Large diamonds with a gray tint - lighting?

[schadenfreude]

I was at South Coast Plaza, that incredible Mecca of a mall in LA, for the first time a couple days ago. Of course that place has so many super high end big names like Cartier, Tiffany, etc. as well as jewelers I'd never heard of, like Nathan Alan. Naturally, all these places had their biggest and most spectacular diamonds in the display windows... some so huge and gorgeous I could barely breathe, for real! Anyway, many of the really huge diamonds had a notable gray tinge to them, but they were incredible, stunning! Admittedly, I've never seen diamonds that big IRL before. Is that gray tinge something that comes with size, or is it lighting? The smaller diamonds (you know, only 2 carats... ) were bright white and colorless. I found the gray ones just spectacular! Can anyone shed any light on this, pun intended?

 

[Swanky]

I would guess it was reflections. A lot of times the velvet display is a gray color.

 

[chanel-girl]

My first thought is that maybe the color wasn't so great in the really large stones...Sometimes in bright jewelry store lighting stones that have a slight yellowish tint to them appear somewhat grayish or not a bright white. I noticed this at a very high end jewelry store in my area when I was looking at a pair of 3 ctw studs and they were a K in color and in bright lighting they had a slight gray tint.

 

[guccikat]

it could be because the diamond is a poor cut, sometimes poorly cut diamonds ie:shallow cut or deep cut causes the light to reflect off the sides of the stone instead of the top (in which you will get the most brilliance), therefore, causing the stone to look darker in the middle.

 

[jan228]

This probably isn't the case in this scenario, but GIA does certify fancy gray diamonds.

 

[IdealD]

I have an colorless Ideal Cut diamond which does the same thing sometimes. I've been told its one of the nuances of having a well cut diamond.

This article might be of interest.
http://diamonds.pricescope.com/brill.asp

IdealD

 

[slip]

That's what I've read too that real diamonds have greyish/whitish tint when lights are being refracted. Only fake diamonds project rainbows. I'd love to own a big rock someday.

 

[Chrystal162]

I'm partial to grey, so they would still appear lovely to me!

 

[bellabird]

Diamonds come in various colors, even black. My mother-in-law has diamonds that look like smokey topaz. I know they were expensive but they still look like topaz to me .