If you have specific diamond ideas in your mind, you will not always find a diamond ring that equally satisfies your diamond idea and ring design choice. To avoid the possible conflict between the ring style and diamond design, people go for loose diamonds that help them get the exact diamond they are looking for. After choosing a loose diamond of good quality, you can create your own design of a diamond ring and get the diamond fitted in an appropriate setting.
Here are some of the details that you should look for while purchasing loose diamonds.
Carat Weight
The carat weight decides the size as well as the price of the loose diamond, and making mistakes while choosing a carat weight will compromise the diamond quality. 1 carat equals 0.2 grams, and each carat is subdivided into 100 points and each point is equal to one-hundredth of a carat.
Even though the carat weight affects the diamond size, both should not be confused to be the same. The carat weight has a positive impact on the diamond size with the size keeping on increasing with the carat weight.
Color
Color is an important factor that people consider while buying diamonds and many prefer colorless diamonds to colored ones. The number of diamonds that are perfectly colorless is low and most of the diamonds have shades of yellow and brown in them. The color scale of loose diamonds range from D to Z and on moving up the color scale, the diamonds turn from colorless to colored.
Colorless diamonds are expensive than colored diamonds and the diamonds in the D-F range are all colorless. The color that a diamond reflects and the extent to which it reflects light depend on the cut and unless you view the diamond in person, it is quite difficult to be sure of the color.
Clarity
Diamonds are obtained from depths far below the surface of earth and it is quite common for them to have inclusions and blemishes. The blemishes might be dark spots, cracks, cloudiness or gas bubbles. The number, position and type of the imperfection are denoted by the clarity grade of the diamond. The clarity scale ranges from Loupe clean (LC) to Pique 3 (P3).
The clarity of the diamond decides its quality and monetary value and decision on the clarity of the diamond can only be made by inspecting it in person. Lesser the number of inclusions in the diamond, clearer it will be and the price too will be high.
Shape
The facets and angles that are cut into the diamond to assist the reflection of light by it is referred to as cut. The brilliance and light performance of a diamond depend on its cut and several diamond cuts like round, oval, cushion, emerald, princess etc are available.
Round cuts are the most popular and expensive diamond cuts because of its brilliance that no other cut can challenge. During the cutting process of round cut diamonds, a bigger portion of the raw diamond is removed and the high wastage of diamonds contributes to its high cost.
The fancy cuts like marquise, heart, and pear are modifications of the round cut while the rectangular and square shapes like emerald are step cuts. The choice of cut sometimes decides the size choice too as in the case of heart cuts, which demands carat weights above 0.5.If the carat weight is less than 0.5 in heart cuts, it becomes difficult to identify its characteristic shape.
Reflection of white light by the diamond decides its brightness and the sparkles in the diamond are caused by the dark and light patterns within the stone.
Fluorescence
Sometimes diamonds give off a faint blue glow on being exposed to UV rays, which is referred to as fluorescence. In majority of the situations, the fluorescence is not quite visible to the naked eye but excess fluorescence can give a hazy look to the diamond.
To get a clear idea about the fluorescence of a diamond, you may check its lab report that will rate the fluorescence as none, faint, medium, strong, or very strong.
Certification
Several institutes certify the diamonds and some of the famous certifying agencies Gemological Institute of America (GIA), International Gemological Institute (IGI), American Gem Society(AGS), European Gemological Laboratory(EGL) etc.
Loose diamonds certified by GIA and AGS have appreciable reliability and you can confidently go ahead with the purchase of a diamond that is certified by these agencies. The gem certifying agencies guarantee the quality of a diamond by analyzing its cut, weight, color etc.
The diamond purchase task should be backed by thorough research and understanding of the detailing of diamond and factors that are crucial to its quality. If possible, get the help of an expert to buy loose diamonds if you do not have much knowledge about diamonds.