Color

Color in a diamond refers to how white or transparent the diamond is compared to another diamond. For my personal taste, color is the most important attribute in a diamond. We all want to marry a woman with a good personality and a good job, but the first thing we see when introduced is her face (luckily my wife was not as shallow as I was). The diamond color scale goes from D to Z and then into the range of fancy colors. I will discuss fancy colors in a different lesson, but for reference my father used to use the term "canary yellow" to describe a vibrant fancy yellow colored diamond.

The color comparison at GIA is done in a tray, comparing the diamond you submit against master diamonds (consistent standard diamonds used only for grading). The diamonds are turned upside down and viewed in a tray against the masters at a diagonal angle. The tray has specific filtered lighting so that the lighting is consistent all day long and all year round (unlike sunlight). D is considered the clearest, most transparent color and Z would be the most colorful "non fancy" diamond. To avoid human error, diamonds are typically graded by more than one person at the GIA lab.

Generally, the whiter the diamond the more valuable if all other factors are equal. This is by no means to imply that everybody prefers a whiter diamond or to even imply that the average person can see the difference in color between two similar color grades until they train their eye. But, after a short training session color differences are not only obvious but disturbingly memorable and color is no longer a pigment of your imagination. I say disturbingly because, in my opinion, color is the most frequent source of future buyer's remorse. I'd like to emphasize that some people prefer a diamond that has a hint of yellow color, and virtually every single person who buys a diamond is considering the options available and balancing color along with other factors such as size and price to select their diamond.

Here is a brief lesson in how to self-train your eye to see color. Find a totally white (not creme) piece of typing paper and cut a slightly larger than business card sized rectangle. Heavier gauge paper is best. Fold that piece of paper just once into two rectangles. If you are a shopper, use the same piece of paper (color tray) every time when shopping (for consistency). Ask the jeweler to allow you to stare for 30 to 60 seconds at 3 UPSIDE DOWN diamonds of similar size but different colors in the newly made color tray. It will be easiest to see the color differences in florescent light rather than incandescent light and the closer you can hold your tray to the florescent bulb, the better. After you have trained your eye to see the difference in color, flip the diamonds right side up in the tray to see if you can see the difference right side up. You may have to slightly squeeze the tray to hold the diamonds face up. After training, color differences in the diamonds should be fairly obvious.

In my humble opinion, color and carat size are the most important characteristics of a diamond because they are the most visibly obvious. In my experience, the average younger diamond buyer (younger therefore more idealistic...but also having better vision) will almost always make color their top priority in buying a diamond.

Here are a couple of additional tips:

1) Color in a diamond can be brown or yellow or green or even blackish if the imperfections are black. I try to avoid certificates that say faint brown and also to avoid visually offensive "tints" not disclosed on the certificate that are out of the norm (the norm is yellow). Experience, memory, and CONSISTENT LIGHTING and an honest jeweler are your best friends in diamond buying.

2) The color grade given to a diamond at GIA is where it falls in a range. By this I mean that some I colors are better than others even though they may all be better than J.

3) Some (but not all) florescent diamonds may appear whiter in color than non-florescent diamonds in daylight or florescent lights which might be desirable (visually not economically) if the diamond does not appear chalky or hazy. I'm keeping the florescent discussion a bit loosey goosey at this point, but we'll come back to it in a later lesson.