All diamonds come in a variety of colors. Most diamonds used in today's industry are white to light yellow or light brown in body color. The industry uses the GIA color grading scale to grade diamonds for color. Diamonds are graded in the face down position compared to a master stone with a controlled lighting and precise viewing conditions.

Master stones are diamonds of known colors that have been hand-selected by GIA. The color scale starts with D being colorless and runs through Z, which is light yellow or brown in body color. Most people cannot see two color grades difference when the diamond is in the face up position. Every color grade difference makes a significant change in price. 

Diamonds are graded on the lack of inclusions. The GIA clarity grading scale contains eleven categories in which diamonds are placed starting with flawless and going through included.

Flawless diamonds have no blemishes or inclusions, which can be seen at 10X by a trained diamond grader. Internally flawless diamonds can have blemishes but no internal inclusion, which can be seen at 10X by a trained diamond grader.

VVS2-VVS1 diamonds have inclusions that are difficult to see at 10X by a trained grader. VS1-VS2 diamonds have inclusions that are visible at 10X but are still considered minor. SI1-SI2 diamonds have inclusions that are noticeable to a trained grader at 10X. I1 diamonds have inclusions that are obvious under 10X. I2-I3 diamonds have inclusions that are obvious to the unaided eye and can affect transparency, brilliance and durability of the stone.

Early gem traders used the small carob seed to balance their scales to diamonds and gemstones, because it had a fairly uniform shape and size. Today the industry uses the carat system, which was adopted by the United States in 1913 and is the standard worldwide.

The carat system is divided into 100 points just like a dollar is divided into 100 pennies. For example, a 75 point diamond weighs .75 carat. The majority of diamonds used in today's industry weigh less than one carat.

The cut of the diamond is one of the most important features of your stone. A diamond's cut is graded on its proportion, symmetry and polish. The proportions refer to the relationship between the table size, crown angles and pavilion depth.

The symmetry is how well the crown facets and pavilion facets line up with each other. The polish on the diamond is the time the cutter took in finishing the diamond. If the diamond is not cut properly it will not return the light, thus losing the brilliance and fire that your diamond should have. The modern round brilliant cut diamond has fifty-seven or fifty -eight facets depending on whether or not the culet is faceted or pointed.

A diamond that is cut too deep will have a nail-head effect and diamonds that are cut too shallow will have a fish-eye effect. The most popular shape is the round brilliant cut. Other fancy cut diamonds are the oval, pear, asscher, cushion, radiant, emerald, princess, marquise and heart shapes.