Diamond Color

What you should know about a diamonds color

When jewelers speak of a diamond's color they are usually referring to the presence or absence of color in white diamonds. Color is a result of the composition of the diamond, and it never changes over time.

Because a colorless diamond, like a clear window, allows more light to pass through it than a colored diamond, colorless diamonds emit more sparkle and fire. The formation process of a diamond ensures that only a few, rare diamonds are truly colorless. Thus the whiter a diamond's color, the greater its value.

(Note that fancy color diamonds do not follow this rule. These diamonds, which are very rare and very expensive, can be any color from blue to green to bright yellow. They are actually more valuable for their color.)

Color chart for Diamond Grading

America has gone the furthest towards a universal color grading system. The standard devised by the well-known Gemological Institute of America, or otherwise known as "GIA," has become the most widespread standard used for grading diamonds for color. The steps of the system represent from colorless to yellow: D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z. The top grade is coded as D, or completely white. At Sawyer Jewelers we feel the need to carry no less than a J in color and recommend no less than I in color if you are setting the diamond in a whit gold mounting.

Diamonds from colorless, or D color, to those that are yellow or yellowish brown are grouped into the diamond color scale

Fancy Color

It is often surprising to learn that diamonds also occur by rare accidents of Colored Diamonds. nature in shades of pink, blue, green, amber, or even red. These rarely occurring colors are referred to as fancies and are evaluated by a different set of color standards. These standards take into consideration various factors such as hue and saturation. Fancy colored diamonds are the most expensive because of their extreme rarity. Some fancy colors can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for diamonds of one carat or less!

The physical conditions necessary to color a diamond naturally occur very seldom, making natural color diamonds extremely rare. For every natural color diamond, there are 10,000 colorless ones that have made the trip from the earth’s depths to its surface. It is this entirely natural process of geographical formation which ensures that each natural color diamond is one of a kind.

The formation of natural color diamonds is a process that requires the presence of additional trace elements and distortions to the typical diamond crystal. During the creation of a diamond, if an element interacts with its carbon atoms, the color can change. Natural radiation and pressure on a diamond’s structure can also intensify its color

Fluorescence

Fluorescence is not directly related to a diamond’s color. This separate characteristic refers to the diamond’s ability to fluoresce under ultraviolet (UV) light. Our sun emits some UV light, but it is usually not great enough to detect fluorescence. The most common source of UV is a black light (like at a dance club) when exposed to UV light, many diamonds will give off a distinctive glowing blue coloration. Although fluorescence may be displayed in various colors, blue is the most common in diamonds. The fluorescence of a diamond is defined by its intensity as either None, Faint, Medium, Strong, or Very Strong. Although fluorescence is a characteristic that can be measured, it is seldom an issue when selecting a diamond.