Cut: A well cut diamond is beautiful because it's very brilliant. Of all the variables affecting the value of a diamond ring, the cut is the most crucial. A well cut diamond is the work of a master diamond cutter, since it is the cut that enables the diamond to reflect light, creating that glitter and sparkle. When a diamond is well proportioned, light is reflected from one facet to another and dispersed through the top of the stone as rainbows of color, making it is so exotic to look at.



Carat: The carat is actually a measurement of weight, not size. One carat is divided into 100 points. 1.00 ct is equal to .20 grams. Carat is the easiest of the 4 C's to determine. One carat is divided into 100 "points," so that a diamond of 75 points, for example, weighs .75 carats, 50 points weighs .50 carat etc. Fine quality can be found in diamonds of all carat weights.

Color: Diamonds are found in a range of colours - from colorless to yellowish, and judged according to a color grading scale from "D", which is totally colorless through to "Z" which is vivid yellow. It is the colorless diamond that is the most valued because it is the rarest. The average stone carries an I or J grading for its color. In addition to that, there are twelve other colors called Fancies, and as the name implies, they are expensive.

Clarity: Most diamonds contain tiny natural birthmarks called inclusions and are mostly not visible to the naked eye, but can be seen with a 10X magnification. Inclusions interfere with the dispersion of light and therefore the diamond's brilliance gets reduced. The fewer and smaller the inclusions, the rarer the stone and higher the price.

While inclusions do not generally affect the diamond's beauty and usually cannot be seen, their presence reduces the price. Clarity is graded on a scale with a range from internally flawless (IF), very small inclusions (VVS1-VVS2), very small inclusions (VS1-VS2), small inclusions (SI1-SI2) to imperfect (I1-I2-I3) with eye visible inclusions.