The first thing people look for in diamond quality is color. The scale, from the best color D to the worst color Z, is easy to understand, and most salespeople will immediately refer to a color grade when showing diamonds.Color is the natural body color visible in a diamond and is the one C determined completely by nature, not man. As a rule, the closer a diamond is to colorless, the more valuable and beautiful it is.
Color Grades
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diamond color table
D: Absolutely colorless. The highest color grade.
E: Colorless. Only minute traces of color can be detected by an expert gemologist.
F: Colorless. Slight color detected by an expert gemologist, but still considered a "colorless" grade.
G-H: Near-colorless. Color noticeable when compared to diamonds of better grades, but these grades offer excellent value.
I-J: Near-colorless. Color slightly detectable.
Diamonds graded better than H are colorless or near-colorless and their color is typically
undetectable to the unaided eye. I and J colors usually have faint yellow color, especially
if you place them into white gold or platinum.
Diamond Prism
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Acting as a prism, a diamond can divide light into a spectrum of colors and reflect this light
as colorful flashes called fire. Just as when looking through colored glass, color in a diamond
will act as a filter, and will diminish the spectrum of color emitted. The less color in a diamond,
the more colorful the fire, and the better the color grade.
Note: Elsa Rings also carries fancy-yellow colored diamonds. These diamonds are graded on a
different color scale than white diamonds. Since the scale above ranges from the best to the
worst quality in a white diamond, the yellow color in fancy-yellow diamonds cannot be found on
this scale.
Fancy Yellow Colored Diamonds
Buyer Beware
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Words of caution; lower color diamonds are often made to seem to be superior quality by
salespeople by focusing on the clarity - meaning the imperfections in a diamond. It is always
advisable to get the highest color you can afford, with a combination of Si1 or Si2 clarity diamond.
Of course, of all the C's, CUT is the most important- releasing the brilliance of the diamond.
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