B2B Guide to Diamonds!

Well, diamonds ARE girls' best friends, aren't they? And I'm sure most of you B2Bs are planning to have a perfect, sophisticated and elegant diamond for your big day...including myself! 

But before buying any, make sure you do some reading on diamonds and its necessary attributes. Have you heard about the 4Cs?

Apparently, when it comes to buying diamonds..there are 4 important "C"s that you'll need to consider - Carat, Clarity, Colour and Cut! I'll make my own version of the 4Cs for all of the B2Bs reading this, hoping you would gain something useful from my writing. Am also learning for myself, it would be useful when it comes to dealing with the salesperson and yes, my future husband when buying one. Hehe. So, here goes..!

1. Carat

The carat chart

Diamonds are usually graded by its size and quality. Unlike gold, "carat" is used as a universal weighing unit for diamonds. Larger diamonds are classified as rare in Diamond Quality Pyramid because they are less frequent found in nature. So as you may expect, larger diamonds will definitely cost more...and ouch, hurt your pocket! 

Now, how do you convert carat into grams? One carat is equivalent to 0.2 grams but few women own diamonds of one or more carat. Money issues, girls! Hehe. Another important to take note is that, one carat is usually subdivided into 100 points. So if a diamond is 75 points - this means that it is 0.75 carat or 3/4 carat. On average, I see diamonds of 0.25c, 0.5c and 0.75c more frequent at the jewellers.

2. Clarity

Diamond clarity grading

Clarity means "clear" or in better terms, tells you how pure a diamond is. A diamond's clarity is usually defined by the internal characteristics (read: Inclusion) and surface features (read: blemishes). Okay, things will get a bit confusing here. During the formation of diamonds through crystallisation, other minerals in the surrounding area may get trapped within the mass and create irregularities (read: Inclusion) in the diamonds. As you may expect, irregularities will obviously affect the appearance of a diamond, but it is not visible to the naked eye and only visible by magnification. Clarity is classified by how big, how visible and how much inclusions are there in a diamond. However, diamonds which are "flawless" (FL) and "internally flawless (IF) are rare in nature thus will cost you a fortune. Slightly included inclusion varies from grade VVS1/VVS2, VS1/VS2, S1/S2/S3 from very very slightly included to slightly included. P1/P2/P3 means that the clarity is imperfect.

3. Colour

Diamond colour grading

I have my own preference of diamond's colour - colourless ones are stunning! But they are of course, very rare and by that I mean, very expensive! Hehe. Anyhow, I've never realised that diamonds have different colours..until after I did some research on the 4Cs. The colours range from colourless, white..subtle yellow, yellow...and surprisingly, vivid colours like red and blue! To grade the colour of a diamond, it is compared against a "master stone" of known colour. What makes the colours differ from one diamond to another is traces of impurities or other elements present during the crystallisation of the diamond. Colour grading starts from the alphabet D onwards. As you move further, the colour becomes yellowish. D-F are colourless, G-J are near colourless, K-M are slightly tinted, N-R are very light yellow and S-Z are light yellow to yellow. And if a diamond is graded beyond Z, it gives a distinct, well-defined colours like red, blue, pinks, etc. One thing to take note - although colour reduces the diamond's value, diamonds with vivid colours may be highly priced!

4. Cut

Cutting grades

A perfect cut is what makes the diamond one-heck of a beauty! You'll know if the craftsman did well if it sparks fire to the your eyes...oooh yes, it happened to me once! The perfect cut would spark the brilliance out of the diamond. It makes full use of the lights surrounding the diamond as it takes maximum amount of light and reflects it out off the diamond so brilliantly. It takes only skilful craftsmen to do this..for if the cut is slightly too shallow or slightly too deep, it will reduce the diamond's sparkle and beauty. So you gotta remember, choose only those that catch your eyes!

Other related information

-Shapes

Different shapes of diamond

It truly depends on you, ladies. Pick the one that suits you and obviously, WILL look good on your finger!

-Certificate

GIA certificate is a well-known certification in the jewellery industry produced by the Gemological Institute of America. It tells you the most accurate grading of your diamond and describes the quality of the diamond in detail. Why do you need one with GIA cert? Well..this is basically to reassure you that you are purchasing a diamond with certified claims made by trained gemologist. Therefore in the future, you'll be able to compare your diamond with another, with specified weight and quality .. giving you a better value and best pricing. As said before, you can never go wrong with diamonds that come with GIA - it is certified and accepted worldwide!