Yellow Diamonds - A Girl's Best Friend?

Natural yellow diamonds are quite common among fancy colored diamonds, nevertheless they are a lot rarer than white diamonds. It is a common false impression that ayellow diamond is less valuable than a colorless diamonds. While very light or slightly yellow diamonds are thought to be quite typical and not of a very high value, yellow diamonds such as intense and vivid are quite valuable.



The pure yellow stones are much more valuble than yellow diamonds with secondary brown hues, however, if the diamond happens to have secondary colors of green-yellow or orange yellow, this might raise the value of the diamond quite considerably. The reason being that these diamonds are even more difficult to find than yellow diamonds.



Natural yellow diamonds are graded by their strength and intensity of color. The highest-quality grade is the Vivid Yellow, closely followed by the Intense Yellow diamond. The lowest quality of yellow diamond is the Light Yellow diamond, closely followed by the Fancy Yellow. Several shades of Vivid Yellow diamonds along with the more rare Intense Yellow diamonds are called Canary Diamonds. Canary yellow diamonds are the rarest amongst yellow diamonds and for that reason they cost much more and are desirable both by collectors and classy buyers. The canary diamond has a very specific tone of yellow, and even if you have never seen a Canary Yellow, if you were to see one, you will “recognize” it immediately!



Yellow diamonds look wonderful when they are combined with white stones and usually yellow diamonds are set in yellow gold. A 3-stone ring should include white stones and the yellow stone should be set in the middle. White stones in trapeze, oval or triangle shapes will make a beautiful setting.



Like in other fancy color diamonds the coloration remains the main thing that influences the value of the diamond, after this comes the size and the clarity of the stone. Clarity is also crucial in the evaluation of yellow stones, though this is much less than in white diamonds.



Natural fancy color diamonds are most frequently found in a Radiant cut. This is considered the ideal shape for maximizing the color. Yellow diamonds can be also in the Cushion cut, Oval cut, and Pear and Heart shapes. The rarest are the Emerald, Square Emerald and the Brilliant cuts (round shape). The price of these shapes are substantially higher and not just when it comes to the yellow diamonds. This is true for all fancy color diamonds..



The cut quality of a colored diamond is very different to the traditional white diamond. The objective when cutting a color diamond should be to intensify the depth and saturation of color while managing to strike a balance between carat weight and brilliance. It is vital that the stone is sold with a grading report from a respected laboratory such as GIA, HRD, IGI or EGL. The report must state that the diamond color is "Natural". The report should also describe the intensity of color, together with the color distribution throughout the stone.



The Kimberley Octahedron is the largest naturally formed actohedral diamond in the world. The owner of the mine prefers not to cut this diamond at all, but to leave it in its original statetherefore the color and distribution grades cannot be applied to this impressive diamond.