The color in natural color diamonds is caused by different factors that were present during their formation, such as pressure, atoms of other elements, or natural radiation.

Yellow, Orange and Brown coloris due to the presence of nitrogen. Pure orange diamonds, with no traces of brown or yellow, are the rarest, and their color is believed to be the result of a combination of nitrogen presence and deformities in their structure.

Blue color is mainly due to the presence of boron. The higher the concentration of boron atoms, the more intense the color will be. For some greenish blue diamonds, the color can also be due to radiation, that was present in the earth during their formation. In very rare cases, grayish blue color has also been found to be caused by the presence of hydrogen.

Pink, Purple and some Brown colors are due to ‘graining’, which is a deformation of the crystal lattice in the diamond. This phenomenon can be seen in many diamonds coming from the Argyle mine in Australia, using a 10x magnifying glass. Depending on the level of graining, different shades will appear in the diamond. Scientists believe that this is due to the extreme pressures that the diamonds have been subject during their rising through the earth. It is also believed that this pressure is the reason why many of the diamonds in this color range, especially pink and purple ones, often have a lot of impurities.

Pure Violet diamonds, which are extremely rare, are the result of hydrogen presence in the diamond’s crystal lattice.

Natural Gray diamonds derive their color from presence of hydrogen atoms and sometimes small amounts of nitrogen.

Natural Green diamonds have a color that is due to gamma radiation that the diamonds have been exposed to in the earth during a very long time period, which is thought to possibly be several million years. This natural procedure causes atoms in the diamonds crystal structure to be displaced, which is the source of the green color. In some very rare cases, the presence of hydrogen atoms can cause a grayish green color to appear.

Natural Red diamonds derive their color from a process known as ‘plastic deformation’, which is a slipping or a distortion of the atomic lattice.

Natural White diamonds have a color that is thought to be the result of a presence of nitrogen and a high concentration of submicroscopic inclusions that scatter light, yielding their characteristic translucent ‘milky’ white color. The nature of these inclusions is unknown. Natural white diamonds are sometimes called ‘opalescent’, since the dispersion of the light looks somewhat similar to that of opals.

Several different color scales exist for natural color diamonds – just like for white diamonds. For example, for pink diamonds from the Argyle mine in Australia, a specific color scale exists, that is used alongside the more widespread color scale that is used by laboratories. At Fancy Diamond Group, we have developed our own color scale. Using 50 years of experience of natural color diamonds and taking inspiration from nature, we have created color denominations that are more expressive and easier to relate to than laboratory colors, such as chocolate,raspberry and indigo.

Laboratory Colors

For natural color diamonds the major laboratories that we work with, the GIA and the IGI, use the same color scale.

These are the different components of a diamond’s laboratory color:

Hue refers to the dominant color of a stone, such as pink, yellow, blue, green or brown, for example. There can also be modifiers, or tints, which lend more than one hue to a stone, placing it in yet another color category. For instance, a purplish-pink diamond indicates a pink diamond with purplish tints. If no such tints are present, the hue of the stone is said to be a pure primary color. It is important to note that white and black have no modifiers.
Tone represents how light or dark a stone appears, depending on how much brown, black, gray or white is present.
Saturation describes the strength or intensity of the hue or the main color. The saturation of lightly toned diamonds varies from light to fancy, intense and vivid. Darker diamonds will range from deep to dark in description.
Distribution refers to how evenly the color is spread throughout the diamond.

The FancyDiamondGroup Selection

While some laboratory colors are fairly easy to imagine without having seen the diamond, such as for example greenish-blue, others can become extremely complex and difficultly accessible. Fancy dark greenish gray, or fancy intense orangy brown, are examples of these complicated denominations.

In order to simplify the usage and the communication of color denominations, Natacha and Arthur Fancy Diamond Group has developed the Fancy Diamond Group Selection, a color scale inspired by the rich palette of colors than can be found in nature. Instead of naming a diamond yellowish green, it will be called Lime, or Mint. Instead of purplish pink, it will be called Lavender or Lilac, and orange yellow will become Pumpkin or Saffron. The idea is to make the denomination more accurate, and easier to relate to.

More and more customers as well as professionals in the trade have adopted this user-friendly color scale, and refer to the colors from the Fancy Diamond Group Selection. Throughout our web shop, you will see the Fancy Diamond Group Selection colors noted alongside the laboratory colors, and in our Book Store a poster with the entire selection is available for purchase, in two sizes.

Fancy color is not to be confused with fancy shape – they have little to do with each other. Fancy shape designates all the different diamond cuts that are not round brilliant cuts, regardless of color. Fancy color on the other hand, designates a diamonds color in relation to the traditional color scale used for colorless diamonds. Most of the diamonds that are extracted from the earth are in the colorless to light yellow range (D to Z grade).

