COLOR

Diamonds come in every color of the rainbow. Except for very rare and fancy colors, the less color in a diamond, the more valuable it is.

Although many diamonds appear to have no body color at all, trace atomic elements other than carbon (C) may result in slight degrees of yellow, brown or gray body coloring. The color differences are often so slight that they are only detected by comparing them against a master set of laboratory-graded diamonds.

As a rule, color differences are measured by international grading scales created by either the American Gemological Society (AGS) or Gemological Institute of America (GIA).

View the Color Grading Scale

CUT

While color, clarity and carat weight help determine a diamond's rarity, it is the cut of a diamond that defines its true beauty.

Cut also determines how well a diamond will reflect and refract light. The more precisely a diamond is proportioned and polished, the bigger it will look and more brilliantly it will perform.

When a diamond is perfectly cut, a natural phenomenon of light magically appears. This scintillation creates a ring of flawlessly matched hearts when viewd from the bottom, hence Hearts on Fire rather unique name.

See How Cut Defines A Diamond's Beauty

CLARITY

Millions of years ago, when diamonds were forming as crystals of pure carbon in the earth's mantle, minute traces of other minerals or gas were sometimes trapped in the matrix. These inclusions may appear as tiny specks, lines, feathers or clouds inside a diamond. They are nature's fingerprints. Fewer and less visable fingerprints make a diamond more valuable.

Clarity is described using an international grading scale- with the most valuable and rare designation being flawless (FL-IF with no flaws visible under 10x binocular microscope), and the least valuable being heavily included (I3- with flaws easily visible to the naked eye).

View the Clarity Grading Scale