Diamond Colors and Nuances

Understand the diamond color grading and get what you've paid for

Photo credit: Shannon Stapleton, Reuters

You should know that even though the majority of diamonds appear colorless to your naked eye, they contain light traces of yellow or light brown when viewed under a jeweler's loupe.

Color-less and near-colorless diamonds are the most valuable.

Amazingly, a single increase in color grade (towards color-less) can boost the value of a diamond by thousands of dollars per carat.

If you want crystal or gemstone jewelry in other eye catching colors you'll have to look into Cubic Zirconia. These manmade stones are more flexible when it comes to colors.

GIA's Color Grading Scale

Photo credit: Gemological Institute of America

The GIA scale starts with D for perfectly colorless stones and gives a Z color grade to diamonds having a noticeable yellow tint. Every letter between D and Z indicate the many gradiations possible.

Today's standard color grading scale was first developed by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). Other color scales are still used in other parts of the world.

So Which Color Grading/Diamond Colors Should You Choose?

Other people prefer the pronounced yellow tints so their chosen diamond is much less expensive.

If you want a color-less diamond but don't want to break the bank, a color scale grading between I and L will be your best choice. It has a small tint of yellow but it's unnoticable to the naked eye.

Fancy Diamond Colors

Diamonds with more color than the Z shown at the color grading scale above include fancy yellow, canary yellow, purple etc. Colors such as "intense blue" is probably the most rare and treasured of fancy diamond colors and it might sell for as much as $130, 000 per carat for 1-carat stones!

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