Which Diamond Is Best?

Diamonds are incredibly precious rocks, and they can make for excellent investments due to their increased security compared to other common investment options. Although market trends and volatility should not be ignored, the depreciation in the value of some gems is negligible. 

When diamond mines around the world are depleted, there will be less supply to meet rising demand, keeping the price of diamonds high. Find your perfect diamond ring at Temple & Grace Perth, offering a wide range of solitaire engagement rings for women and unique options for men.

While there are many different kinds of diamonds, huge, flawless, colourless, or fancy-coloured diamonds are extremely uncommon. These are gems suitable for long-term investment. The 4Cs—cut, colour, carat, and clarity—define the most valuable uncommon rocks, which are diamonds. 

Cut

The cut is very important since it determines how brilliant and fiery the stone will be. It has a significant impact on price, aesthetics, and depreciation. Grades for diamonds range from "Outstanding" to "Poor." While shopping for investment diamonds, just stay away from the ones rated Fair or Poor. The highest possible rating is "excellent," while "Very Excellent" and "Good" are both satisfactory.

Colour

Colourless diamonds are the most desirable. The colour scale goes from D (for colourless) to Z (for several colours), with D being an absolutely flawless diamond. You should put your money anywhere between D and H. The largest and quickest return is on a D grade, which also has the highest value.

The rarity of fancy colour diamonds makes them worthwhile investments, while the other 3Cs should not be overlooked. White diamonds are more common since colourless diamonds are so difficult to come by. Diamonds with strong exotic colours are excellent financial investments because of their great value. They are ranked from most vivid to least, from deepest to lightest, from most intense to least, and so on. Light, Extremely Light, and Faint diamonds are considered to be of poor quality. Hence their value reflects this.

The diamonds in this set are not spectacular cuts because of their colour. The rarer and more expensive the fancy colour, the higher its price. Below is the list in descending order of importance:

Red Diamonds

Experts agree that red diamonds, especially those with no added colour, are the rarest of all diamond colours. The per-carat cost is almost 400% greater than that of other naturally coloured diamonds because of how uncommon they are.

A red diamond is a diamond that is coloured red but has the same chemical composition and physical attributes as a colourless diamond. When the atoms that are forming a diamond are compressed while they are gliding, the resulting colour is red.

Red diamonds, however, are defined by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) as being entirely red. This means that the formation of red diamonds remains a mystery to specialists. It is still mysterious and uncommon.

Blue Diamonds

A blue diamond is a genuine, all-natural diamond that has boron incorporated into its carbon structure, giving it a distinctive blue hue. Blue diamonds typically have a secondary colouration, such as violet, grey, or green, but can be any shade of blue. Natural blue diamonds are unearthed deep inside the soil and are not dyed or modified in any way to achieve their stunning appearance.

Pink Diamonds

Pink diamonds are a mystery to gemologists because their colouration mechanism is not well understood. Pink diamonds are the only members of the Pink colour Diamond family that don't get their colour from trace amounts of another element.

The origin of the diamond's unusual colour has been the subject of many speculations. Pink diamonds are thought to get their colour from a combination of factors, including the intense pressure they endured during production and a possible seismic shock that altered the stone's molecular structure.

The origin of the pink diamond's colour is a mystery, but nonetheless, this gem provides a stunning option for jewellery.

Yellow Diamonds

White diamonds use a D-to-Z diamond colour scale. When the letter approaches Z, the diamond becomes less colourless and takes on a somewhat yellowish tone, becoming a very light yellow colour. Because of this, the value of a diamond drops as it gets closer to the letter Z.

However, the price climbs again, and the diamond is called a yellow diamond once it "continues on the colour scale" past a specific point where the colour no longer looks like a faded yellow but rather a lovely yellow shade.

Natural fancy colour diamonds, of which yellow is one, are a rare and unique subset. Because of impurities (a natural occurrence), typical diamonds change colour as they form, making them everything from regular.

Green diamonds receive their colour from radiation, blue diamonds get their colour from boron, and yellow diamonds get their colour from nitrogen molecules that absorb blue light. Orange diamonds get their colour from the same impurities.

Are Yellow Diamonds Rare?

Coloured diamonds that occur in nature are extremely rare. Natural-coloured diamonds are extremely rare, accounting for only one in every 10,000 carats. Pinks, purples, blues, greens, oranges, and yellows shine brightest among the spectrum of colours, but there are many more to explore.

Yellow diamonds are the most frequent type of colour diamond. Up to 60% of all coloured diamonds are thought to be of this type. To put that into context, just about 1 in every 16,500 carats mined is a yellow diamond, making them extremely uncommon.

