The biggest dilemma that many of our customers face is choosing a diamond shape! Each of the different diamond cuts offer something different and can totally change the look and feel of a ring style. Once you choose the shape it is time to start considering different quality/size combinations that will work best for the cut you have selected and your target price range. Depending on whether you are going for size, quality, or both, there are many tricks that go along with each shape and I’m going to share them with you in the following post.
Round brilliant is of course where I must start. This is the classic shape; the original. It is the shape by which every other shape is based upon and graded against. The nice thing about round is that it hides both color and clarity characteristics very well due to its symmetry. I-J color, SI1-SI2 clarity round stones often show very little color and are eye-clean, so you can sacrifice a little bit in order to achieve a larger size. Because of its high level of sparkle, the inclusions or color in a round diamond are easily hidden by the sparkle and brilliance of the stone. The thing you never want to sacrifice too much with a round is cut grade. Rounds show the cut grade through how well they sparkle and there is a very noticeable difference between lower cut grades (fair, poor) and excellent/excellent/excellent. I would recommend staying with a round cut grade of good to very good or excellent in order to achieve maximum light return.
Another popular shape is oval. While oval is famous for facing up bigger that any other shape, meaning it looks the largest in comparison to it’s actual weight, ovals tend to show color more due to its cutting style. Ovals hide inclusions fairly well, but when it comes to color, I would recommend staying H color (sometimes "I") or better so that you do not see any tint of yellow or brown showing through. In terms of cut, oval diamonds come in the wider/fatter versions, the longer/skinnier styles and everything in between. This is a matter of preference for most and you should consider the style of ring you will be going with when selecting this.
The step cuts, Emerald and Asscher hide traces of color very well! While this is a nice feature, especially when looking at nice I, J, and K color stones, these two shapes are the number one shapes that require higher clarity. People are often mislead into thinking that Emerald cut are more expensive than other cuts, but they are not, they just require a higher clarity grade in order to not show any inclusions. Due to the nature of step cuts, where the facets are rectangular and create “windows” into the stone, customers typically need a VS1 (maybe VS2) or higher in order not to see any clarity characteristics, and this is when these two cuts can get slightly more expensive than normal. Any black inclusion in the center will be readily visible so definitely something to keep a look out for.
The other cuts, particularly cushion and princess, as well as pear, radiant, marquise, and heart, tend to show color more when you get down in the I-J color range. While all of these cuts tend to hide inclusions very well, color is something to consider and H or above tends to the cutoff for not seeing it. Pear shapes and marquise cuts tend to show more color concentration in the tips of the stones while radiant and princess have a more even color distribution throughout the stone.
Naturally, diamonds that have both high color and high clarity are the most expensive, but between color and clarity, I believe a higher color (D-I) is more attainable for cost, and is the quality that the eye notices first. The color of the diamond covers the entire stone, while an inclusion is microscopic and confined to a small area of stone and in most cases can only be seen upon close examination. Of course you want to avoid diamonds that are so heavily included that they may appear hazy or cloudy. In general it is important to treat each individual diamond on a case by case basis. As you read above every cut has unique characteristics that should be accounted for when weighing the color and clarity grades you select.
The 4 Cs of diamond grading are all important and influence price separately and together, so we here at Lauren B are proficient in breaking down these often confusing factors into “diamond 101.” If you have any questions about color, clarity, cut grade, shape, or absolutely anything, please contact us and one of us would love to help!
