Your Diamond Buying Guide

With the help of our diamond buying guide we hope to make your shopping experience easier, as diamonds are not something one buys every day.

First time buyers usually find themselves overwhelmed by information and realise quickly that there is so much more to diamonds than what meets the eye.
We are often asked: “Which of the four C’s is the most important?” In truth, they are all important, but if you are buying a diamond as a gift or in an engagement ring, there is an order to prioritize the four C’s to ensure that you obtain the very best value for your money when making such an investment.

How To Use The 4 C’s To Maximise Value

Imagine this scenario; a woman wearing a diamond enters a room. The first thing you will notice is if the diamond is cut well. The relationship between the facets enables the brilliance to display the true beauty of the diamond, a fire that can often make the diamond seem larger than it actually is.
A well cut diamond will make an entrance for the wearer. Although all the C’s are important, the grade of the “cut” should not be compromised. Achieving an “excellent” cut grade is no easy feat for the diamond polisher, and it requires a tremendous amount of skill, accuracy and experience to be awarded cut grade of  “excellent”.

The woman’s ring has caught everyone’s attention, as we move closer we notice the following; the size of her stone, its carat weight. The carat of a diamond is one of the biggest contributors determining the price of the stone. As the diamond becomes larger the more expensive it becomes. This is one of the caveats that greatly impacts the budget, unless one is willing to compromise on the next  two  C’s, which we further outline in our diamond buying guide.

As we move closer to be introduced to the lady with the  diamond, we notice something else about the diamond;  the Colour. A fancy colour such as a blue or pink may have been a little more obvious from a distance, but white diamonds will need a closer look to determine the hue. White diamonds are graded according to how white they are, D being the whitest, or most colourless. As we move down the alphabet, the diamond begins to display more and more of a tint of colour. So, it follows that white diamonds are more valuable if they are colourless or near colourless.

We are now close enough to our lady to say hello. This is still often not close enough to see the fourth C: “Clarity”. From a distance most clarities look similar. The clarity of a diamond is determined by the internal characteristics, or inclusions, in a diamond. These are completely natural and are in fact the signature of each stone. Again, the fewer inclusions a diamond  has, the more valuable it becomes. Because you will need magnification to see inside the diamond, this is the last characteristic you will see.  When fine tuning the budget for a diamond you wish to purchase, clarity might be the last on your list of priorities.