4Cs
The four characteristics of a diamond—cut, colour, clarity, and carat—all contribute to its beauty. The grades a diamond receives in these four categories provide a clear indication of its quality and, consequently, the appropriate price you should be willing to pay.
Diamond cut has the biggest impact on a diamond's beauty out of the four Cs. The diamond grader assesses the cutter's proficiency in shaping the diamond in order to determine the cut quality.
Diamond cut precisely describes the brilliance, fire, scintillation, angles, dimensions, and finishing features of a diamond. These elements have an immediate effect on a diamond's propensity to sparkle as well as its general visual attractiveness.
The GIA diamond cut chart grades Diamond Cut on the scale of Ideal, Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair and Poor. The Ideal and Excellent grades, depending on Diamond Shape, signify proportions and angles cut for maximum brilliance and fire.
Gem-quality diamonds come in a variety of colours, from being colourless to being pale yellow or light brown. The most expensive diamonds are colourless. Other naturally occurring hues, including as blue, red, and pink, are referred to as "fancy," and their colour grading differs from that of white colourless diamonds.
The GIA grades diamonds from D to Z, with D being the most colorless, and Z containing noticeable brown or yellow tint. The diamond color chart below shows how each grade looks next to each other.
A Diamond’s Clarity grade evaluates how clean a diamond is from both inclusions and blemishes. Inclusions (which are internal characteristic of diamonds), and blemishes (which are externally characteristic of diamond) are both possible.
Clarity is graded by the GIA on the following diamond clarity chart:
FL (Flawless), IF (Internally Flawless), VVS1 (Very, Very Slightly Included 1), VVS2 (Very, Very Slightly Included 2), VS1 (Very Slightly Included 1), VS2 (Very Slightly Included 2), SI1 (Slightly Included 1), SI2 (Slightly Included 2), I1 (Inclusions 1), I2 (Inclusions 2)
Often when people hear the term “Carat Weight,” they think it refers to the size of the diamond. In actuality, Carat refers to the weight of the diamond, not how large the stone is. A 1 Carat Diamond equals 200 milligrams, or 0.2 grams—and weighs about the same as a quarter of a raisin.
Based on how you balanced out the other 3 C’s that will determine how large of a diamond you will end up with. If you balance everything perfectly, you will get the largest possible diamond in your budget that looks fantastic.