M. Geller: About Fancy Color Diamonds

The market for fancy color diamonds has increased significantly due to their popularity with celebrities and exposure to the media. Their value is determined by their color and intensity. Whether natural or enhanced, these beautiful diamonds run a full spectrum of breathtaking colors.

The Hope Diamond

Natural Color Diamonds

The Kahn Canary Diamond

Diamonds with a strong detectable hue are known as Natural Color Diamonds. They are the rarest among nature’s gems. Their color comes from a diamond’s natural formation resulting in impurities or structural defects. Quite simply, a foreign substance will produce a color when it makes its way into a diamond’s crystal lattice. In a truly colorless diamond, the full spectrum is transmitted unaffected and simultaneously to blend into what we perceive as “white”. In a Natural Color Diamond, Nitrogen impurities can cause blue to be absorbed rather than transmitted. Depending upon the amount of blue absorbed, an equal amount of its complimentary color, yellow, will become visible in the diamond. Natural Color Diamonds are extremely rare and the deeper the color, the more expensive the stone. Just how rare? At present time their output is estimated at 1 to 2 carats out of every 3,000 carats mined with the most prized colors being red, pink and blue.

When describing a Natural Color Diamond, in many cases there will be a primary and a secondary color. If the two colors are even throughout it should be described using the two color names such as “Yellow Orange”. However, if the primary color is dominant the secondary color will have an “ish” at the end as in “Yellowish”. This description, “Yellowish Orange” indicates that the primary color is Orange and its secondary Yellow.

Fancy Colors Available

Colors include yellow, pink, blue, green, red, orange, grey, brown, violet, purple, olive and black.