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There are 12-types of fancy-coloured diamonds and, in this guide, you'll learn about red, blue, brown and green fancy-coloured diamonds and their origins.
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Buyer's Guide: coloured diamonds part 1

Lewis Findley
Lewis Findley

Fancy-Coloured Diamond Guide

You're becoming diamond connoisseurs with numerous guides explaining what they are. 

Fancy-coloured diamonds boast amazing stories regarding their formation. They become saturated with elements which give them their intense colour.

However, they are so rare because 1 in 10,000 diamonds found are fancy-coloured!

These rare processes have made their prices reach incredible heights and we're going to tell you the story behind the 12 types in this three-part series.

Red Diamonds

Image Via - The Jewellery Editor

At the top of the rarity scale are diamonds with red or reddish colours that command massive prices.

The source of their colour is unknown. However, one argument is that the colour comes from a fascinating reaction to light which changes its atomic structure.

When the colourless diamond is unearthed and interacts with light, it's here where the unusual bending starts to reflect a ruby-like colour.

What's fascinating with the argument is how a red fancy-coloured diamond looks when exposed to daylight and fluorescent light, it's different!

Blue Diamonds

Image Via - Jewels du jour

Next on the rarity scale, are blue diamonds. If it isn't their colour, it's their rarity.

Blue diamonds get their colour from being saturated with boron. However, pure blue diamonds are hard to find. Why? Usually, they contain hints of grey because of impurities in the boron - so the chances of seeing a pure blue diamond are very rare.

The amount of impurities has meant that blue diamonds have a wide saturation scale which starts at faint blue and ends at fancy dark.

NOTE: Blue diamonds are different to sapphires which form part of a different family. Sapphires are from the corundum family and contain the likes of iron, copper, magnesium and more. 

Green Diamonds

Image Via - GIA.edu

What makes green diamonds interesting is their hue because it's on the surface of the diamond. This prompts gem cutters to leave as much green as they can around the girdle of the diamond. 

Green diamonds get their colour from radiation separating the diamond's internal carbon atoms. Don't worry though, the radiation comes from harmless radioactive rocks over millions of years or artificial irradiation treatment.

Trivia - This has prompted their colour scale to range from faint to fancy-deep.

It's common for a green diamond to have a secondary colour - so finding a pure green diamond is difficult.

Brown Diamonds

Image Via - Ramshackle Glam

You had rare, now meet common!

They are the result of a distorted internal structure. This structure contains holes which cling together and affect light when it passes through the diamond.

Ample amounts of brown diamonds have appeared throughout history and were fashioned into jewellery. 

Trivia - brown-coloured diamonds go by other names such as cognac and champagne but they are still brown-coloured diamonds!

Their colour scale ranges from very light to very dark.

Final Words

Fancy-coloured diamonds will continue to be a marvel of the diamond world thanks to their rarity and different forms. 

The featured image by Katerina Perez helps to illustrate their allure.

There are 12 fancy-coloured diamonds in total and will form a new series which explores their mysterious world.

Which diamond is your favourite? Hit the comments and let us know!

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