Did you know that diamonds aren’t limited to just the colorless variety? While the colorless diamond is the most common, the jewelry market has seen a marked increase in colorful diamonds. Colored gem stones allow you to give your jewelry an added flair. Since each color represents a different mood, you can pick and choose your daily jewelry selections according to the way you feel that morning. Since diamonds represent luxury and opulence, with the emergence of colors of diamonds it has become easier for the upper crust to customize their jewelry without having to settle for one of the lesser known stones on the market.
Rarity of Color Diamonds
Colored diamonds are incredibly rare. They actually only tend to appear once out of every 10,000 diamonds mined. This rarity is what lends the colored diamond its desirability and hefty price tag.
One of the most sought after colored diamonds is the blue diamond. Recently, a 29.6 carat blue diamond was found in the Cullinan mine near Pretoria in South Africa. Some of the larger blue diamonds have actually sold at a price of over $1 million a carat. Out of the 1 in every 10,000 diamonds that yield a colored diamond, blue diamonds are only found in only a fraction of those.
The rarest of all colorful diamonds, though, is the red diamond. There are probably only 20 red diamonds in all of existence. In this case, if you have your heart set on a red stone, you may want to stick with rubies or garnets. Depending on how deep your pockets go, red diamonds may be out of your price range.
Available Colors
There are several different colors available when picking out your diamond, although you might be surprised to learn what actually causes each one.
Nitrogen is one of the most common elements found in diamonds and has the ability to turn them yellow and brown. Brown diamonds have seen a sudden boost in popularity thanks to them being marketed as chocolate diamonds. Blue diamonds are created when boron is introduced to the gems while green diamonds are created by irradiation by alpha particles. Plastic deformation is also responsible for turning diamonds brown, pink, and red. The popular black diamond isn’t actually black. Instead it is just full of dark inclusions that give it the appearance of being black.
The truth is, even though colorful diamonds are incredibly expensive because of their rarity, the reason they have their colors is due to impurities and defects. This is probably the only time a defect will actually make you pay more for an item rather than less. No matter how they got that way, fancy color diamonds are a unique way to add a pop of color to your fine jewelry without having to sacrifice quality. Just be sure to have their quality verified before committing to a purchase. You wouldn’t want to spend tens of thousands on a stone only to find out later that it was one of the lesser quality gems instead.
