Most diamonds have natural blemishes, these are referred to as inclusions and are created while the diamond is formed in the earth. When light enters a diamond, it is reflected and refracted out. Anything that disrupts the flow of light, such as an inclusion means that a small proportion of the light reflected would be lost. Most inclusions are not visible to the naked eye without a magnifying glass or loupe. Inclusions are graded by clarity, on a scale of perfection, which ranges from IF (flawless) meaning no visible characteristics even under magnification to I (Inclusions) characteristics visible with the naked eye. This method grades diamonds on the size, nature, and position of the inclusions. Only an expert can grade and asses a diamonds clarity. Inclusions appear in different shapes, such as crystals, clouds, needles, chips, or feathers. These inclusions often add to the overall character of the diamond. The closer to flawless or perfection you get, the more valuable the diamond becomes, therefore flawless diamonds command a higher price, although as soon as a flawless diamond is set it is no longer flawless, it then becomes internally flawless.

Brilliant round diamonds are the only diamonds to have a measurable cut grade. This is because gemmological grading institutes unfortunately cannot agree on what is considered a perfect cut on princess cut, oval cut, or other diamond cuts. Diamond cutting is an exceptional skill and takes a lot of intense training. A cutter polishes tiny surfaces known as facets onto the rough diamond. These facets are known as the table, culet, crown, girdle, and pavilion of the diamond. When the diamond facets are arranged in accurate proportions, the diamond refracts the light straight back to the eye creating a brilliant sparkle. To create a finished diamond sometimes the diamond cutter will remove more than 50% of the rough diamond. When a diamond is poorly cut, the light is refracted differently meaning that less light is reflected to the eye resulting in the diamond ‘losing its sparkle’. There is a set of formula that is used by gemmologists to determine the cut grade of a diamond and this inevitably comes down to how the diamond refracts light based on the diamond cut and symmetry, these grades are:

• Excellent – Reflects all or nearly all the light that enters the diamond. A
• Very Good – Reflects nearly as much light as the excellent cut, but for a slightly lower price.
• Good – Reflects quite a lot of light that enters the diamond. A little less expensive than a very good cut.
• Fair – Reflects some of the light that enters the diamond, but much less than excellent cut.
• Poor – These diamonds are normally so deep and narrow or so shallow and wide that they lose most of the light from the sides and bottom, losing its sparkle.

Diamond carat refers to the diamond’s weight, it is often presumed that carat is a diamonds size, but it is not, it is actually a measure of the diamond weight. A metric carat is defined as 200 milligrams. Each carat is sub-divided into ‘100 points’. A 0.50ct diamond is the same as a ‘50 pointer’ or a half carat diamond.

It is often presumed that a 0.50ct diamond costs half of the price of a 1.00ct diamond, but this is not the case at all. Since larger natural diamonds are found less frequently, a 1.00ct diamond will cost much more than twice the price of a 0.50ct diamond, assuming that the other characteristics are the same or remarkably similar. To make things simpler online we offer diamonds in 0.33ct, 0.50ct, 0.75ct or 1.00ct.