Carat

The value of white diamonds increases with their size. White diamonds of any size tend to be less valuable than diamonds of unusual colour because of their abundance. This aspect greatly affects the diamond's market value and investment potential.

Clarity

Buying a diamond for jewellery is not as concerned with clarity as buying a diamond for investment purposes. The defects are often unseen by the human eye but have a major impact on the price. Flawless, Internally Flawless, Very, Very Slightly Included, and Included are the four levels of clarity grading. The highest values and fastest rates of appreciation can be found in the first two classes, Flawless and Internally Flawless.

Shape And Certification

Diamonds that have been independently certified are the most valuable investments, regardless of whether they are round, oval, square, or brilliant in shape.

How To Choose A Diamond

 When compared to a jewellery store, where your options are far more limited, the sheer number of diamonds available online might make it feel impossible to choose the perfect one. Think about the following diamond-buying steps. While your hunt for the perfect diamond will be different from everybody else's, this can serve as a guide.

• First, you need to find out what sort of diamond the recipient likes best. A round or princess cut is a safe bet if you don't know and can't find out.
• Consider the receiver while deciding on a minimum carat weight. Even the most gorgeous half-carat diamond would be a letdown if the intended recipient had their heart set on a one-carat stone.
• When looking for a diamond that meets your budget, it's best to start with the highest quality option available in the shape and carat weight minimums you determined in steps 1 and 2.
  • Reduce Clarity first. You should settle for nothing less than VS2 before making any more concessions.
  • The next step is to tone down the Color. Go as low as H before you start giving in elsewhere.
  • At last, we can reduce the Cut. Before lowering your standards in any other way, you can settle for Very Good in round diamonds and Good in fancy shapes.
  • Consider reducing the carat weight of the diamonds that still meet your updated criteria but are just outside of your budget. Visually distinguishing a carat weight discrepancy of 10% or less will be quite challenging.
• If you find yourself still overspending after using the aforementioned measures, try starting over with lower limits.
  • Reduce Clarity some more first. Drop to the SI1 level.
  • Reduce Color next. Down to the letter J if you must. K is a safe enough grade to drop to if you know the diamond will be set in yellow gold.
  • At last, we can lower the Cut. Reduce to Good for regular diamonds and Fair for fancy cuts.
• If you're still overspending, what you do next will be determined by how much flexibility you have in your budget.
  • You may want to settle with SI2 clarity if the diamond you're after weighs less than one carat.
  • Diamonds of L-M colour grades can be worn with a yellow-gold setting if they are brilliant cut and weigh less than 1.50 carats.
  • You might go for a Fair cut round or fancy shape if you're mostly concerned with size.
  • If you're still way off-budget, you have two options: either spend more money or aim for a smaller minimum carat weight.

More Diamond Buying Advice

The following is a summary of advice on making purchases that can be found throughout the Lumera Diamond Education Guide. You can follow these suggestions on your own or in addition to the detailed instructions given above.

Shape Buying Tips

Most persons with a diamond preference also have a shape preference for engagement rings and other diamond gifts. If at all possible, the diamond's recipient should have some say in the purchase's shape selection, even if the buyer is responsible for determining other aspects (such as price and quality). Engagement diamonds with a fancy form fall into this category.

A round diamond is a good option unless another shape is requested. Round diamonds are the most popular because they are versatile (they may be set in any kind of ring) and classic (they never go out of style).

The length-to-breadth ratio of a fancy diamond greatly affects its overall form. The right length-to-width ratio of each diamond is displayed so that even diamonds of seemingly identical shapes can be distinguished at a glance (e.g. a narrow vs. a fat marquise or a square vs. a rectangular princess cut). If you are still unsure of what you want, try browsing for a form you like and then browsing diamonds of varying length-to-width ratios within that shape. Then, narrow your search to stones that are within around 10% of your preferred length-to-width ratio (If you've decided that an L/W ratio of 1.50 represents your ideal radiant cut diamond, then try to find one with a ratio of 1.35 to 1.65).

Carat Weight Buying Tips

Try to find diamonds that are a fraction of a carat smaller than the most common sizes. These diamonds are priced slightly lower than full-weight diamonds because they are on the cusp of the desirable weight range. A. 90-carat diamond, for instance, will normally cost less than a complete 1.00-carat diamond when comparing prices per carat. It's tough to tell them apart visually. It is possible for a diamond of lower carat weight to have the same diameter as a diamond of higher carat weight, making them appear to be the same size from above.

Diamond engagement ring recipients are notoriously picky about the cut and carat weight of their rings. Engagement diamonds typically range from 1-2 carats in weight. If your budget only allows for a diamond of less than.75 carats, one excellent option is the marquise cut, which, due to its elongated shape, makes the stone appear larger than it actually is.

