“Diamonds are a girl’s best friend and a man’s worst enemy!”
Well, this famous quote isn’t exactly true. I for one, absolutely love diamonds…
Welcome to ColoredDiamondGuide.com. My name is Paul and I am an avid gemstone collector who started this website to share my knowledge on colored diamonds. You see, most people are usually clueless about the essential things to look out for whether they are buying in online stores or via physical retailers.
You can’t really blame them.
Fancy colored diamonds require you to have a different concept in approaching them as compared to the usual colorless diamonds. And as if it weren’t tough enough to select a colored diamond, the lack of knowledge by sales personal and limited online resources makes it all the more challenging to buy one. This was one of the main motivation for the creation of this website – to empower the consumer with knowledge to make an educated decision.
Let’s get started with the 4Cs to help you get started and hopefully make rational choices in your quest for the perfect stone.
Color
Did you know that diamonds are formed naturally in every color of the rainbow?
Beyond a certain saturation, they are no longer graded in the D-Z scale.
Carat
Carat is the internationally accepted weight measuring unit for diamonds.
One carat is equal to 0.2 grams or sometimes described in the trade as 100 points.
Clarity
Clarity is used to describe a diamond’s external flaws and internal purity.
A diamond with less clarity characteristics is much rarer and more valuable.
Cut
Amongst the 4Cs, Cut is the only factor that is determined by humans.
It is also the most important element that determines a diamond’s appearance.
More Advice to Get You Started And Thinking…
Very often, I get similar questions from our website’s visitors on how to get started with when planning to acquire a fancy colored diamond. Just like how different goals might require different tools and approaches, it is , especially when you have unrealistic dreams about how this gem stone you are about to buy will become a family heritage a few centuries later.
Let us do an overview of what questions you need to answer about your goals and yourself, what basic information you need to know about colored diamonds in general and what simple rules you need to follow in order to make sure that you will make a great deal.
Ask yourself: Who are you in this deal?
Defining your goals will narrow your choices, and narrowing your choices is quintessential if you do not want to get lost in an information jungle that inevitably leads to making bad decisions.
Is It An Investment?
How long do you plan to hold on to the diamonds for?
If you are looking to make a quick turnaround, this is probably not be suitable for you.
Is this in line with your investment portfolio and what are your goals?
Who Are You Buying For?
Will the recipient like the choice of shape or color that you had chosed?
Would she prefer a normal colorless/near colorless diamond instead?
What type of ring designs would she be comfortable with?
Is It Regular Jewelry?
How important is that piece of jewelry going to be for you?
Is this stone going to be part of an inevitable gift that you must buy a diamond for?
Or is it going to be the feature stone of your engagement ring?
As you can see, these three situations are very different. In the case of investments, you are looking for maximum returns on your money, without caring about appearance and history too much. If making a regular, steady profit is your goal, it might not always be the highest class of diamonds that you should consider buying.
In the second case, your intention isn’t going to be making a profit from selling the diamond and you aren’t going to make it an important piece of your life either. You can actually apply clever tricks that we will talk about later – basically, in these cases you can buy diamonds which appear to be very valorous, but their price tag is surprisingly small.
Obviously, the last case is self-explanatory: your engagement ring should ideally be the best of the best. But buying the best of the best might not always be that simple and it raises some other questions too.
What Is Your Budget?
The price and value of diamonds is calculated from a whole range of different values assigned to different variables. Whether your goal is expanding your investments or a phenomenal proposal, you should keep in mind that diamonds are one of the most highly priced assets on Earth.
Again, you have to make difference between these two goals, and realize that value based on what is written in the diamond certificate does not increase in the same manner as value based market perceptions of the diamond’s apparent beauty.
Do You Have Certain Priorities?
If you can determine a few of these values from the very beginning, there will be less variables remaining to fix. This can help you greatly narrow down your selection. For example, if you know that you require a 0.50 carat pink radiant cut, the remaining factors that need to be dealt with be significantly lesser.
In practice, what we are talking about is that if you know what diamond size and clarity that you need, you only have to decide on color and shape. So, base start your search from there to further narrow down on possible choices.
Combining your answers to these three questions will make choosing from what your jeweler offers much easier. So, give yourself some time and you might figure out what you need. The key takeaway point is never to buy on impulse and only make a purchase when everything is right about it.
After all, diamonds are forever. You don’t want to be stuck with an expensive purchase with lingering second thoughts.
