Comparison Pics-Low and High Coloured Diamonds

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#16
Stophle said:
That's what my fiance and I did when having my engagement ring made. We had a limited budget and I wanted the largest stone possible (within reason of course), so we went with H color and I got a .99 ct. stone.

I only notice the warmth of the stone in certain lights, and it does bother me a little bit but that might have more to do with the cut than the color, I didn't think to ask about that when we were shopping.

All in all though it's a beautiful ring and I adore it. :smile1: Besides, I have always loved estate and antique pieces and most of them were on the warm side anyway.
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There certainly exist the shape of a diamond/the setting that would go better with warmer colors!!

Btw, "H" color is colorless. It's officially regarded as "colorless." So, IMO, if you go with "H" it does not really mean that you go down in color.;) It depends on the person's sensitiveness and policy, but, in my case, perhaps, under I. However, T&Co's I is, imo, OK because their 4C standards are quite strict and all the diamonds are ideally cut.;)

0.99 is very lucky carats!:yahoo: Congrats!
 
#17
einseine said:
There certainly exist the shape of a diamond/the setting that would go better with warmer colors!!

Btw, "H" color is colorless. It's officially regarded as "colorless." So, IMO, if you go with "H" it does not really mean that you go down in color.;) It depends on the person's sensitiveness and policy, but, in my case, perhaps, under I. However, T&Co's I is, imo, OK because their 4C standards are quite strict and all the diamonds are ideally cut.;)

0.99 is very lucky carats!:yahoo: Congrats!
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PS:

"I" is also regarded "near colorless", too. But, I see the difference between H color's "near colorless" and I color's "near colorless". The warmth of I color - the reduced transparency - is visible alone, without comparing to whiter stones.

Normarlly no chance to compare the colors of the stones side by side in daily life, but if I notice the color of the stone (say, in the solitaire in platinum setting) in a sand-alone situation, I don't like it very much.

Color is really personal matter.
 
#18
That is a great photo. I like the low colors. I guess I'm in the minority. The "NOP" section is the most appealing to me... but I also like K, L or M stones too. Lower than that is okay by me too, especially the light yellows in the U-Z range. I'm not a fan of really dark canary diamonds and prefer the ones that are a lighter lemon-y color.
 
#21
Oddly my mother's engagement ring is about .6 carats, H color, and set in yellow gold. The promise ring I just bought my girlfriend is SI2, just above .75, and L colored - and it is a premium cut in a white gold setting. Side-by-side the promise ring looks whiter (!) and I can't fathom why.

Do yellow gold prongs actually make a whiter stone look yellower? I asked my mother about the fluorescence of her stone and she said that twenty-five years ago nobody really thought about it. I'm not sure if she's right or not. Personally I prefer the look of warmer stones, and so did my girlfriend. We're lucky because it allowed us to choose a larger stone. IMO the eye is more important that the GIA certificate.
 
#22
tiffanysilver said:
Oddly my mother's engagement ring is about .6 carats, H color, and set in yellow gold. The promise ring I just bought my girlfriend is SI2, just above .75, and L colored - and it is a premium cut in a white gold setting. Side-by-side the promise ring looks whiter (!) and I can't fathom why.

Do yellow gold prongs actually make a whiter stone look yellower? I asked my mother about the fluorescence of her stone and she said that twenty-five years ago nobody really thought about it. I'm not sure if she's right or not. Personally I prefer the look of warmer stones, and so did my girlfriend. We're lucky because it allowed us to choose a larger stone. IMO the eye is more important that the GIA certificate.
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if the diamond has a yellowish hue to it, a platinum or white gold setting will make the yellow coloration more obvious. if the stone is warmer, it is better to set it in a yellow gold setting to minimize the yellowness...unless the warmth is what your looking for and not what you're trying to hide.
 
#23
Thanks, daluu. I know setting a warmer diamond in a yellow gold setting will mask the tint, and I tried to persuade my girlfriend to choose yellow gold prongs, but she only likes white metals. But it nonetheless looks whiter in its white gold setting than the higher-certified whiter diamond in a yellow gold setting. The stone I bought exhibited strong fluorescence and I suspect my mother's ring has none, and the warmer diamond is cut to near-perfection hearts and arrows while my mother's ring is not.
 
