Your diamond, explained

Every diamond is one of a kind.

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

1Carat Weight

Carat is weight, not size.

One carat is 200 milligrams, a fifth of a gram. What you see from above is the face of the diamond, so size is measured in millimeters. Here are round diamonds side by side, drawn to scale.

Tip: price climbs faster than size, because larger diamonds are rarer, and it jumps at round numbers. A 0.90 ct looks almost the same as a 1.00 ct on the hand, and often costs much less.

5 mm

Well-cut round diamonds seen from above, to scale with each other. Other shapes face up differently.

Carat weight · on the hand

See it on a finger.

A typical ring finger is about 17 mm across. Pick a weight to see the diamond at true proportion.

Same weight, different look: a diamond cut too deep hides some of its weight below the girdle, so its face is smaller. Switch to Cut Too Deep to see it; the dashed ring is the face of a well-cut stone. Cut and carat work together.

Diamond and finger width to scale. Screen size varies.

1.00 ct6.5 mm across

2Color

Color is the absence of color.

Diamonds are graded from D, completely colorless, down to Z as a faint warm tint grows. Here are four of them laid side by side on white, the way a jeweler compares them.

Tip: graders look at stones face down on white. Once a diamond is set in a ring, neighboring grades are very hard to tell apart.

Colorless More color

The same diamond, tinted to each grade. A screen can't show color perfectly, but the steps are true.

Color · the scale

Twenty-three steps, five groups.

Slide to watch one diamond move down the scale. Only its tint changes. Neighbors are almost impossible to tell apart; the groups tell the story.

Our standard: lab-grown diamonds D–F. Natural diamonds G–H, which look white to the eye. White gold and platinum keep a stone looking whitest; in yellow or rose gold the warm metal makes small differences even harder to notice.

GNear Colorless

Our lab-grown: D–FOur natural: G–H

3Clarity

Nature's fingerprints.

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

Tip: what matters is what you can see. Switch to Naked Eye and watch the same stone the way you'll wear it.

10× Loupe

VS2Very Slightly Included

Our lab-grown: VSOur natural: SI1

Same stone every time. Only the inclusions change, always in the same places.

Clarity · the 11 grades

From flawless to included.

Eleven grades in five families. Most diamonds in jewelry stores sit in the VS and SI families.

Eye-clean means you can't see any inclusion without magnification. It depends on where an inclusion sits as much as on the grade, so the actual stone is what counts.

4Cut

Cut is what makes it sparkle.

Cut isn't the shape. It's how well the facets are angled and finished. Light enters the top, bounces inside, and should come straight back to your eye. Cut too shallow or too deep, and it leaks away.

Tip: of the four C's, cut has the biggest effect on how bright a diamond looks. A smaller, beautifully cut diamond often outshines a bigger one.

Light returns to your eyeLight leaks out

Same stone outline in all three; only the depth changes. A simplified drawing.

Cut · the grades

Five grades, and a floor of our own.

For round diamonds the grade weighs brightness (white light), fire (colored flashes) and scintillation (sparkle as it moves), plus how the stone is proportioned, polished and symmetrical.

Good to know: only round diamonds get a standard cut grade. For ovals, pears and other shapes the proportions and the actual stone matter even more.

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 center stone

The grading report

Proof of what you're buying.

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

Tip: ask us to walk you through the 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 show where we'd start. Our standard for color, clarity and cut stays the same.

Your diamond

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