Fancy color diamonds go off this scale, as they have a distinct and opulent color. Unlike colorless and near colorless diamonds which are valued for their lack of color, fancy color diamonds are valued precisely for the intensity and distribution of theirs. These diamonds are extremely rare and tend to be found mostly as small stones weighing less than a carat. For every 10,000 colorless diamonds of gem quality, only one natural color diamond will have made the trip from the depths of the earth to its surface. It is the entirely natural process of geological formation which ensures that each natural color diamond is unique.

The formation of natural color diamonds requires not only the special conditions necessary for the creation of all diamonds, but also the presence of additional trace elements and distortions to the typical diamond crystal. If an element interacts with carbon atoms during the creation of a diamond, the diamond’s color can change. Radiation and pressure on a diamond’s structure will also have an impact on its color. Read more about the origin of color here.

Fluorescence is a phenomenon present in around 1/3 of all diamonds. This causes them to glow under ultraviolet (UV) light, which is abundant in natural daylight and also in some artificial lighting. Diamond fluorescence is usually blue, but can shift in almost any color and is due to small amounts of the element boron which are present in the stone.

Whereas fluorescence is a debated subject for white diamonds, since it can render diamonds with a lesser color whiter, and contrarily render white diamonds of a good color ‘milky’, the situation is a different one for natural color diamonds. Fluorescence can enhance or change the color of a natural color diamond in magnificent ways, and is then considered as purely positive. A green diamond with a strong green fluorescence for example, is beautiful as the fluorescence enhances the color. A pink diamond with a blue fluorescence will appear gorgeously purplish.

The most famous and clear example is maybe the yellow and orange diamonds from Brazil, which often have a very strong green fluorescence. This creates wonderful color effects, and gives the impression that the diamonds are glowing.

It is of course a matter of taste, whether you like fluorescence in some colors or not, but in any case it is important to keep in mind that for natural color diamonds, the presence of fluorescence is not considered as a negative thing.

In light of the growing interest in color diamonds it is important to clear the confusion between treated or synthetic diamonds on the one hand, and natural color diamonds on the other.

Technological developments now allow us to create diamonds of almost any color, either completely artificially or from natural diamonds whose color is unattractive (not clearly defined, yellowish, brownish etc). Such stones can be manufactured at will, resulting in the production of goods that are the exact contrary of what they are substituting for: diamonds by definition are unique, rare, and exceptional.

A natural color diamond is unique. It is a product of nature, shaped by millions of years of crystallization. Its color is the product of chance and no two natural color diamonds can be identical: it is this uniqueness, this rareness that gives them all their value.

Natural and treated color diamonds are two completely different products that operate on two completely different markets. The intrinsic value and the price of each of these cannot even begin to be compared. And the confusion which now exists – and some would say is willfully created by some manufacturers of treated diamonds – is dangerous since it will impact on consumer confidence.

Natural color diamonds are to be considered like any authentic work of art – a painting by a Master, an ancient sculpture, a signed piece of furniture. Treated or synthetic diamonds are only pale imitations, created by the thousands and sold at low cost – just as is the case for copied works of art.

There are two types of treatments: treated natural diamonds, and synthetic diamonds. The aim of treating natural diamonds is to artificially improve their quality by changing one or several of their characteristics, thereby increasing their value. Such treatments generally target color and purity.

For color, treatments can help to resolve problems related to quantity and uniformity: if a jeweler needs a hundred or so identically colored diamonds to set in a pav?, treating an entire lot of diamonds will enable him to obtain a more uniform color. The main types of treatments are presented hereunder. This list is as complete as possible however this area is still the subject of much research and development.

Synthetic diamonds are created artificially from carbon. This process barely requires three weeks, compared to tens of thousands of years for natural diamonds. Only laboratories possessing leading-edge technology are able to detect these diamonds, which have exactly the same physical and chemical properties as natural diamonds. Laboratories do not deliver certificates for these stones.

The Argyle mine in Australia is alone in the world to produce natural pink diamonds of the color intensity that can be found there. Some very light pink diamonds can be found in South Africa, but for the more intense colors, Argyle is the only source.

We often receive questions from clients interested in pink diamonds from the Argyle mine about the yearly Argyle Tenders, and the Argyle certificates that they issue.

Argyle Tenders

Every year, the Argyle mine in Australia highlights a selection of their most vibrant, intense natural pink diamonds, and offer them for sale at an invitation-only tender. The pink diamonds chosen for the tenders are some of the finest pink diamonds to be found. For every one million carats of rough diamonds produced in the mine, only one polished carat is offered for sale at the tender. Prospective buyers place sealed bids and, assuming the reserve price is reached at the tender deadline, the winning bidder is notified of their success.