#24
tiffanysilver said:
Oddly my mother's engagement ring is about .6 carats, H color, and set in yellow gold. The promise ring I just bought my girlfriend is SI2, just above .75, and L colored - and it is a premium cut in a white gold setting. Side-by-side the promise ring looks whiter (!) and I can't fathom why.

Do yellow gold prongs actually make a whiter stone look yellower? I asked my mother about the fluorescence of her stone and she said that twenty-five years ago nobody really thought about it. I'm not sure if she's right or not. Personally I prefer the look of warmer stones, and so did my girlfriend. We're lucky because it allowed us to choose a larger stone. IMO the eye is more important that the GIA certificate.
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It can show a little more warmth in the form of reflection from the head, but the difference is probably that your new purchase has a much better cut than the original.
 
#25
^Agreed. I think part of the reason my stone looks yellowed in certain lights is because the cut isn't that great. Plus, it's an asscher so it has to be perfect or else you can see the flaws more easily.

I don't care though, I still love it! :smile1:
 
#26
einseine said:
There certainly exist the shape of a diamond/the setting that would go better with warmer colors!!

Btw, "H" color is colorless. It's officially regarded as "colorless." So, IMO, if you go with "H" it does not really mean that you go down in color.;) It depends on the person's sensitiveness and policy, but, in my case, perhaps, under I. However, T&Co's I is, imo, OK because their 4C standards are quite strict and all the diamonds are ideally cut.;)

0.99 is very lucky carats!:yahoo: Congrats!
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I think it's actually considered near colorless over colorless, but yeah, any warmth would be so minimal it doesn't really matter. I really think it's probably the fact that I didn't get a great cut. I don't even think the cut is graded on my appraisal. *LOL* I didn't even think about that until I started reading this part of the forum.

I still love my ring, you're right, .99 is amazing! We thought it was going to be a .97 (big difference, right? LOL) but when the appraisal came back it was .99. I feel very lucky.
 
#27
mikimoto007 said:
Presumably this is a stupid question, but are yellow diamonds just ordinary diamonds that are extremely low down on the colour scale?
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Never stupid questions here! :smile1: There are low-colour diamonds that become lemon-y in tint as you proceed down the colour scale of white diamonds.

However a diamond can take any colour in the spectrum and these are called 'fancy' diamonds. They can be found in blue, pink, red, green, orange. They are graded according to different levels of colour saturation under GIA grading and no, a true 'fancy' canary or yellow diamond is not a low-colour white diamond. Fancy yellow diamonds will be graded according to colour intensity such as fancy yellow, fancy intense yellow, fancy yellow-orange. Fancy coloured diamonds are more rare than white diamonds and prices generally reflect this.

Check out the Tiffany yellow diamonds collection for some lovely examples of true fancy yellow diamonds. Also look at Graff and Cartier.
 
#28
kikidoe said:
Agreed. I can see the yellow tint in "F" color easily, which surprised the Tiffany SA.
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Me too! I was looking at an H and I the other day and he didn't think I could tell the difference so I had him mix them up and I picked it out (mounted on a ring) in 3 seconds. Some people are just more colour sensitive. That's not to say if I just saw one on I'd know what colour it was... but I could tell the difference between my F/G wedding band and an H or I stone instantly.
 
#29
im really confused?
i really want to get a pendant made with yellow diamonds, does this mean that they are S-Y's? or are those just colourless diamonds with a little colour, and the actual 'fancy' coloured diamonds are different lol!
 
#30
They're graded based on the color saturation.

surfergirljen said:
Me too! I was looking at an H and I the other day and he didn't think I could tell the difference so I had him mix them up and I picked it out (mounted on a ring) in 3 seconds. Some people are just more colour sensitive. That's not to say if I just saw one on I'd know what colour it was... but I could tell the difference between my F/G wedding band and an H or I stone instantly.
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When you're dealing with smaller stones like that, they will automatically be whiter looking because there's less surface area to deal with.
 
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