Diamond Colour

When it comes to gemstones, Diamond is the queen. Diamonds are available in a variety of colours, which determine their value. It is the second important factor among the 4C’s - Cut, Color, Clarity and Carat Weight. While detecting the colour of the diamond, face down orientation is perfect since brightness and fire are minimized in this position, making the valuation easier.

When we take a closer look at diamonds, there are two types- White diamonds and Colored diamonds. Both these diamonds have separate grading scales.

White Diamonds

Colourless diamonds are considered as the most valuable, whereas those with a noticeable colour are less valuable. The science behind this grading is that diamonds with lesser body colour will reflect their true colour, thus appearing perfectly shiny. The chart below represents different grades of diamonds based on their colour. The lower you go in the chart, the lower the value of the diamond.

The Gemological Institute of America grades diamonds on a scale of D to Z, where D represents the colourless ones, and Z represents diamonds of a lighter shade, that is, brown or pale yellow. This D-Z range is collectively known as White Diamond even though H and G are coloured diamonds, having varying shades of colour.

Here the range G-J represents near colourless diamonds and K represents faint coloured diamonds.

When we take a further look at this, D-F consists of the rarest and most perfect diamonds making them the most expensive ones as well. G-J has no so detectable colour making them less valuable than the D-F range.

The important thing to remember here is that there are good chances of mistakes happening while valuing white diamonds. It could be because of the lighting under which the experts look at the gem or because of the mounting materials used. Hence it is always best to choose an experienced expert while examining the colour of the diamond.

Coloured Diamonds

Coloured diamonds are also equally rare and valuable as the colourless ones. A majority of the most valuable diamonds in the world, in fact, belong to this range. These are available in a variety of colours like blue, pink, purple, red, etc.

These are 100% natural and are found to be only one in 10,000 diamonds. Here the colour intensity is the important factor to be considered. The more intense the colour, the costlier the diamond is. The grading process is highly complex, and it takes a specialist to do the job.

Coloured diamonds are graded as fancy light, fancy, fancy intense, fancy vivid, fancy dark and fancy deep depending on the colour intensity. Fancy light ones have a lighter tone and low saturation.

The GIA ranks these diamonds based on colour depth. Reddish diamonds are the most expensive. Pink ones are more desirable than purple, orange and grey coloured ones. Blue sapphires are also costly because of their rare availability. In green diamonds, the hue is confined to the surface, so they are cut in such a way that the natural rough around the girdle is retained maximum.

Brown diamonds are common and are medium-priced. Then come the yellow diamonds, which are also popular because of their comparatively lower price. White fancy diamonds are also available in the markets. It has a milky white shade which is similar to White diamonds.

These are the things to be considered while valuing the colour of a diamond before buying it. So, get ready to buy diamonds for your loved ones.