Diamond Colors - A Luxurious Trend

Due to an increase in celebrities wearing color diamonds, these unusual and beautiful stones have started to become popular with everyday consumers. The upsurge in popularity is such that demand now has outstripped total demand for the past ten years!

If you don't know much about colored diamonds, you may be wondering if they are real or synthetic. The answer is, they can be both. Colored diamonds, or fancy diamonds as they are called by gemologists, do occur naturally as a result of various impurities that become associated with the carbon atoms in the diamond's creation process, deep within the earth. And scientists today can introduce those same impurities, in controlled quantities, into the carbon in their labs when they make synthetic diamonds.

Synthetic diamonds are real in the sense that they are molecularly exactly the same as naturally occurring diamonds. However, in terms of their value, their is a real difference. Like a manufactured house compared to its stick built cousin, synthetic, or lab created diamonds, are the poorer cousin in terms of value. On the bright side, this makes them very affordable for those wishing to have their own piece of luxury without re-mortgaging their house. Of course, if you want to invest in colored diamonds, you'll need to buy the natural fancy diamonds.

When mentioning synthetic, or lab created diamonds, it's important to distinguish them from imitation diamonds - cubic zircona, moissanite, and YAG (yttrium aluminum garnet). The latter three are not diamonds - they do not resemble diamonds chemically, whereas lab created diamonds do.

How Nature Makes Diamond Colors

Impurities in diamonds replace a carbon atom in the crystal lattice, which is commonly known as a carbon flaw. Nitrogen is the most common impurity found in diamonds; this impurity causes a slight intense yellow coloration depending on the type of concentration of nitrogen that is present in the diamond.

The low saturation yellow and brown diamonds are classified as in the normal color range by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). The institute also applies a grading scale from "D" which is colorless to "Z" which is light yellow. Standard scales of diamond rating do not extend to brownish diamonds, or fancy diamonds.

A Diamond's Colors

Colored diamonds come in many hues. The most popular are yellow, champagne, pink, and blue. You can also get chocolate, green, purple, red, and true, colorless diamonds. And there are also olive, black, and grey diamonds!

Whilst most people may think regular white diamonds are indeed colorless, they actually usually have a small amount of color in them. True colorless diamonds are very rare, and very expensive.

Diamonds that are used as gemstones are mostly transparent with a little tint - they are known as white diamonds. Diamonds with high color grades are more rare than diamonds with lower color grades. The rarity of these diamonds causes them to be in high demand and fairly expensive.

However, diamonds graded "Z" are also very rare, and the bright yellow color is highly valued. Diamonds that are graded D-F are seen as colorless, diamonds graded G-J are near colorless, diamonds graded K-M are slightly colored, and diamonds graded N-Y are light yellow or brown.

The diamonds that are not yellow and brown or the fancy diamonds are more rare than the others and are more valuable. It is possible for a pale pink or blue hue to increase the value of a diamond, but more intense coloration is commonly considered more desirable and is highly valued.

It is often believed that most diamonds are white, or colorless. However, most diamonds are not white, because they show at least a trace of body color, and many diamonds are deeply colored.

Body color is defined as the color seen when white light travels through the diamond without being dispersed, this is not the same as the multicolored flashes caused by dispersion. The body color can be determined by viewing the diamond through the side rather than through the top.

The ability of diamonds to refract and disperse white light into all the rainbow colors is known as "fire." "Fire" is one of the desirable qualities of the gemstone, but it is not what is referred to when the word color is used. Polished diamonds will sparkle and flash with an abundance of fire.  Fancy colored diamonds are rare, and highly attractive and desirable.