Diamonds & The 4 C's - Which Stone Is Right For You?
I am sure that you have heard of the 4 C's at some point in your lifetime but what do they actually mean? And how useful are they to me?
In this blog I shall break them down into understandable terminology and useful relatable pieces of information and show you how to leverage them to your advantage when buying diamonds. Let's begin!
Grading
Let's start by giving you a quick understating where it all begins with grading. Grading, for all the 4 C's, is done with 10x magnification. You may have often seen a jeweller take out their loop (magnifier) to view a stone or jewellery under closer detail whenever you have visited a shop.
Grading is done under laboratory conditions for greater accuracy and is graded by a qualified gemmologist. The stone will be given a certificate, normally in my experience, if it is above a certain carat weight and of gem quality which means it is of good enough quality to be used in jewellery.
The certificate will be awarded by an independent gemmological society or organisation like the GIA. This is so there is no vested or biased interest taken into account when the stone is being graded therefore offering a completely genuine grading of the stone; before these societies were in place, many and some jewellery companies still do, would offer their own grading certificates which may not have been entirely accurate and it may have been possible to dupe unsuspecting customers if the grading was false just to sell a stone; for example the certificate may have stated the stone was of 'D' colour when it should have been graded as a 'G' thereby increasing it's for sale price. The necessity of organisations like the GIA eradicates this corruption and allows for a more accurate and just grading system.
The 4 C's What Are They?
White diamonds have their own grading system which comprises of the 4 C's. The 4 C's are, Clarity, Colour, Cut, and Carat.
Clarity
Clarity refers to the inclusions within a stone. Inclusions are blemishes, trace elements and fractures from when the stone was being formed.
The less inclusions the higher the clarity grading. The grading structure is as follows:
- Flawless
- Internally Flawless
- Very Very Slight
- Very Slight
- Slight Inclusions
- Included
"But what does this mean to me?"- You ask. Here's the breakdown for each
Flawless (FL) - self explanatory, it simply means that the stone has no inclusions whatsoever and is the top grading. The rarity of this is huge so expect a premium price when looking at a stone like this. Imagine this to be the very best option.
Internally Flawless (IF) - The stone has no inner inclusions but may have close to the surface blemishes hence the term internally flawless. Again, expect a premium price. Imagine this to be close to the very best option.
Very Very Slight (VVS) - The stone has some inclusions that are "very very slight" Sounds a bit vague doesn't it? Well the terminology is just that, it is very vague. There are inclusions, but not many and they are hard to spot. In lament terms it essentially means that you are getting the best overall clarity option for the price as there shouldn't be a premium price attached to this option when compared to FL and IF. Imagine it to be the third best option available, close to flawless but without the premium.
Very Slight (VS) - In comparison to VVS this means that there are more inclusions, or that they are more visible. In my experience VS is the most sought after clarity due to the availability, as it's a common clarity grading that is easily obtainable, and it is a sensible price option. I would see VS, when looking at purchasing a stone as the best overall option for getting a high clarity grading and keeping the price down. The fourth best option available.
Slightly Included (SI) - This grading is not the best but not bad also. It often gets dismissed as not being good enough but, if you have a tight budget then this grading is ideal for you; I say this because as clarity is graded using a 10x magnification there is no way that with your naked eye you can see these inclusions. SI means that there are inclusions that are visible clearly with a 10x magnification. The best option for those of you who are budget savvy and may wish to focus more on three of the other C's.
Included (I) - The bottom line. This grading means that inclusions are visible without the need for 10x magnification. In my experience, unless you are actively looking for the inclusions and have the stone close to your eyes they are often very hard to spot with your naked eye. So from a distance, due to the sparkly nature of diamonds, you won't see often the inclusions most of the time. This is a stone by stone basis and I am generalising, each stone will have different inclusions to the next and some will be more prominent than others so keep this in mind.
Understanding the 1 and 2's
Each grading will have a '1' or a '2' added to the end of the grading such as 'VVS1' or 'SI2' but what do they mean and how useful is this information to me? I hear you ask.
To put it simply the '1' and '2' refers to the different types of inclusions, the frequency of the inclusions and where they are in the stones. The general idea is that '1' is better than '2' this may be the case on the certificates but I would never discourage viewing or considering a '2' because it may in fact be the better looking stone than the '1' and gives you more of a good feeling in comparison.
In my honest opinion, as you cannot see the inclusions with your naked eye and you aren't walking round everyday with a 10x magnification loop constantly testing your new found clarity knowledge and observing your diamond stone, clarity matters of course but it doesn't matter that much when it comes to the everyday use of the stone.