Cut Buying Tips

Unlike the other three "Cs" (Carat Weight, Color, and Clarity), GIA did not create the various Cut grades currently in use. Retailers' definitions and applications of Cut ratings (such as "Great," "Very Good," "Fair," and "Bad") vary widely. A diamond dealer can use whatever criteria they like to determine what cut grade to give a stone. Some stores will use phrases like "Signature Ideal," "Ideal," and "Excellent," while others will use only "Ideal" or "Excellent" to describe all three. Be wary of making direct comparisons between the cut grades offered by different stores.

Moreover, be wary of diamond vendors who use their own cut grades in place of the GIA-assigned cut grade. In place of the GIA Cut grade, several well-known websites and businesses instead use their own, more generous Cut rating.

A poorly cut diamond would appear dull even with good clarity and colour, making the cut grade the most critical aspect in evaluating the overall appearance of a diamond. In contrast, the enhanced capacity to create sparkle and brilliance of a well-cut diamond makes even a little lesser colour (G-H) or clarity (SI1-SI2) diamond look rather attractive.

Choose a diamond with a Cut rating of Very Good or Excellent for maximum fire and sparkle or Good or better for diamonds of other shapes. To maximise the effect of the above-average Cut, it is important to select a diamond with Very Good or Excellent symmetry and polish.

For those on a tighter budget who are more concerned with carat weight than cut quality, a diamond with a Fair to Excellent cut may suffice, especially among fancy shapes. The diamond won't have the sparkle and fire of a well-cut one, but you can get a far bigger one for the same price.

Even if carat weight is your primary concern, you should not choose a poorly cut diamond. Despite the decreased price, most people view these gems as being too much of a compromise.

Since the Cut grade gives a single score that considers all of these aspects (polish, symmetry, table percentage, depth percentage, culet size, girdle width, etc.), it is the most useful grading system. It's a straightforward method but one that's crucial for assessing a diamond's quality. It's a typical blunder to analyse these aspects separately rather than relying primarily on the Cut grade, which already accounts for them. The distinct aspects of Cut should only be regarded as search refinements when comparing diamonds of the same Cut grade. Nonetheless, some broad considerations for these specific aspects are:

• Culet: Medium-sized cutlets, and smaller ones, have no discernible effect on the visual appeal of a diamond.
• Girdle: Avoid diamonds with an extremely thin girdle if you plan to put them in a ring, as they are more likely to chip. Earrings and pendants are safer against damage due to harsh contact because they are worn lower on the body. Since the sharp corners of Princess Cut diamonds are already more prone to chipping, even Very Thin girdles should be avoided. Choose a setting that will conceal the diamond's corners if you buy a Princess Cut diamond with a Very Thin girdle.
• Polish: Any polishing flaws in a diamond rated Excellent to Good will be invisible to the human eye and will not detract from the stone's overall beauty.

As diamonds rated I1 or lower in clarity already have internal imperfections visible to the human eye, the polish marks are less important and can be disregarded altogether.

Any polish grade of Good or better for diamonds under. Seventy-five carats will not change the diamond's look to the untrained eye.

Regardless of the carat weight or clarity grade, a diamond with a Bad polish should be avoided.

• Symmetry: While any of these grades is attainable in diamonds of remarkable look, symmetry should not be utilised as the major criteria in picking a diamond with a symmetry grade of Excellent to Good.

Since the very minor imperfections created by Fair or Poor symmetry (which can mimic pinpoint inclusions) would damage the otherwise flawless appearance of a diamond, symmetry is particularly critical in diamonds of VVS2 Clarity and higher.

The price of a diamond might vary by as much as 15% from one with Good Symmetry and Polish to one with Excellent Symmetry and Polish, even if the former has a far smaller effect on appearance. This price is not necessarily related to any objective change in a diamond's visual appeal but rather to the consumer's subjective valuation of "outstanding" grading.

Poor symmetry diamonds need to be avoided at all costs due to the obvious flaws they exhibit. For this reason, Temple&Grace does not carry diamonds with a symmetry grade of Poor.

Conclusion

Diamonds are safer investments. Diamonds—the rarest rocks—are valued by the 4Cs (cut, colour, carat, and clarity). Cut determines stone brightness. Colorless, flawless D-grade diamonds are best. Rare fancy-colour diamonds make great investments.

Red diamonds cost 400% more per carat. Genuine blue diamonds contain boron, while red diamonds are red. Only pink diamonds are uncoloured. Unknown origin. White diamonds lose value as D-to-Z diamond colours approach Z. Natural yellow diamonds are rare.

