After cut, clarity, and carat, color is the most crucial characteristic of a diamond. So, of course, most people are more into considering the pros and cons of colored and colorless natural and lab-grown diamonds. But among all the uncertainty, you’re bound to be fascinated by these glittering elements in the dark.
Did you know that colored diamonds are the world’s most expensive piece of jewelry?
- The grayish Hope Diamond weighs 45.5 carats and is one of the rarest diamonds in the world.
- Sold at $71 million by Sotheby’s, Hong Kong, the Pink Star Diamond is the most expensive jewel in the world. It is as big as the size of a strawberry and has the lightest pink hue.
Colored diamonds are also famous because they match your wardrobe perfectly and suit almost every occasion. In this article, we will discuss
- Some of the rarest colored diamonds in the world
- The formation process of lab-grown and earth-mined colored diamonds
- And whether color affects the value of a diamond or not?
Formation of Colored Diamonds
Diamonds are made out of carbon. That is the only element they are composed of. Earth mined diamonds have to go through a rare natural phenomenon; only 1 out of 10,000 diamonds may experience that.
But since we are well aware of lab grown diamonds and how they are becoming popular daily, scientists have also figured out ways to create colored diamonds in laboratories. They have the same properties as natural colored diamonds and are more valuable than any other jewel.
Rarest Fancy Color Diamonds
Let’s look at some of the rarest colors of these fancy diamonds.
Red Colored Fancy Diamonds
The rarest fancy colored diamonds are the red diamonds. This color forms when diamonds undergo immense stress and pressure during their growth. This causes deformation in the crystal’s lattice structure.
This causes atoms to disperse in the diamond, and you see the red-colored diamonds. These red diamonds are the rarest and most valuable diamonds out there. They look lovely and make for the ideal fashion accessories.
Blue Colored Fancy Diamonds
Blue-colored diamonds are just as rare as red-colored diamonds. You will find two categories of fancy blue diamonds,
- Type 11b
- Type 1a
Most of the blue diamonds you might come across worldwide are 11b diamonds. They have a blue tint because of an element called boron present in the carbon lattice of the diamond. It allows electricity to pass through diamonds, thus producing a blue hue.
Most of the natural blue diamonds are buried deep within the oceans. As a result, they are tough to come across and are very expensive. However, as lab-created diamonds go, scientists have grown them in the laboratory by following the same process. They pass electricity through the diamonds and grow them under severe duress, giving them a blue tint.
However, the Type 1a diamonds are produced by dispersing hydrogen in the core of the carbon lattice. Therefore, these diamonds are even more challenging to find than Type 11bdiamondsd and are relatively expensive.
Green Colored Fancy Diamonds
Green diamonds are just as rare and valuable as the fancy diamonds we have mentioned previously. Natural diamonds, their color is the result of being buried deep within the earth for millions and millions of years. As a result, the Earth’s natural environment reacts with the elemental composition of these diamonds, giving them an envious color.
You must have heard about the Alpha, Beta, and Gamma radiations. The green diamonds are formed in reaction to these radiations, which can be replicated in modern labs. Alpha radiation produces a light green tone, while the response caused by beta and gamma rays produces a deeper green.
For lab-grown green diamonds, scientists displace the core molecules of the diamond with the help of radiation. This alters the light traveling through it. What makes green diamonds even rare is that they are not entirely green.
Only some part of a white diamond is green which can be easily lost when you try to cut it out. This is why they are expensive and are usually seen among the royal jewels.
Orange Colored Fancy Diamonds
Orange-colored diamonds also follow the same ranks as one of the rarest diamonds on the planet. The core of these stunning diamonds is infused with nitrogen. It is capable of absorbing blue light and will achieve the orange tint only if there is a slight brown hue in the diamond.
An orange-colored diamond is just as rare as a red or blue color diamond. It is also grown in laboratories now by following the same optics of infusing the carbon properties of the diamond with nitrogen.
Does Color Affect the Value of Diamonds?
The value of the fanciest colored diamonds comes from the type of diamond and the rarity of the color itself. However, there are other factors as well that determine the value of the diamonds. For instance, the value of colored diamonds will increase as the intensity of their color increases.
This is in contradiction to the colorless diamonds, which lose their value as the color of these diamonds becomes more visible. The purity of the color and the diamond’s strains are also significant aspects that play their parts in determining the value of a diamond.
The red, blue, purple, and green diamonds are the most valuable because they are not available in abundance. They are scarce thus, makes them all the more valuable.
Final Verdict
We have always seen how diamonds hold a great value in our culture in more than one way. This can be seen when you buy a diamond for your most refined accessory or save it as an asset.
The colored diamonds look stunning, but they are rare. However, with the latest technological advancements, growing fancy colored diamonds is becoming more accessible to the newest R&D labs.
These were some of the rarest colored fancy diamonds we have discussed above.