The Four C's for Diamonds

Important information when viewing diamonds

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When buying your engagement ring or diamond ring, you need to know the basics. All reputable jewellers in Ireland and across the world, use the four C's to describe diamond quality.

1. Diamond Cut

  • Cut refers to the reflective quality of a diamond and not its shape
  • If a diamond is cut properly it will reflect the light up through the centre of the stone and have an amazing sparkle on your engagement ring
  • A poorly cut diamond will leak the light, resulting in less light being reflected and less sparkle

Common shapes are:

common diamond shapes

 

When viewing engagement rings or diamond rings, please ask your jeweller to explain the 4C's to you

2. Diamond Clarity

  • Most diamonds contain tiny natural marks called inclusions (or blemishes)
  • Many of these cannot be seen with the naked eye
  • The number of inclusions, their size and location all affect the diamond's clarity grade

The fewer inclusions on the diamond, the more valuable the diamond:

IF VVS1/VVS2 VS1/VS2 SI1/SI2 I1
Internally Flawless Very Very Slight Blemishes Very Slight Blemishes Slight Blemishes Medium to Large Blemishes
Internally Flawless Very Very Slight Blemishes Very Slight Blemishes Slight Blemishes Medium to Large Blemishes

 

When viewing engagement rings or diamond rings, please ask your jeweller to explain the 4C's to you

3. Diamond Carat

The carat-weight of a diamond measures the weight of a diamond and not the actual "size": 1ct = 0.2 gram
(Note: Images not to scale, pictures shown are for comparison purposes only)

.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.5 0.75 1.00 1.50 1.75 2.00 2.50 3.00 4.00 5.00
carat-weight 0.05 carat-weight 0.10 carat-weight 0.15 carat-weight 0.20 carat-weight 0.25 carat-weight 0.5 carat-weight 0.75 carat-weight 1.00 carat-weight 1.50 carat-weight 1.75 carat-weight 2.00 carat-weight 2.50 carat-weight 3.00 carat-weight 4.00 carat-weight 5.00

 

When viewing engagement rings or diamond rings, please ask your jeweller to explain the 4C's to you

4. Diamond Colour

  • The closer a diamond is to being colourless, the rarer and more valuable the stone
  • Diamonds can be measured on a colour scale which ranges from D (the best and colourless) to Z (light yellow)
  • The further down the alphabet the diamond is, the more yellow appears in the stone

Diamonds that are high up the colour grading scale, such as D, E, & F, are considered to be most valuable:

colour grading scale

 

When viewing engagement rings or diamond rings, please ask your jeweller to explain the 4C's to you