What are the 4 C’s?

Last week I had dinner with my good friend’s dad and his fiance. We sat at this little restaurant and chatted everything engagements. I, of course, had to check out her ring since I hadn’t seen her since the proposal. Then I jokingly asked him if he studied the 4 C’s before purchasing the ring. Neither of them really had any idea what I was talking about. I think it’s interesting and some people think it’s important so I wanted to take this opportunity to briefly go over the 4 C’s of diamonds.

Cut– cut refers to the shape of the diamond. Some of the most common cuts are emerald, heart, oval, pear, princess, square and round. Cut is important because it determines how the light will reflect off the stone.

Color– diamonds actually come in almost all colors, but the most common for engagement rings is no color at all. The typical diamond is graded on a scale of totally colorless to light yellow. The differences from one grade to the other are very subtle and it often takes a trained eye to detect.

Clarity– the clarity of a diamond is determined by the amount and location of flaws or blemishes detected under 10 power magnification. A diamond that is free of blemishes is very rare and therefore very valuable. 

Carat– the weight of a diamond is measured in carats. The bigger the stone, the more rare it is.

Important note– value is determined by all of the 4 Cs so a 2 carat diamond may end up being less valuable than a 1 carat diamond if the color and clarity are more rare.