As you shop for jewelry, particularly an engagement ring, you might notice a high asking price for colored stones. Often created through specific inclusions or how light refracts through the stone, fancy colored diamonds are less common than the traditional style.
Learn more about these stones.
What Are Fancy Colored Diamonds?
Diamonds graded on a D-to-Z color scale can vary from clear to light yellow or brown, with some having a gray or milky tint. When a diamond displays a more intense color, like vibrant yellow, rich brown or any of the other 10 hues spanning a wide spectrum, it’s categorized as a “fancy colored diamond.”
The grading system is actually inverted for fancy colored diamonds. While clear stones with minimal coloration result in a higher value, the intense hues of fancy colored diamonds increase their value.
The rarity of a particular color like red, blue, green or pink can drive up the price even further. As bolder, more vivid colors tend to be the rarest of all, the typical fancy colored stone has a muted to moderate or uneven shade.
Just How Rare Are Fancy Colored Diamonds?
The Gemological Institute of America has found that fancy colored diamonds make up only one of every 10,000 carats. Pure or intense colors are rarer, making up one out of every 25,000 carats.
All diamonds start with carbon and take thousands of years to form. Secondary factors interrupt or alter the chemical process, resulting in a colored appearance. Red, green, purple and orange are the least common and thus some of the most valued among natural stones.
In terms of classifying stones, this process results in 12 different colors, nine intensity levels and 90 secondary hues. Rarity is further influenced by:
- Color Intensity: More than size, intensity affects the value of a colored diamond. The more even, uniform and deep the shade, the higher the stone’s price. In fact, GIA reports include a color grade, the stone’s origin, color distribution and any secondary shades. Grading names include Fancy Light, Fancy, Fancy Intense, Fancy Vivid, Fancy Dark and Fancy Deep. Both lab-grown colored and heat-treated diamonds have a similar appearance in terms of color but a lower value due to being manmade. The GIA report will also indicate if the stone was created this way.
- Type: Colored diamonds are graded based on type. Type IIa is applied to a nitrogen-free stone. While these are typically clear, pink, gray, blue and green stones may also receive this distinction. Types Ib and IIb describe a more intensely colored stone within the yellow, brown and orange range (Ib) or gray to blue (IIb). Type Ia is the most common of all types of diamonds, including fancy colored, and is assigned to stones with nitrogen added to the chemical structure.
Colors and Rarity
Fancy colored stones often include one of the following:
- Pink: Pink diamonds result from absorbing some visible light, which alters the lattice or atomic arrangement in the crystal structure. Pink diamonds are fairly rare and see higher demand.
- Black: The dark color and lack of transparency result from various mineral inclusions. Black stones frequently experience color variations, from dark black fractures to brown or dark green areas.
- Yellow: Adding nitrogen makes a diamond more yellow in appearance. While stones in the D-to-Z range frequently have some yellow coloring, high nitrogen concentrations push stones into the fancy category. As yellow diamonds are one of the more common varieties, they typically see the lowest price per carat of all colored stones.
- Brown: Another fairly common fancy stone, brown diamonds occur due to changes in molecular structure. While D-to-Z diamonds may display brown coloring, more even and intense hues put some stones in the fancy category. Brown diamonds also see a lower carat value due to their lack of rarity.
- Blue: Adding boron to the chemical structure results in varying degrees of blue, which further intensifies through radiation or hydrogen. Blue follows pink as the second-rarest fancy colored diamond, making up one percent of all such stones.
- Red: As one of the rarest stones, red only has a handful of pure colors found over the past 70 years. Generally, red diamonds display strong secondary shades, like purple or orange.
- Orange: Due to similar attributes, orange diamonds often overlap with red or yellow stones. This aspect influences their rarity and value. Yellow-orange diamonds tend to be more common compared to deeper orange and red-tinged ones. As consumers do not often seek orange stones, they are primarily purchased loose as a collector’s item.
- Green: When radiation pushes carbon atoms outside of their standard structural positions, green diamonds are created. These stones are extremely rare in natural contexts but also easy to create in a laboratory environment. Stones in the latter group often have some kind of marking to distinguish them from their natural counterparts, which may develop due to radiation exposure.
- Purple: This rare stone color occurs in response to the crystal structure absorbing a percentage of visible light, plus hydrogen. The more light absorbed, plus the inclusion of hydrogen atoms results in a more intense shade.
Explore these colors in varying intensities in our selection of loose fancy colored diamonds today!
