Choose Your Diamond

Because every diamond is unique — and none more so than the one that will mark an engagement — it is worth knowing the features that set stones apart. These are the four Cs: Colour, Clarity, Cut and Carat. Each shapes the beauty of a diamond, and each, in turn, moves its price.

The four Cs, briefly

Cut is, for most graders, the most important of the four. It defines not only a diamond’s shape but, more decisively, its brilliance and its fire. Cut is the sum of proportion, symmetry and polish; done well, it makes a stone return light to the eye instead of leaking it through the bottom.

Colour. Diamonds are typically transparent, carrying only the faintest hint of colour. With the exception of fancy-coloured stones, the rarest diamonds are the most colourless. Grades run from D to Z, D being the rarest of all.

Clarity. Most diamonds look completely transparent to the naked eye. In fact they often hold inclusions — crystals, feathers, clouds — so slight that a loupe is needed to find them. The rarest of all are the stones free of inclusions or external marks: the Flawless diamonds.

Carat is weight, not size: one carat is 0.20 grams, also counted as 100 points. Larger diamonds are found far more rarely in nature, and are valued accordingly.

Shape as character

Beyond the four Cs comes a choice of feeling. Shape is the outline of the stone, and at VHENY we like to pair each with a character — a quiet shorthand for the temperament it carries, and a way of finding the one that suits the wearer.

Shape	Character
Round	Classic
Princess	Trendy
Emerald	Glamour
Asscher	Vintage
Cushion	Romantic
Marquise	Dramatic
Oval	Innovative
Pear	Unique
Radiant	Diva
Heart	Sentimental