Diamond Color Explained

By Jeff Ostroff

Diamond Color
Most diamonds range in color from clear to yellow, clear being the best. This diamond color chart shows how jewelers rate diamond color:

Most U.S. jewelry stores use the GIA letter scale. Ideally you want engagement ring diamonds that are D, E, or F in color. But your wallet determines the color grade, not you, most likely a J or a K color diamond. Most people get G, H, or I. Colors like J,K,L are more affordable. D,E,F are rare and expensive, out of range of us common folk. Don't consider M-Z, they have no business in diamond engagement rings, they belong in costume jewelry. Still some jewelry shops pawn them off on you as excellent diamonds. This is why I tell you to bring the Diamond Ring Buying Guide with you to the jeweler and refer to the color charts so the jeweler knows you researched your diamond wedding rings.

Don't Eat The Yellow Snow
Some people like yellow diamonds in the "Z" color range, referred to as fancy color diamonds, or fancy yellow diamonds. Some jewelers trick you by making a yellow diamond look white, and show the diamond on a black velvet pad or background. It sure does make the diamond look great but INSIST on seeing the stone on a white background (Even a white piece of paper). Black will make even the most yellow diamond appear white. If jewelers refuse you, WALK OUT! Better yet, hold it against a GIA color stone guide.

Diamond Fluorescence
Diamond fluorescence is your diamond's reaction to ultraviolet light. We at DiamondsExplained.com have interviewed the experts and they are divided whether fluorescence helps or hurts diamond values. Some unscrupulous jewelers pull a Jedi mind trick, showing you how "perfect" your diamond is as it turns blue under UV! So what, my T-shirt looks cool under UV lights also. They can't sell you on the diamond engagement ring's real attributes. UV lighting is not how we view normally diamonds, so it's a bogus show, a waste of time. These stones might look whiter in fluorescent lighting than they really are. A little bit of blue fluorescence is acceptable, but only in diamonds on the yellow side, as it takes the bite out of the yellow. Experts claim fluorescence makes a clear diamond appear cloudy in sunlight. You don't want a diamond engagement ring with fluorescence if your diamond is clear. The GIA cert indicates if there's diamond fluorescence. Loose diamonds with higher diamond fluorescence sell for less than diamonds with no fluorescence. So it does not matter which side wins this argument, it's how the market perceives diamond fluorescence that counts. This reduces values of diamond rings 10-20%. FTC forbids Misuse of the term "blue white" to make a loose diamond sound better. In a test done by GIA, they claimed "experts could not agree on the effects of fluorescence from one loose diamond to the next diamond. Most felt that strongly blue fluorescent diamonds were perceived to have a better color appearance when viewed from table-up. There was no trend when the loose diamonds were viewed table-down. Most experts saw no relationship between fluorescence and transparency."