These diamond clarity grades offer the greatest value, because they cost less than the rare grades like flawless and internally flawless, but still offer an eye-clean appearance.

The grading scale begins with Flawless, Internally Flawless (FL/IF), Very Very Slightly Included (VVS1/VVS2), Very Slightly Included (VS1/VS2), Slightly Included (SI1/SI2) and finishing with Included (I1, I2 & I3).

Diamond Carats

What is diamond carat weight?

Before grams and ounces, diamonds were weighed using carobs, a long green bean with seeds inside. The beans were nearly identical in size, making them ideal for Mediterranean traders to use when weighing gemstones. One seed equalled one carob, which is likely where the term carat originates.

Carat is often confused with the size of a diamond even though it’s actually a unit that measures its weight. Today, one carat is equal to 0.2 grams.

How does diamond carat weight impact price?

Because larger diamonds are more rare, the heavier the diamond, the higher the price.

Though price increases aren’t steady—they can increase exponentially with carat weight. For example, a 1 carat diamond would be valued higher than two 0.50 carat diamonds of the same quality.

So does bigger mean better when it comes to diamonds?

Just because a diamond is bigger, doesn’t mean it’s better.

The right diamond isn’t just based on one factor but a combination of all 4 Cs (carat, cut, clarity and color). When choosing a diamond, focus on the quality that’s most important to you, then work to balance the remaining three.

What do different carat weight diamonds look like?

Carat weight size chart

While carat weight is a measure of a diamond’s weight, and not its size, it is a consistent indicator of how large a diamond will look, when viewed from the top. Play around with our carat weight widget below to see how different carat weights look in different shapes and styles.

Choosing a fancy shape will often provide you with better value than choosing a much sought-after round diamond.

The chart below shows the prices of a one carat G colour grade, VS2 clarity grade diamond in various shapes. These prices will increase on average should you increase the quality grades of the diamond and decrease on average should you decrease the quality grades of the diamond.