A diamond has three basic parts which are the crown, the girdle and the pavilion. Each is faceted differently but in the end, they compliment the whole diamond and produce the best possible sparkle. You want the facets to be of excellent symmetry.



When buying a diamond, you need to know about the four C's which are cut, color, carat (weight) and clarity.

The cuts which make up the facets are what bring out the best in a diamond or the worst in some cases. The cuts cause the fire or brilliance of a stone to be brought out, which is all done by hand. When a stone that has a pavilion that is too deep or a crown that is too shallow, then the light will be reflected everywhere except the direction you want it to and make the stone look dim. You want an idea cut.

Stones come in many different cut varieties. There are many shapes other than round that can be cut. There are square, marquise, trilliants, oval, pear etc... The list goes on and these are all considered to be fancy cut stones. These are a little more unusual, for those that want something unique and not the traditional style stone.

The clarity of each diamond is measured by the amount of inclusions it has or has not. The difference between inclusions and blemishes is that an inclusion is an internal flaw and a blemish is external which is on the surface. The grade of clarity that you should pay attention to are flawless (FL), internally flawless (IF), Very very slightly included one and two (VVS1 & VVS2), Very slightly included one & two (VS1 & VS2) and you can stretch to slightly included one, two and three (SI 1,2&3) which are not too bad most of the time.

Depending on where the inclusions are within a stone and depending on the types of inclusions there are, if they are blemishes or inside the stone, it can effect how the light is reflected within the stone and back out. Sometimes inclusions can be beneficial though, if you go to insure your stone, the inclusions can act like a finger print to which you can ID it.

The ideal color for a colorless stone is classed as a "D", which means there is no tints or hues and it is absolutely white, D, E & F are the most ideal colorless diamonds, G, H, I and J are tinted slightly and anywhere beyond that and you are looking at a yellow diamond and going into brown as you move along the chart to Z.

When dealing with carat (weight), bigger is not always better, you have to take into consideration an important factor. For example, if you are looking at a 1.25ct diamond next to a 1.0ct diamond and they both cost the same price and are the same color but the cut on the larger 1.25ct stone is not ideal for the light to reflect as I wrote above in the "cut" section, then the smaller carat would be a better option because it will catch your eye better as it creates the "fire" look from the light that reflects out. You'll be aiming for very good to excellent cut and remember, size doesn't always matter.

Another alternative stone type to consider is a lab enhanced stone and in actuality, lab created diamonds are exactly the same as a natural diamonds, with the same elements and structure with the only difference being where the diamond is formed. Lab diamonds are grown under controlled conditions. They can have great quality, cost less and are valued and graded the same way a natural diamond is plus you can get lab reports for them too. The most important factor though, when you are buying a diamond, is that you like it. Not because on paper it ticks all the right boxes but because you can see yourself wearing it everyday and not growing tired of looking it.

I hope this information is a help to you and your quest for buying a diamond. Thank you for the time you took to read this article.