The 4 C’s of Buying a Diamond

When you decide that it’s time to pop the question it’s an exciting time of your life, and time to start thinking about the ring that you would like to get to show your love and dedication to your future spouse. Before you purchase just any diamond, it’s important to know what you should be looking for in finding the highest quality diamonds available. Many people refer to these as the four C’s of buying a diamond: cut, color, clarity, and carat weight. Here are some details on the process to help you get the perfect diamond for the one you love.

Cut

The “cut” of the diamond is not the same as the shape. While you do want to pick a great shape that matches your personal style, getting a quality cut is the difference between a sparkly, shiny diamond and one that doesn’t quite meet your expectations. It can be a little bit difficult to understand, but the cut is a measure of how well the diamond reflects light, or its ability to sparkle. A quality cut gives a diamond beautiful brilliance, allowing light to enter, travel through, and reflect back to the observer’s eye. If the cut is too fine, too shallow, or too deep, light is unable to reflect back properly and the diamond won’t sparkle like it should. What you want is an “ideal” cut diamond with proper proportions. Check the diamond’s grade for the following:

• Ideal (best)
• Excellent
• Very good
• Good
• Fair or Poor

Clarity

Since diamonds are created in the earth, they may have some imperfections that show up during the process. These are often referred to as “inclusions”, and the clarity of a diamond is a reflection of how many inclusions, and how large, there are inside a diamond. Fewer inclusions means more brilliance, and thus a higher price. Under strong magnification, diamonds are examined and graded from:

• Flawless (no inclusions or external blemishes)
• Internally Flawless (IF)
• Very, Very Slightly Included (VVS1 & VVS2)
• Very Slightly Included (VS1 & VS2)
• Slightly Included (S1 & S2)
• Included 1, 2, or 3 (several large blemishes or inclusions that might be visible to the naked eye)

Anything VS or above will generally not be visible on an unmagnified diamond, and will only affect the value of the diamond.

Color

The color of a diamond actually refers to the relative colorlessness of the diamond, since diamonds that are clear and colorless will reflect the most light. Off-white or yellow diamonds will absorb light and look less brilliant. The exception to this rule is, of course, fancy colored diamonds. The most valuable diamonds are those with a color grade D through F, but diamonds graded G through I generally wouldn’t have noticeable colors to the naked eye.

Carats

Finally you want to get a diamond that is the right size, as measured in carat weight. Generally speaking, higher carat weights will cost more than lower because larger diamonds are more rare and more difficult to find. The carat is a standard unit of measurement that dates back to the days when people used uniformly sized and weighted carob seeds to measure items. One carat is 0.2 grams. It’s important to remember that carats are simply a measurement of weight, and not a measure of your love for your future spouse. To determine what size to buy, consider your budget and talk to professional jewelry stores in Utah to find out how to maximize that budget.