Diamond Color
What is Diamond Color?
Diamonds are known to be completely transparent and clear. However, they often have remains of non-carbon elements that contribute to a slight tinge of color in them. Being one of the 4Cs, the color is an indication of quality, rarity, and value. Diamond color, in fact, means the lack of color, with colorless being the most valuable.
The most common colors found in diamonds are yellow, brown, and grey because the most frequent impurities encountered hold these colors. Then these diamonds are classified in compliance with the diamond color scale, being assigned letter grades from D-Z according to the color, hue, tone, and saturation.
The first part of the color is the gem's hue, which is the gem's true color like blue, yellow, pink, or green. Secondly, the tone also affects the scope of color; how light or dark the color is. The third component to the color is saturation, which is the intensity of color. These 3 elements of the color are a lot less relevant for colorless diamonds.
The Tinge
Diamonds in the colorless to faint colored categories can have a mix of yellow, brown, and grey colors. Golden Eiffel only offer diamonds in these categories with yellow tinge, because brown and grey hues typically dull the appearance of colorless to faint colored diamonds.
The International Color Scale
The GIA developed its own GIA Color Scale to provide uniformity in color grading for the diamond industry. There was no former standard for rating color in diamonds; traders would previously use ambiguous terms such as white, white blue, AAAA, and so on. To address this, The Color Scale is made to be of the alphabetical letters D-Z, with D being fully colorless and Z means having palpable color.
The process of assessing diamond color includes putting the stone face down on a piece of pristine white paper with special equipment before being judged a certain color by a board of 5 GIA diamond experts. Each of these experts then compare the stone in question to master stones of each color and decide on a color grade whose master stone is the most identical to the gem being evaluated. If the 5 of them do not come to a unanimous decision, the stone is then run through more rigorous tests to determine the color more accurately. By virtue of this stringent procedure, GIA has successfully developed a diamond color scale that has become the go-to scale for everybody in the diamond market.
Naming Conventions
The GIA Color Scale is comprised of the alphabetical letters D-Z. The decision to choose D as the foremost letter comes from the intent to avoid confusion with the preceding naming conventions, considering one of the most famous but obscure terms used in the past for color grading include: AAA, AA, A, B, and so on.
Diamond Color Grading
Golden Eiffel exclusively offers colorless and near colorless diamonds, with special cases of some faint colored diamonds upon request. This is done to ensure we carry only the best diamonds that is of value in terms of color. The striking but refined appearance on top of the rarity of colorless diamonds presents the opportunity of owning top-of-the-line diamond jewelry, while near colorless and some faint colored diamonds are famed for their bang-for-buck.
Colorless Diamonds
When looking at diamonds of the same color grade, the color difference can be indiscernible even to the most seasoned jewelers sometimes. However, subtle contrast of colors suggests the difference in quality and price.
Diamonds that score D, E, or F on the color scale is considered to be colorless as distinctions between them cannot be consistently perceived when set on white gold jewelry. Few experts can tell the difference between D and F colors occasionally, but consumers cannot separate one from the other as none of them have undesirable yellow or brown hue in them. These diamonds are priced the highest among the various color grades, but meaningful price disparity still exists between grades within.
Near Colorless Diamonds
Diamonds of G to J colors are grouped into the near colorless category. This category of diamonds lends itself to the slight tint of yellow or brown hue that can be found upon close inspection, giving them warmth. G color diamonds are the most popular choice in the category due to it lacking the most color compared to the other near colorless diamonds, while retaining the great value of near colorless diamond prices.
From H color on, the slight hint of color can be apparent to the naked eye if looked at very closely. I and J color have slightly more yellow or brown tinge to them in sequence. That being said, most consumers would not be able to tell the tint at a glance unless compared to colorless diamonds.
Faintly Colored Diamonds
K, L, and M colored diamonds are categorized as faintly colored diamonds. Slight yellow or brown tint is evident in these diamonds, which makes them popular among people who like moderate warmth to go with their diamonds. Since diamonds of this kind is a lot less pricey, the demand is progressing upwards with it, especially considering that customers like the surprising hint of color in their diamonds.
D Purely colorless and icy white. The very best color grade -- signifies utmost scarcity and value.
E Colorless with minute traces of color observable only by experts. An exquisite, great quality diamond.
F Colorless with slight color detectable by experts. A great quality diamond.
G Near colorless with noticeable tinge when compared to colorless diamonds. Excellent value.
H Near colorless with tangible color when compared to higher grade diamonds. Great value.
I Near colorless with minor noticeable tinge especially when compared to higher colored diamonds. Great value.
J Near colorless with slightly perceptible color. Good value diamond.
K Faintly colored with noticeable color. Good value diamond.
Fancy-Colored Diamonds
Regular diamond colors like yellow and brown are most often graded within the D-Z color scale. However, some yellow and brown diamonds contain color of a magnitude that lands outside of the GIA color scale. These diamonds are subsequently categorized as fancy-colored diamonds along with diamonds containing the colors pink, green, blue, orange, and other alike.
Fancy-colored diamonds have their own color scale and do not use the standard D-Z color range. Despite these being diamonds with incredible rarity, they do come in all sorts of colors from the rainbow. For example, fancy-colored diamonds exist in white, though they would generally look white and duller as compared to colorless diamonds that look transparent and full of sparkle.
Broadly talking, fancy-colored diamonds are more expensive than their colorless counterparts due to their rarity. Still, some fancy-colored diamonds like black and white diamonds are relatively inexpensive when measured against colorless ones. Golden Eiffel offers fancy-colored diamonds in our jewelry whenever we think it is appropriate and of value to our customers.
How Diamond Color Influence Price
Small disparities in color can affect the price tag of a diamond, especially so if there is perceptible color present. As mentioned above, diamonds with trace of color are more easily found compared to colorless diamonds, which affects the price.
Color discrepancy within the same color category can still affect the value of a stone by more than 10%, so in general the most popular colors are the ones at the top and bottom of each category like F, G, and J colors.
How Diamond Shape Influence Diamond Color
The shape of a diamond can influence its perceived color by either highlighting or concealing it. With color in the stone, the shape could disturb the brilliance by showing color instead of white light and the fire by virtue of reducing white light reflection.
Among all diamond shapes, round brilliant tends to hide hints of color the best. The many small facets, both real and virtual, will detract from the color perceived by the eye. On the other side, diamonds with bigger facets such as emerald, asscher, oval, and pear shapes show more color.
On the flipside, when considering a fancy-colored diamond, shapes like cushion, emerald, oval, and pear are much more common because the color would be that much notable.
How Jewelry Settings Influence Diamond Color
Jewelry settings can affect the perceived color of a diamond. Colorless and near colorless diamonds will exude more brilliance and fire when set in a white gold setting as the silver-tinted base helps hide the color further if there is any. However, diamonds with discernible faint color starting from J color and over are usually paired with traditional yellow or rose gold settings. These gold colors will settle the color in the stone, making it look like it takes some color from the precious metal.Â
How Carat Size Influence Diamond Color
Carat size has great effect on diamond color. Because color is found from within a diamond, a bigger diamond would display more color than a small one would. As carat is the general measure of how large a diamond is, the bigger the carat size is, the more color the diamond would show. For instance, when presented with 2 I color diamonds with sizes of 0.50 carat and 3 carats respectively, the presence of color would be more apparent on the 3 carat stone.
With that known, we recommend higher color grades as consumers eye bigger stones, despite potentially more discrepancy in price ranges between color grades. Above all however, it is most vital that you choose a diamond that you are pleased with at the value that you are comfortable with.