Tips

A Different Look at the Famous Four C’s... From Shelley’s Point of View

Much is written about the "Four C’s" to diamond buying, and certainly there are many reliable sources to help educate the new buyer. But in helping you decide what really matters, we won’t bore you with information you can find from so many other sources. Instead, we’ll try to give advice that you can use.

Want to know how to identify your diamond with certainty? Each diamond has its own unique birthmark that enables exact identification when compared to other diamonds. Have your jeweler show you how to identify your diamond by its birthmark. A certified gemologist can generate a plot and a photograph of your diamond which allows you to identify your diamond exactly. We suggest viewing the diamond through a jeweler's gem scope before leaving it at the store for servicing. When you pick it up again, view it a second time to re-verify its identification.

Remember that jewelers never buy diamonds on the basis of diamond certificates alone; a certificate can’t tell us what the diamond looks like. At Shelley’s, we handle and examine each diamond with our own eyes to verify its beauty for the price. Only then will it be chosen for one of Shelley’s stores. If an experienced jeweler refuses to select diamonds from a paper certificate, so should you! We suggest choosing a jeweler who understands the value of excellent Cut and has pre-selected well-cut diamonds for you to handle and see.

The easiest of the four C’s to determine, Carat is simply the weight of the diamond stone. Because carats are a measure of weight and not necessarily size, some diamonds of the same carat weight may actually appear to be different in size because of the cut. Rarity goes up geometrically with weight. A one carat diamond is literally one in a million!

After Cut, Color is the second most important factor in choosing your diamond. Women seem especially gifted at seeing slight differences in color; they usually can tell whether the diamond color is off! One thing to keep in mind is that a perfectly colorless diamond takes on the color of the metal of its setting. So even a "D" grade diamond of finest color will pick up additional color from its mounting, appearing several grades lower than the grade indicates. Your jeweler should assist you in picking a mounting that enhances the color of your particular diamond.

When it comes to Clarity, you should be interested in three things in selecting the quality of your diamond. Depend on a trained gemologist to guide you through this minefield:

• You want a diamond whose "birthmarks" can be seen only with magnification.
• You want a diamond free of birthmarks that affect the sparkle.
• You want a diamond free of flaws that might cause it to break.

Keep in mind that all diamonds have birthmarks, even those certified ‘Flawless.’ Beyond a certain point, it’s impossible to see birthmarks with the unaided eye, and prices for those diamonds rise with their rarity. Buying a diamond better than ‘SI1’ or ‘SI2’ does not enhance the beauty of the diamond to the naked eye... its superior grade is obvious only in the microscope. By all means avoid diamonds that have an obvious flaw, especially ones are dangerous or affect the sparkle!

Sparkle is the first and last thing we notice about a diamond. ALL the sparkle of a diamond comes from how perfectly the diamond was cut, proportioned, faceted, and polished. Cut is the single most important factor in selecting a diamond. The cut is what causes a diamond to sparkle on a person's finger.

It takes an extremely experienced and skilled master cutter to bring out a diamond’s fire and life, and there are very few master cutters in the entire world. In addition, the precision equipment needed to cut a diamond to maximum beauty is patented and owned by Hearts on Fire® Diamonds. There are only about 400 cutting benches in the entire world on which one could cut a Hearts on Fire® diamond.

The Fifth C isn’t a "C" at all! Beauty is the single most important characteristic of the perfect diamond. It sounds overly simple: you want a beautiful diamond. But the combinations of Color, Cut, and Clarity are infinitely variable. You should chose a combination resulting in the most beautiful diamond for you.