I would say a sensible choice is VVS or VS, you know it's of a high grading and there are only a few inclusions within the stone and you haven't paid that massive extra premium for FL or IF as inclusions are impossible to see anyway! However, if it is essential for you to have a FL or IF grading, and you don't mind the increase in price, don't mind that inclusions are impossible to see anyway then go for it - it's all about what makes you happy.
Colour
Colour begins at 'D' and moves to 'Z'. As discussed already, before the existence of the GIA and other independent grading bodies, each jewellery shop had their own grading system and there used to be many terms for the same grading. In the case of colour for example on shop may have given a colour grading of 'A' and another of 'AA' or even 'AB' causing utter confusion for the customer and allowing potentially for the customer to be charged more than was fair or being undersold if attempting to sell their own stones in a part exchange for example.
So, having the scale of colour begin at 'D' has eradicated this confusion, unified the grading system allowed for more accuracy and allowing the customer to be absolutely confident that they are well informed and are indeed purchasing what they are being told they are purchasing.
The other potential reason to start the scale at 'D' is just in case, but highly unlikely, that in the future by some miracle there will be a diamond that will be found to have an even greater colour than the 'D' grading; again highly unlikely to happen as with todays technology it should have been found or manufactured artificially in a laboratory so we can confidently say that 'D' is the best or top colour available when it comes to grading.
What does 'D' to 'Z' actually mean?
In simple terms, it is the transgression of how white the stone is moving to how yellow the stone is. 'D' being the whitest, or in grading terms colourless, and 'Z' being very yellow. Therefore there are 23 grading colours on this scale.
Which colour is best?
Great question, hard to answer. The easiest most scientific answer is obviously 'D' but lets talk about the differences between the colours then, how much of a difference in colour is there between 'D' and 'E'? in truth, not much... and let me explain why.
Remember that you have 23 colour options to choose from along the scale, each gradually moving into the next one with very very subtle and little difference; it will be incredibly hard, basically impossible without the training, years of experience and laboratory equipment to hand, to differentiate between a 'D' colour and a 'E' colour. Only a qualified gemologist with all the lab equipment can confidently say which one is which.
There is a way to "see" the difference in colour without the equipment and with your naked eye which is by having 23 stones, all of the same grading and specifications apart from colour, running side by side in colour order of 'D' to 'Z' only then can you see the noticeable colour difference running from 'D' to 'Z' which is great! Apart from this never happens in a shop when stone shopping. So, in this example scenario, you can see the gradual colour differences of all 23 options but I can guarantee that you won't be able to see a major, or if at all, difference between any two stones sat next to each other on the scale e.g. 'D' to 'Z' however you will be able to see a colour difference between 'D' to 'K' because the gap is big enough between them.
I have been a jeweller selling diamonds for over ten years and, with stones of different but close colours sat next to each other I can happily and confidently say that seeing a noticeable difference in the colour itself with my naked eye is impossible. Again, it's a gradual change and some stones even fit in between the colour grading and could be a 'D/E' technically, but a grading body will commit to one or the other so don't beat yourself up if you cannot see a difference in colour.
For this reason this is why there are brackets due to how similar the colours are. The top 3, 'D to F' are in a bracket called 'Colourless' because they are so similar - the same for 'G' to 'I' which belongs in the bracket of 'Near Colourless'. When it comes to purchasing a fine white diamond, depending on your budget, you will often purchase a stone that sits within these six colours.
Cut
The least complicated factor when choosing a stone. In grading terms, cut refers to how well the stone was cut, not the type of cut itself.
The grading is as follows:
- Excellent
- Very Good
- Good
- Fair
- Poor
As you can see this is pretty self explanatory. You won't often find, in most jewellery stores, a stone which is below the 'Good' grading.
It's not entirely out of reach to choose 'Excellent' cut grading when selecting a stone. Also, 'Very Good' is perfectly fine as well.
Unlike colour grading, there is more distinguishable differences between cut grading. The importance of the cut grading is all about how well light moves through the stone through how symmetrical the stone is - looking at the stone, you wish for it to be as symmetrical as possible
The main focus of a cut grading is how good the proportions of the stone are - the purpose of good proportions is to allow light to bounce back up through the stone in the correct way, if a stone has been cut too long or too short then light will bounce right out of the bottom or to the sides thereby decreasing the brilliance of the stone.
