The most popular cuts are heart, marquise, oval, pear, princess, round, trillion, and emerald cuts. The shape has an impact on how much the diamond sparkles, but the actual cutting itself - when the diamond cutter actually cuts the diamond into a particular shape - also matters a great deal. If the diamond is poorly cut, it will lose its sparkle.

However, in the diamond industry, the cut of a diamond doesn't refer to its shape at all. Instead, this is a reference to the stone's depth, width, brilliance, durability, clarity, and other aspects of the diamond. Common cutting problems include a missing or off center culet, misalignment, a diamond that is too thick or too thin, cracks, or broken culets.

When shopping for a diamond, you should of course choose the shape that you like the best, but then look at several different diamonds of that shape to find the one with the best cut - the one that sparkles the most, in all types of lighting.

Diamond Brands and What They Mean

Diamonds are one of the few products that simply cannot be 'branded'. Even though there are different cuts, different grades, and different values placed on each and every diamond in existence, no diamond is any specific brand - just as gold is not a specific brand.

Branding is actually based on who owns the diamond. For instance, if DeBeers owns the diamond, it is a DeBeers Diamond - but it is still just a diamond. If the diamond was cut by a specific well known cutter, then it might be branded in that way as well - but it usually isn't. It is still branded based on who owns it at the time. So basically, when it comes down to it - diamond brands mean absolutely nothing at all.

Do not allow a jeweller to try to talk you into paying an exorbitant price on a diamond because it is a specific brand. This is a bit of trickery used by unscrupulous jewellers when they know that they are dealing with people who don't know much about diamonds. Remember that diamonds are not actually branded - unless Mother Nature has her own brand!