There’s just something about diamonds that lights us up and adds a glimmer to our eyes. The question is why? Most of us don’t really know anything about diamonds…
Have no fear, Tiffany’s is here! We spoke to an expert from the fine jewellery house, who gave us a crash course on everything Diamonds – a diamonds for dummies if you will.
Welcome to Diamonds 101, let’s begin!
Diamonds can be summed up into “The 4 C’s”. The four c’s, in order of importance, are: cut, colour, clarity and carat.
1. Cut
Cut is the most important of the four c’s. It is all about how the surface and cuts in the diamond interact with light. Remember that sparkle and shine we were talking about? Well this is it! Don’t get too excited just yet, we’re not done. When it comes to cut, there are three steps to take into consideration: the precision of a cut, the symmetry of a cut and of course, the polish of a cut. The better the three steps, the shinier the diamond. If not, the rock just looks dull. Pretty straightforward if you ask us.
This is a step cut:
I could have sworn I saw my reflection in that beautiful ring.
Moving on…
2. Colour
In nature, most diamonds have a natural slight tint of yellow. If they’re a low cute grade diamond, they appear slightly yellow. The desired and ideal colour is the brilliant white. Basically the closer to colourless the diamond is, the rarer and more valuable it is. The diamonds are graded from D (being colourless), all the way down the alphabets we know and love so well, to Z (light yellow).
Here’s a chart to make things clearer (get it?)
And now we’re at c number three. Don’t you just love a good rhyme?
3. Clarity
Clarity is an assessment of the imperfections of a diamond. A diamond with a low clarity grade has blemishes and that affects how the diamond reflects light. Meaning? The diamond doesn’t sparkle as much. And if there’s anything we’ve all agreed on so far, is the need for sparkle.
Queen Riri said it herself.
Last but not least…
4. Carat
The bigger the carat the more zeros to that price point; it’s that simple. We’ve all seen how crazy celebrities can get with their carats. Do we need to remind you about Kim Kardashian‘s twenty carat, yes twenty, wedding ring? That bad boy cost Kanye four million dollars.
We’re sure Yeezus was familiar with his four c’s.