KNOW YOUR DIAMONDS

A diamond’s journey from the Earth’s crust formed billions of years ago, to the hands of a jeweller, and finally adorned by the person it was meant for, is a fairytale in itself. And for you to shoulder the title of such a story, we present to you, perpetual diamond creations, as your trusted jeweller.

Every diamond chosen at EF-IF is of impeccable character and superlative quality. Employed with a high level of gemological expertise, each stone is cut and polished to release all its radiance and distinctive beauty. No two diamonds are the same Behind every gem of a diamond is its own originality, which is just part of what makes this shimmering stone so spectacular. Bearing that in mind, every piece that we, at EF-IF create is truly one of its own kind, much as us humans – all the same at one glance but innately a unique persona.

The word “diamond” comes from the Greek word “Adamas,” meaning “indestructible.” Beautiful and rare, this stone’s unique qualities have been an aspect of awe to humans since time immemorial. Now what exactly makes a diamond so special, and how is it judged on varying beauty? The 4 C’s offer a useful starting point, namely, Cut, Clarity, Color, Carat Weight. Learn how important it is to cut the diamond correct, why clarity matters, what the color of a diamond can determine and so much more.

CUT
The beauty of a diamond's sparkle and brilliance is the result of how well it has been cut.
Known for their magnificent sparkle and the intensity in which they reflect light, a diamond’s cut is one of the most prominent (and visual) aspects to consider when grading a diamond, as it directly determines the diamond’s brilliance, fire and scintillation.

“The beauty of a perfectly cut diamond is not just in its exquisite aesthetics, but in the way it makes you feel” - Yair Shimansky

When a diamond is cut with meticulous precision—neither too shallow nor too deep—light usually reflects inside the stone from one mirror-like facet to another and reappear to the eye in a flash of spectral colors. This type of proportion and symmetry can be warranted at the hands of master craftsmen who ensure every facet is cut and polished to reveal its true potential.

The more accurate and scientifically calculated the cut, the more striking and captivating the diamond becomes. For a master diamond craftsman, it takes hours of analysis before the cut that yields a beautiful and valuable diamond, is determined. The cutting and polishing process takes several days and is vitally important – even if a diamond is highly graded in all of the other 4Cs, a bad cut or polish will leave it looking dull and lack-lustre.

CLARITY
The absence of inclusions & blemishes makes a diamond rare and affects its value.
Every diamond has certain slight internal and surface characteristics, most of them too small to be seen by the unaided eye. The clarity of a diamond is determined by the size, number and nature of the inclusions present in the stone. Inclusions refer to imperfections that occur naturally inside the diamond itself – they are not man-made, and are believed to have formed during the crystallization process of the gem.

Inclusions can also help a gemologist to separate a real diamond from an imitation. When viewed using a magnification of 10X, they can take various forms such as tiny crystals, clouds or feathers. Fewer imperfections in the stone will make it more precious as flawless diamonds are fairly rare in the world.

However, blemishes do not always affect a diamond’s performance or structural integrity. When set in jewellery, it may also be possible to hide certain marks behind mounting hardware such as prongs in a way that renders the defect invisible.

Every diamond’s clarity is graded on a range from Flawless (F) – the rarest of stones, to Imperfect/Inclusive of blemishes (I). When choosing a diamond, you should select a clarity grade in which the inclusions are not visible to the naked eye (i.e. a clarity grade of VSI and up). A diamond’s clarity is unique and acts as a fingerprint.

COLOR
When it comes to diamonds, color means no color at all. Diamonds originate in different shades of color, usually ranging from colorless to varying shades of yellow. Even though most diamonds appear colorless to an untrained eye, many have slight tones of yellow or brown that affect its value.

This inherent color is caused by natural trace elements of nitrogen that were present under Earth’s crust when the diamond was formed. The less color a diamond exhibits, the higher the rarity, and therefore the higher the value.

Color is essentially a visual distraction that affects sparkle. This causes lesser sparkle in diamonds with yellow/brown tint of color because light performance/reflection is reduced.

The international gemological color scale begins with the highest rating of D for colorless, and travels down the alphabet until Z to grade stones with traces of very faint or light yellowish or brownish color.
In addition to the D – Z color scale, natural fancy color diamonds such as deep yellows, pinks, greens and blues lie outside the white diamond color range and are extremely rare and valuable. These natural fancy color diamonds are graded according to the intensity of their color. The more intense and vibrant their shade, the higher their value.

CARAT WEIGHT
Coupled with cut, color and clarity – Carat adds weight to a diamond’s wonder. A diamond's size is measured by weight, which is expressed in carats. Typically, 1 carat = 0.2 grams, or 200 milligrams. Just as currency is divided into smaller units, a carat is divided into 100 points or 1/5 of a gram.

Does size really matter? Diamonds of higher carat weight are rarely found in nature and are generally considered more valuable than smaller diamonds of the same color and clarity. This means that the price of a diamond will increase exponentially as the carat size of the diamond increases. Diamonds of one carat or larger are so rare that they represent only 1% of all the diamonds mined worldwide.

Though the carat weight of a diamond gives only an indication of its size, weight and size should not be understood interchangeably: The size of a diamond is also dependent on its cut and shape. It is quite possible for two diamonds of the same carat weight to appear to be different sizes. Each individual diamond’s proportions (such as the table and depth percentages) must be taken into account to determine its size. A diamond’s beauty and quality is thus measured by a complex combination of factors to comprehend its true character of brilliance.