Proportions also applies to how equal the facets are to one another and whether they have been skilfully cut so that they sit in the best place to use light effectively. Facets are mini cuts that you see on the stone surface - if you have poorly cut and uneven facets this will affect the play of light and won't look aesthetically pleasing; a wonky uneven stone will obviously look odd and won't make best use of light.
Cut is often overlooked but it is incredibly important as it, depending on how well the stone was cut, has the ability to show off the other 4 C's qualities. A poor cut stone will improperly use the light that moves through the stone thus meaning that it won't have the best sparkle or brilliance; it will look dull and not as bright as it should do.
In my opinion, as long as you choose between an 'Excellent' grade and a 'Very Good' grade then you should have a stone that you will be happy with.
Carat
Carat is measurement of weight, it is derived from the carab tree which produced seeds that were, in the era before modern electronic technology, pretty accurate in weight to one another. Merchants would determine a value, in currency, based on how many carab seeds a stone would be equal in weight to. They would place the stone on one side of the scale and then add carab seeds to other until it was equal in weight - an example equation: 1 rough gem equals in weight to 5 carb seeds (5 carats) is equal to X monies. The exact same principle applies today with price per carat.
There is a misconception that carat is thought of as just size, as it is a weight measurement it should be thought more off as a measurement of mass. The reason for this misconception of referring to size is because you only see the stones in jewellery from the top or sides and never the whole stone. It's important to think in this way because you may find a stone that is 2 carats and looks impressive, in size, because it is incredibly wide or has a large circumference but it could in fact be an incredibly shallow stone and therefore a poor stone when it comes to its proportions. Again, very important you have a stone with decent proportions as this is the vehicle that carries the qualities of the other 4 C's.
More carat weight doesn't always mean a better stone. I have seen many 2 to 3 carat weight engagement rings and other pieces of jewellery that have a poor or low colour grading, riddled with inclusions and have been poorly cut. Sure a big stone is more noticeable and attracts a lot of attention but if you have neglected the other 4 C's you'll have a large stone but perhaps not a mesmerising, enticing nor beautiful stone.
Conclusion - Which stone is best for me?
It all depends on your budget of course, colour 'D to 'E' will be set at premium prices and unless you wish to say to your friends and family that you have a 'D' colour and it matters to you and you can afford it then by all means go for it! But, if you are compromising on carat size just for this and therefore have to choose a smaller carat weight you will have a pretty silly looking, unimpressive stone that's very small and won't be able to "show off" the fact that it is indeed a 'D' colour. There is also no point in choosing a minuscule carat weight just for it to be Flawless in clarity for the same reasons.
You will have to compromise on the 4 C's because of budget I'm sure so if I could advise where to do so this is what I would say. If I had to compromise I would focus more on carat weight and compromise less here, as this is the most noticeable quality as I have said already there is no point in having a minuscule looking stone thats 'D' colour and 'Flawless' if there's no stone to see! and also no point in having 2-3 carat stone that's yellow and has huge visible inclusions, you'll just have a stone that is big and ugly.
Also focus on Cut as this is what allows the stone to sparkle and come to life, choosing an 'Excellent' or 'Very Good' or even 'Good' sometimes is fine. Where you can compromise on heavily is Colour and Clarity. Colour because the scale is so long and vague, you have many options to choose from which are all absolutely fine, they only really start to look a bit yellow when you reach 'J' so you have 6, colourless and near colourless, options to choose from. Clarity, in my honest opinion doesn't matter at all as long as you choose above 'I' (Included) which is the worst grading then it's fine - as I have said you can't see them anyway!
Most people, from my experience, will choose a 1.00 carat, G colour, VS clarity, Very Good cut. Because it still looks impressive, physically speaking size and weight wise, has a 'near colourless' grading and is closest to the 'colourless' grading as 'G' is after 'F'. It has a high quality clarity without breaking the bank and a high cut grading to show off the carat size and use of colour through decent well cut facet proportions.
The short answer is, only you can decide which stone is best for you but if I could advise you to help to make you mind up I would say this to you, all of the 4 C's are equally just as important to one another and if you compromise too heavily on one or two then you won't have a great looking stone.
In my honest opinion, as jewellery is an emotional purchase full of meaning and sentiment, it has to be and is imperative that this particular stone you are choosing is a strong representation or mirror of significance of how you feel about the person you are buying it for; if you view a stone and you aren't drawn to it on an emotional level (not talking about simply being impressed by this stone) then it's not for you. Find a stone that you love and cannot stop thinking about that not only has impressed you with its physical qualities but strikes you in a way that gets to you on a deeper level.
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