AMERICA DIAMOND

Diamond Guide
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What gives a diamond its color?


Absolutely colorless diamonds allow more light to pass through them than any other colored diamond, making them the most brilliant of diamonds. Like a prism, a diamond divides light into a spectrum of colors and reflects this light as colorful flashes called 'fire'. The less color in a diamond, the more colorful the fire, and the better the color grade. Colorless diamonds emit more sparkle and fire, and are subsequently more expensive.
colorless
faint yellow FIRE: Also known as dispersion, this is the effect caused when a diamond breaks up white light as it hits its surface, separating it into its component spectral colors.

A diamond's color is the result of a combination of trace impurities (sometimes as little as one part per million) or structural irregularities within the diamond's atomic structure. Your diamond's color has always been the same and will not change over time or through wear.

Personal preference is an important aspect when choosing the color of your diamond. Much like pearls, different colored diamonds work well with different skin tones. And though colorless diamonds are rarer and more expensive, many people find the warm glow that radiates from a faint yellow diamond (especially when set in yellow gold) to be very attractive.

However, if your setting is made of white gold or platinum, you may wish to select a diamond of a higher color grade. yellow

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flourecence

Besides grading the color, diamonds are also graded on their reaction to ultraviolet light, which may cause the stone to fluoresce or 'glow'.

Fluorescence: If a diamond is naturally fluorescent, it will emit a soft colored glow when held under an ultraviolet lamp or "black light."

Some people seek diamonds that produce this unique effect, while others definitely avoid it. Fluorescence within a diamond does not influence its durability. However, a very small selection of diamonds with strong fluorescence may appear cloudy to the eye. Diamonds with a strong or very strong fluorescence are priced slightly lower than other diamonds. The color and intensity of the fluorescence are noted on your diamond's grading report.

Fancy Color Diamonds do not follow the rules described above when discussing color as one of the 4 Cs. They are rather very rare and very expensive diamonds that include hues such as red, purple, blue, green, orange and pink. Some of these diamonds are even rarer than a 'D' colored diamond, therefore only available in very limited quantities. If you are interested in a Fancy Color diamond, please contact our customer service.

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GIA Grading
The internationally recognized diamond color grading scale, developed by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), uses an alphabetical scale ranging from 'D' to 'Z' where 'D' is the most colorless and 'Z' contains the most color. American Diamond offers diamonds with color grades ranging from 'D' through 'J'.

In assessing your diamond's color, a gemologist has analyzed it under a microscope and compared it to a standardized set of master comparison stones. The grading conditions for this formal evaluation follow specific standards by controlling variables such as lighting, surrounding environment and instruments used.

While diamonds occur naturally in a range of colors, the most widely used in jewelry are the "normalÓ color range¾from colorless and faint-colored to light yellow or brown. Colors outside this range are considered Fancy Color Diamonds.