Everything you need to know to select
your perfect diamond.
DIAMOND COLOURThe Basics
The colour of the diamond is one of the fundamental attributes (one of the 4 C's) to knowing how to judge a diamond, which is important when matching with diamond jewellery or engagement rings. Colour stands for how white or colourless a diamond is; the better the colour grading, the more white or colourless the diamond will be and the more sparkle or fire it will have. Generally, white or colourless diamonds are rarer and more highly valued. However, as a note of interest, certain evenly coloured diamonds are also highly valued due to their rarity (such as the Steinmetz Pink diamond - 59.60 carats).
Classification of Colour
Diamonds are graded according to GIA's colour scale which begins with D for perfectly white or colourless and continues all the way to Z which is brownish in colour. For diamonds on this website, we focus on the better quality diamonds, which start with D and go through to diamonds which have light yellow colouring (J).
| Grading | Definition | Comments |
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Perfectly white, extremely white and very white | The highest quality and rare |
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White, almost white and faint light yellow | Very hard to notice colour difference unless held next to higher colour graded diamond |
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Very light yellow, light yellow, yellow | Yellow starts to be noticeable, suits gold jewellery best where slight colour is not noticeable |
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Yellow clearly visible | Yellow is clearly noticeable; diamonds with these colour grades are not offered on this site |
Should you prefer a diamond with a different colour than the choice offered on the website, please contact Customer Services.