Coloured diamonds are 60% yellow. Odd-coloured diamonds outperform larger white diamonds. Independently certified diamonds of every shape—round, oval, square, or brilliant—are ideal investments. Start with the best form and carat weight, then lower the clarity, tone down the colour, and settle for an H grade if needed to get a diamond within your budget.

Most importantly, drop the carat weight of diamonds that meet your criterion but are somewhat outside your budget, start over with lower limitations, lower the clarity, colour, form, and carat weight, and settle for SI2 clarity if the diamond weighs less than one carat. Contact the receiver to find out their preferred diamond shape. Unlike round diamonds, fancy diamonds are length-to-width ratio-shaped. Overspending will affect your next move. Diamond engagement ring recipients are picky. Hence, look for diamonds within 10% of your preferred length-to-width ratio and a fraction of a carat below the most common sizes.

Content Summary

• Although market trends and volatility should not be ignored, the depreciation in the value of some gems is negligible.
• While there are many different kinds of diamonds, huge, flawless, colourless, or fancy-coloured diamonds are extremely uncommon.
• These are gems suitable for long-term investment.
• The 4Cs—cut, colour, carat, and clarity—define the most valuable uncommon rocks and diamonds.
• Colourless diamonds are the most desirable.
• Diamonds with strong exotic colours are excellent financial investments because of their great value.
• This means that the formation of red diamonds remains a mystery to specialists.
• The origin of the pink diamond's colour is a mystery, but this gem provides an attractive option for jewellery.
• Natural fancy colour diamonds, of which yellow is one, are a rare and unique subset.
• Yellow diamonds are the most frequent type of colour diamond.
• The value of white diamonds increases with their size.
• Buying a diamond for jewellery is more concerned with clarity than buying a diamond for investment purposes.
• While your hunt for the perfect diamond will be different from everybody else's, this can serve as a guide.
• Consider the receiver while deciding on a minimum carat weight.
• When looking for a diamond that meets your budget, it's best to start with the highest quality option available in the shape and carat weight minimums you determined in steps 1 and 2.
• Before lowering your standards in any other way, you can settle for Very Good in round diamonds and Good in fancy shapes.
• Consider reducing the carat weight of the diamonds that still meet your updated criteria but are just outside your budget.
• Reduce to Good for regular diamonds and Fair for fancy cuts.
• If you still need to spend more money, what you do next will be determined by how much flexibility you have in your budget.
• You could go for a Fair cut round or fancy shape if you're concerned with size.
• If you're still way off-budget, you have two options: spend more money or aim for a smaller minimum carat weight.
• The following is a summary of advice on making purchases found throughout the Lumera Diamond Education Guide.
• Most persons with a diamond preference also have a shape preference for engagement rings and other diamond gifts.
• If you are still trying to figure out what you want, try browsing for a form you like and then browsing diamonds of varying length-to-width ratios within that shape.
• Then, narrow your search to stones within around 10% of your preferred length-to-width ratio (If you've decided that an L/W ratio of 1.50 represents your ideal radiant cut diamond, then try to find one with a ratio of 1.35 to 1.65).
• Try to find diamonds that are a fraction of a carat smaller than the most common sizes.
• Diamond engagement ring recipients are notoriously picky about their rings' cut and carat weight.
• A diamond dealer can use whatever criteria they like to determine what cut grade to give a stone.
• A poorly cut diamond would appear dull even with good clarity and colour, making the cut grade the most critical aspect in evaluating the overall appearance of a diamond.
• Choose a diamond with a Cut rating of Very Good or Excellent for maximum fire and sparkle or Good or better for diamonds of other shapes.
• The diamond won't have the sparkle and fire of a well-cut one, but you can get a far bigger one for the same price.
• Even if carat weight is your primary concern, you should not choose a poorly cut diamond.
• Since the Cut grade gives a single score that considers all of these aspects (polish, symmetry, table percentage, depth percentage, culet size, girdle width, etc.),
• Any polishing flaws in a diamond rated Excellent to Good will be invisible to the human eye and will not detract from the stone's overall beauty.
• As diamonds rated I1 or lower in clarity already have internal imperfections visible to the human eye, the polish marks are less important and can be disregarded altogether.
• Any polish grade of Good or better for diamonds under.
• Seventy-five carats will keep the diamond's look to the untrained eye.
• Regardless of the carat weight or clarity grade, a diamond with a Bad polish should be avoided.
• The price of a diamond might vary by as much as 15% from one with Good Symmetry and Polish to one with Excellent Symmetry and Polish, even if the former has a far smaller effect on appearance.
• Poor symmetry diamonds must be avoided at all costs due to the obvious flaws they exhibit.