Berry's Diamond Guide
Diamond Guide Understanding the 4 C’s
Should you need some guidance in choosing the perfect piece of diamond jewellery, we have everything you need to know featured within our comprehensive diamond guide here at Berry’s. You may be surprised to learn that choosing a diamond ring or diamond pendant, doesn’t just come down to the style of the setting that it features in. The cut, the colour, the clarity and the carat of a diamond should have a significant influence over your final decision. To ensure that you are getting all the help and advice you need in selecting your dream piece of diamond jewellery, we have broken our guide down into smaller categories to ensure that you feel confident in your purchase and that your experience with us is as memorable and as special as the diamond itself.
The 4 C’s:
The 4 C’ s offer a smarter way to shop for a diamond. Now you can evaluate the quality and value of a diamond with confidence by focusing on those factors most important to you. A diamond that satisfies your standards of beauty and value is a diamond well-chosen.
Cut: The cut of a diamond refers to its polish, its symmetry and its proportions – not the shape of the design itself. It will impact on the appearance, the brightness and the brilliance of your chosen setting, including the stone’s scintillation and fire. Getting the perfect balance between the bright white light reflections and good colour dispersion, should be an important feature in determining your final choice.
Colour: The majority of our diamonds here at Berry’s are rated using the GIA colour scale from D (known as exceptional white on the CIBJO scale) through to Z (known as tinted colour).
Clarity: Although all diamonds contain small imperfections and blemishes, it is of the degree to which these imperfections are present within the diamond under a 10 times magnification, that affects its clarity. The clarity of a diamond will be important to you in choosing your perfect piece of diamond jewellery, especially those pieces such as an engagement ring that will be worn on the hand every day. The fewer the imperfections, the more desirable and more valuable the diamond. The more blemishes and imperfections of a diamond, the more these flaws will interfere with the path of light passing through the stone, and therefore its brilliance. A Diamond Grading report documents the specific characteristics of a diamond. These reports are issued by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), which is among the most respected organizations in the diamond industry. Currently a stone is termed flawless by the GIA if it has no surface characteristics or internal inclusions. It is also deemed internally flawless if it has minor surface characteristics.
Carat: Although many think that the carat value given to a diamond relates to its size, carat is actually a term of weight measurement. Two diamonds with the same carat weight can be priced very differently, as the value of a stone depends on more than one factor alone. Carat weight originates from a naturally occurring unit of weight: the seed of the carob tree. Diamonds were traditionally weighed against the seeds until the system was standardised and a carat is now fixed at 0.2 grams. One carat is divided into 100 "points" so that a diamond of 25 points is described as a quarter of a carat or 0.25 carats.
View the interactive Diamond Guide Below