• Diamonds
  • Gemstones
  • Jewellery
  • Famous Jewels
  • Latest
Diamond Buzz Logo
How Important Is Diamond Clarity?
Diamonds

How Important Is Diamond Clarity?

Last updated on December 26, 2022

Clarity is one of four main characteristics of a diamond, and it may have a crucial effect on your stone’s appearance. But how important is diamond clarity, especially compared with colour and cut? Read further to find the answers.

How Diamond Clarity Affects Appearance

Diamond Clarity Scale | Diamond Buzz
Image © Diamond Buzz. All rights reserved.

Diamond clarity is one of the main characteristics of a diamond that grades how clean the diamond is from inclusions (internal flaws) and blemishes (external flaws).

According to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), diamond clarity is graded on the following scale:

  • FL (Flawless) – no inclusions and blemishes visible under 10x magnification.
  • IF (Internally Flawless) – no inclusions visible under 10x magnification.
  • VVS1, VVS2 (Very Very Slightly Included) – hardly noticeable and very small inclusions visible under a gemological microscope.
  • VS1, VS2 (Very Slightly Included) – minor inclusions visible with effort under 10x magnification.
  • SI1 and SI2 (Slightly Included) – easily noticeable inclusions under 10x magnification.
  • I1, I2 and I3 (Included) – obvious inclusions visible to the naked eye.

Clarity has a significant impact on a diamond’s appearance and value. The fewer inclusions and blemishes a diamond has, the cleaner it looks and the more light passes through it, allowing the stone to maximize its sparkle. On the contrary, the more inclusions a diamond has, the duller it looks. If a diamond is heavily included, the flaws detract from the appearance of the stone and block the light that would have entered it. In other words, depending on the type of flaws, such diamonds do not sparkle well, even if they have an excellent cut grade.

What Is a Good Diamond Clarity?

The highest possible diamond clarity grade is FL or Flawless. Such stones do not have inclusions and blemishes visible under 10x magnification; however, they are also very rare and expensive.

In most cases, it does not make sense to overpay for a high-clarity diamond because stones with lower clarity grades can still look clean to the naked eye and do not spoil the appearance. As a general rule, any diamond whose inclusions are invisible to the naked eye is a good choice. Once you get above a certain grade, any further clarity improvement does not make much sense.

A diamond graded VS2 or SI1 could be an optimal option as diamonds with lower clarity grades usually have visible inclusions. It is worth mentioning that eye-clean diamonds may have inclusions visible under magnification, but you should not worry about them as no one will be looking at your stone using a loupe.

How Important Is Diamond Clarity Compared with Colour and Cut?

How Important Is Diamond Clarity? | Diamond Buzz
Image: EgolenaHK / Shutterstock

Diamond clarity is an important characteristic, but the cut quality has a bigger impact on the stone’s appearance. The closer the cut to ideal proportions, the better, as the ideal diamond cut is created to maximize a stone’s brilliance and sparkle.

Diamond colour is another important characteristic. Although it is not as crucial as the cut quality of a stone, if the diamond is too tinted, it will look yellowish and less bright.

To choose a good diamond considering its clarity, colour and cut, make sure the stone you are looking at does not have visible inclusions. You can focus on stones with VS2 or SI1 clarity grades. Next, choose a colour grade in which diamonds look fairly white. In most cases, stones in G or H colour grades are not visibly tinted. If you are going to have your stone set in a yellow or rose gold setting, you can go as low as I, J or even K grades because the colour of the metal will blend with the tint of the stone and make it less visible.

And last but not least, choose the cut quality. An ideal cut will provide you with maximum brilliance and make poor colour and clarity look better. On the contrary, a poor cut can make your diamond look worse even if all other characteristics are fine.

Featured image: EgolenaHK / Shutterstock
FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedIn

Post navigation

Pearl Farming and Harvesting
How Does a Diamond Tester Work?
  • The Moussaieff Red Diamond – The Red Shield Diamond | Diamond BuzzThe Moussaieff Red Diamond – The Red Shield Diamond
    Famous Jewels

Advertise on Diamond Buzz

We help our clients with the best and most effective advertising solutions by creating engagement for jewellery brands across the Diamond Buzz audience.

Newsletter

By entering your email address, you consent to receive our latest news and exclusive offers. You may withdraw your consent at any time. Please read our Privacy Policy for more details.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

  • Contact
  • About
  • Advertising
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Cookie Settings
  • Instagram
Copyright © 2018 - 2023 Diamond Buzz. All Rights Reserved.
Cressida Pro by LyraThemes.com

We use cookies on our website to personalise your user experience and analyse our website traffic. By clicking "Accept All", you consent to the use of all the cookies.

Privacy Policy    Settings    Accept All

Cookie Settings

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are essential for the website to function properly. This category includes cookies that ensure the basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyse the key performance indexes of the website, which help in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
CookieDurationDescription
_ga2 yearsThe _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors.
_ga_SGEW9HERE92 yearsThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analysed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT
Powered by CookieYes Logo