Your diamond, explained

Every diamond is one of a kind.

Four things decide how a diamond looks and what it costs: cut, color, clarity and carat. Let's look at each one together, then find the balance that's right for you.

1Cut

Cut is what makes it sparkle.

Cut isn't the shape. It's how well the facets are angled. A well-cut diamond catches light and sends it straight back to your eye. Cut too shallow or too deep, the light leaks out and the stone looks glassy or dark.

Tip: of the four C's, cut matters most to how a diamond looks. A smaller, beautifully cut diamond often outshines a bigger one.

A real diamond with this cut — From above · a real stone

From the side · where the light goes

Light returns to your eyeExcellent cut

2Color

Color is about the absence of color.

White diamonds are graded from D, completely colorless, down the alphabet as a warm, faint yellow creeps in. The difference between neighbouring grades is tiny, and hard to see once the diamond is set.

Tip: in yellow or rose gold the metal warms the stone anyway, so G–J looks lovely. In white gold or platinum, D–H keeps it icy.

GNear colorless

ColorlessNear colorlessFaint

3Clarity

Nature's fingerprints.

Almost every diamond carries tiny crystals and feathers from the way it formed. Clarity grades how many, how big and how easy they are to see under 10× magnification.

Tip: what matters is what you can see. From VS2 to SI1 a diamond is usually eye-clean: nothing visible without a loupe, for far less than a flawless stone.

VS2Very slightly included

4Carat Weight

Carat is weight, not size.

One carat is a fifth of a gram. What you see is the stone's face, so two diamonds of the same weight can look different sizes depending on how they're cut. Price rises faster than size, because larger diamonds are rarer.

Tip: just under a round number, like 0.90 instead of 1.00 ct, looks the same on the hand and can save a lot.

1.00 ctabout 6.5 mm across · round

0.25123 ct

Lab-grown or natural

Both are diamonds.

A lab-grown diamond is the same crystal as one from the earth, grown in weeks rather than formed over a billion years. Same hardness, same fire, graded the same way. The choice is about what it means to you, and your budget.

Tip: lab-grown lets you go bigger or whiter for the same budget. Natural is rare and has held value over time.

Natural

Formed deep in the earth
Rare, every one unique
Higher price for the same look

Lab-grown

Grown in a lab
Same crystal and sparkle
Much more diamond for the budget

Both: hardness 10 · graded on the same 4 C's · come with a grading report when they're the centre stone

The grading report

Proof of what you're buying.

A centre diamond comes with a report from an independent laboratory such as IGI or GIA. It records the shape, measurements, cut, color, clarity and carat weight, and the stone's own report number.

Tip: ask us to walk you through the grading report: every grade on it describes the diamond in front of you. Small accent diamonds aren't individually certified; that's standard across the industry.

Now, your diamond

What matters most to you?

Every diamond is a balance. Tap what's most important and we'll suggest where to start looking.

Where we'd start

Find diamonds together