The value and price of a diamond are determined by the four C's; the colour, carat, cut, and clarity.
Though most loose diamonds are colourless, some stones come with slight yellow tints.
GIA makes use of a scale to grade the colour of the loose diamond.
A scale from D to Z is used to grade white stones, and a separate scale is used to categorize coloured diamond stones.
In India price of diamond depends on the colour of the stone and the grade level.
Let's take a look at the grading system and the best ways each tint can be used for maximum brilliance.
D-F(Colourless): D-graded stone is absolutely colourless and is very difficult to find.
E-grade stones are also very difficult to find.
Though they are colourless, they may have very minute tints that could be identified by an expert.
The F-graded loose diamonds could have slight tint that may be observed by a gemmologist.
They are still classified as colourless.
For maximum effect, set these stones on white gold or platinum.
G-J(Near Colourless): Stones graded between G to J are less expensive than colourless diamonds.
You can easily get stones in these grade levels when compared to higher grades.
These diamonds may have slight yellow tints, which not visible to the naked eye.
Near colourless diamonds can be set on white gold or platinum base metal.
K-M(Faint Colour): The diamond's price decreases as you go down the grading chart.
These stones have slight colour tints that can be masked by setting the stone on yellow gold base metal.
N-R(Very Light Colour): These stones have slight colour that can be identified even by the naked eye.
They are priced very less and are not usually preferred because of their low value.
S-R(Light Colour): The colour is very clearly visible and the stones may look almost yellow or brown.
Though the price reduces when it has yellow or brown tints, coloured diamonds come with a pretty high price tag.
Coloured loose diamonds are very rare to find, and are coveted by diamond collectors.
Some of the rare colours are red, pink, blue, grey, black, green, orange and purple.
These coloured diamonds should be cut in the right shape to get the maximum effect.
They look great when cut in round, princess, emerald, and heart shapes.
These coloured diamonds add to that extra elegance to the jewelry.