Diamond guide
The 4Cs
Cut, color, clarity, and carat. Together they set a diamond's price, but they don't matter equally. Here's where your money makes the biggest difference.
Cut
Cut matters most
Cut is how well a diamond's angles and proportions return light. It decides how much a stone sparkles more than any other C.
- Grades
- GIA grades round diamonds Excellent, Very Good, Good, Fair, and Poor
- Our advice
- Choose Excellent for a round. For fancy shapes, judge the stone by eye with us
- Proportions
- A stone cut too deep looks smaller than its weight, and one cut too shallow leaks light
Color
Color grades
- D to F
- Colorless. The rarest, and the most expensive
- G to J
- Near colorless. Looks white face up and costs much less. G and H are the sweet spot
- K and below
- A visible warmth that can look lovely in yellow gold
- Setting
- Yellow gold makes a warmer stone look whiter. Platinum shows color more
Clarity
Clarity grades
- FL and IF
- Flawless or internally flawless under 10x magnification. Very rare
- VVS1 and VVS2
- Very, very slightly included. Hard for an expert to find with a loupe
- VS1 and VS2
- Very slightly included. Clean to the eye in almost every shape
- SI1 and SI2
- Slightly included. Many SI1 stones look clean, so it's worth seeing them in person
Carat
Carat measures weight
- The measure
- One carat is 0.2 grams, divided into 100 points
- Face-up size
- A well-cut 0.90 can look as large as a deep 1.00
- Price steps
- Prices jump at round numbers, so stones just under them are good value
A balance that works for most budgets
An Excellent cut, G or H color, and VS2 or SI1 clarity. Then choose the largest stone that fits. We'll show you the difference in person.