It goes without saying that these diamonds are extremely rare on the market, but even if you can’t lay your hands on a pink diamond from an Argyle Tender, it is still possible to find gorgeous, one of a kind pink Argyle diamonds. Being among the rarest of the natural color diamonds, they are all little miracles of nature. Have a look at our selection of rough pink diamonds and polished pink diamonds in our web store.

Argyle Certificates

The pink diamonds over 0.50 carat that are polished in the Argyle mine and sold by Argyle Diamonds, receive an Argyle Gem Identification Certificate. It thus exists only for a part of the pink diamonds originating from the Argyle mine. An Argyle certificate is not the same thing as a certificate issued by a laboratory, but a description of the characteristics of the diamond based upon the application of the grading techniques used by Argyle Diamonds. It states weight and shape, as well as the color and clarity grading according to the special scales used by Argyle.

Since we are manufacturers at Fancy Diamond Group, we mostly buy rough pink diamonds directly from the Argyle mine, and cut and polish them ourselves. For those diamonds there are therefore no Argyle certificates. We can on the contrary always provide laboratory certificates for any diamond purchased from us.

Why Are Laser Inscriptions Used on Diamonds?

Laser inscriptions on diamonds are used for two purposes: identification and personalization of the diamond. Some laboratories propose to inscribe the certificate number of the diamond, for identification. It is also used by some manufacturers as a sort of “branding” – such as the ‘Forevermark’, that is used by De Beers to mark some of their most exceptional diamonds.

You can also use it to personalize your diamond, by inscribing a personal message, a date, a place, your name, or some other special information on the diamond.

How Are Laser Inscriptions Made?

Laser inscriptions are made using an extremely fine laser beam, to “write” on the diamond. The heat from the laser alters a very thin layer – only a few atoms thick – from the transparent carbon crystal that is the diamond, into graphite, which is an opaque carbon structure. The effect is that under a microscope the inscription appears three-dimensional. The laser inscription is microscopic, and completely invisible to the naked eye. You need a 10x magnifying loupe to see it.

What is important to keep in mind is that laser inscriptions do not change the color grade or clarity grade of a diamond. It is however also important to know that they are considered as permanent – only a professional diamond cutter can remove a laser inscription. If you were to consider inscribing a personal message on the stone, you might therefore want to think twice if you are also buying the diamond as an investment, to potentially resell it one day.

The Kimberley Process is a common initiative between governments, non-governmental organizations and the diamond industry, to stop the trade with so called ‘blood diamonds’, or conflict diamonds – illicit diamonds that have been used to fuel and finance devastating conflicts. The Kimberley process imposes extensive requirements on its members in terms of legislation and other measures for control of import and export, and for internal control. This enables them to certify the rough diamonds put on the market as ‘conflict-free’.

Every shipment of rough diamonds produced in and exported from a country complying with the Kimberley Process is accompanied by a ‘Kimberley Certificate’, which ensures its conflict-free origin. This enables authorities and market actors to track and control the origin of the rough diamonds. It is thus not a certificate that is issued to the final buyer, like a laboratory certificate or such, but part of an administrative procedure controlling the origins of diamonds, to make sure that serious dealers can guarantee the conflict-free origin of the final product.

So far, the Kimberley Process has been very effective. Diamond experts estimate that conflict diamonds now represent less than a percent of the international diamond trade, which can be compared to 15% in 1990.

Fancy Diamond Group Diamonds is located in Antwerp, which is one of the largest centers in the world for diamond trade. All the import and export of diamonds to and from Antwerp is controlled by an independent surveillance authority, which ensures that the diamonds put on the market in Antwerp come from legitimate sources and comply with the Kimberley Process. In addition to this, we always care to verify the origin of the rough and polished diamonds we purchase cautiously, and to make sure we only deal with serious diamond traders. When buying a diamond or a diamond jewel from Fancy Diamond Group Diamonds, you can therefore rest assured that the diamonds are 100% conflict-free.

We often receive questions about whether it is possible to buy rough diamonds to have them polished. It is, naturally, but there are some facts that are important to know if this is something you are considering.

First of all, it is essential to keep in mind that not all rough diamonds are suitable for cutting and polishing. They may have inclusions that makes cutting impossible, or a structure that would make the possible yield so small that cutting is not interesting. As a general rule, the yield for a cuttable diamond varies between 25-40% of the original weight of the rough diamond.

Polishing a diamond is always a risky procedure, since even though it is possible to make approximate predictions, you can never be sure of the result, in terms of color, weight or clarity. Also, since there is a lot of demand for rough diamonds, the prices have gone up and it is actually more interesting to buy polished diamonds than to buy rough stones and have them cut.

The rough diamonds displayed in our web shop are for the most part chosen for their beautiful color and geological structure, and not for their suitability for cutting and polishing. If you are convinced to go forward with buying a rough diamond to have it cut, please contact us and we can advise you on this, and possibly propose other diamonds from our stock that would be suitable for this.