What is the most important factor when you buy diamonds? Color or Clarity?
Which C’s is more imporatant while we grading and evaluating diamonds?
4 C’s are enough parameters to evaluate the right price for buying any diamonds?
If you want answer for the above mention questions, you have to read through the end of this blog. Which can change your eye sight completely to look upon any diamonds in future.
Is Clarity or Color More Important When Buying a Diamond?
Color and Clarity are two of the most important diamond quality characteristics. But is one of the more important than the other when choosing a diamond?
How Color Affects Diamond Appearance
Diamond color is graded on a letter scale, with the top grade being D and indicating a perfectly colorless diamond.
The lower a diamond’s color grade, the more tinted the stone looks.
Diamonds whose color is graded K or lower have a slight yellow coloring, which becomes more noticeable the lower you go down the color scale.
How Clarity Impacts Look of a Diamond
Clarity refers to how many internal flaws (inclusions) and surface imperfections a diamond has and how visible they are under magnification or with the naked eye.
The top clarity grade, FL (Flawless), is assigned to diamonds that have no visible inclusions even when looked at with a 10x loupe.
The lower a stone’s clarity grade, the more likely you are to see imperfections such as black spots or lines within the diamond.
Clarity & Color is more than enough?
First, let us understand, What is Diamond’s Brilliance?
First of all, let us check what is Diamond’s Brilliance? which is also known as “Luster” as well.
Brilliance is the term generally used to describe white light return, which is the foundation of a diamond’s brightness and sparkle. Diamond’s sparkle isn’t just one thing — it’s actually a combination of three different components: fire, brilliance, and scintillation.
Diamonds don’t come out of the earth looking amazing. Instead, they actually have a rough, opaque “skin” that is eventually removed through polishing and cutting. This diamond cutting and polish process help to discover diamond brilliance.
Does Color or Clarity Affect Diamond Brilliance More?
Brilliance is perhaps the most important characteristic of a diamond, and its intensity depends mainly on the stone’s CUT. Color and clarity do not affect brilliance directly, but they can contribute to its visual effect.
Although diamond color does not itself increase or diminish brilliance, more colorless stones look whiter and brighter where else, lower color grade diamonds that have stronger yellow tints may look darker.
When it comes to clarity, an absence of flaws definitely adds to the impression that the stone is sparkling clean, same way visible imperfections can make a diamond look a bit included, but sometimes big and heavy flaws do change significantly the way the stone reflects light so as to affect its brilliance.
Cut and polish are essential for diamond brilliance
A Diamond’s Cut can make — or break — its brilliance. When a diamond is mined, a professional diamond cutter evaluates it to determine the best cut to maximize its yield and natural properties. Together with the size of the diamond, he also has to contribute his expertise to give the best possible proportions and polish to that diamond, if the diamond is not properly cut and polish, though it is a VVS clarity graded diamond or E – F color diamond will not show the luster, that brilliance for which the customer buys that particular diamond. Brilliance is the Life and Shine of the diamond.
A brilliant-cut diamond has more facets and will reflect more light and (naturally) have more brilliance. So cutter always tries to get the brilliant-cut in the first preference.
Scintillation is a product of movement, meaning that either the diamond, light or viewer must be in motion to see it. For this to happen there must be enough structural contrast in the facets to bounce light around.
Cut and polish are where these effects are formed and you’ll want excellent polish, finish, and cut to get the most brilliance. Diamonds that have all three excellent are considered Triple Excellent or Triple X diamonds. for an eg.: an excellent cut diamond can have a lower color (G-H) or clarity (SI1-SI2) and still look quite beautiful due to its superior ability to create sparkle and brilliance.
The cut refers to the proportions, finish, symmetry, and polish of the diamonds. These factors determine the intensity and brilliance of a diamond, so this way CUT is also responsible to give shine and brilliance to the diamonds.
Conclusion
That said, while buying a diamond, please follow all the 4 C’s ie, Cut, Clarity, Color, and Carat. But these are not enough parameters. There is also one more thing that is important for which we buy these gem-quality stones is Diamond’s BRILLIANCE or LUSTER.
After all, diamond is forever and you wouldn’t want to buy a diamond by focusing only on any one aspect, it should be the best possible combinations of all the parameter, but for us, the Luster and Brilliance score the most!!
