The Four Cs, What About Them?

The famous Four C's are how Diamonds are understood, purchased, and sold at all levels. At first glance, it may seem complex, but in reality, it's quite simple.

Cut, Colour, Clarity, and Carat. These are the four fundamentals of a Diamond. Let's start with the last C in the list, but arguably the most considered before anything else: Carat.

Carat is a weight. It derives from the term "Carab," which was a seed used as a historical weight measure. Carat is often thought of as a pure size, but a 1.00ct Diamond can appear inconsistent across all Round Brilliant-Cut Diamonds, for example. Diamonds can spread differently in terms of ratio and symmetry, making them look different sizes even at the same weight, but we'll come back to that when we discuss 'Cut'. However, to simplify this, the heavier the Carat weight, the larger the Diamond. It's harder and rarer to pull a large Diamond out of the earth.

Moving into the next most noticeable C, which is Colour. Colour is apparent to the eye, you may just not realise it immediately. The colour grading scale is D to Z, with no A, B or C on the scale. D is the cleanest, most colourless. It's quite literally as crystal clear as you'll get. Z is the lowest colour grade. Colour in this sense is a murky, yellow-ish, brown-ish tone. I really need to stress that the "ish" is key here. Because it's not a bright, canary-type yellow. Or a chocolate brown. It's a bit like if you scooped water out of a puddle and put it in a clear glass.

Now onto the next category, Clarity. From my many years of experience, clarity seems to be a well-known aspect of a Diamond, but one that's been overthought. The Clarity grading scale from best to worst, is; Flawless, Internally Flawless (IF), VVS1, VVS2, VS1, VS2, SI1, SI2, I1, I2, I3. Keeping in the spirit of simplicity when talking about the Four C's, Clarity is the amount of visible inclusions in a Diamond. Inclusions are, for the most part, natural to a Diamond. Or any stone for that matter. The most visible inclusion is a carbon inclusion. Carbon is a founding element of a Diamond, and it looks a lot like tiny pepper specks within the stone. Even at lower clarity grades (SI2), inclusions can be extremely challenging to spot and are often oversold in appearance.