Diamond Education

At Boudreaux’s, we know every piece of jewelry can become a family heirloom. That is why we choose only the highest quality, ethical diamonds for use in our designs. Our buying process will always begin with a diamond’s most important quality – its cut.  Boudreaux’s employs Graduate Gemologists from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) to further authenticate that each diamond we select meets our rigorous standards. From here we look for diamonds with the best color and clarity. Learn more about how each diamond is graded below.

Cut

While both color and clarity are natural to the diamond itself, a diamond’s cut is determined by the craftsmanship of the master cutter. As a measuring tool, each diamond is graded on its brilliance, fire and sparkle.

Brilliance is the brightness of a diamond. It is created by distinct and specific cuts that allow white light reflections that are seen inside the diamond to the eye. The greater the amount of reflected light, with strong contrasts (shadows created by the cut of the diamond), the more brilliant the stone.

diag-cut-2
diag-cut-1 diag-cut-3
 Well Cut
Most Brilliant
Too Deep
Poor Brilliance
Too Shallow
Poor Brilliance

Fire is the flash of different colors that appears when the diamond is placed in direct light. This effect is caused by both the diamond’s natural color and the precise cuts that allow proper bending and dispersion of light.

Sparkle or “scintillation” is the movement of light from each facet as it moves toward the center of the diamond. A master diamond cutter has to cut at such exact calculations that the light must be directed across the diamond, as well as up.

Cut Grade is assigned by the GIA, using the following scale:

Excellent Very Good Good Fair Poor

Carat

Diamonds are weighed in carats. One carat equals 100 points or 1/5 of a gram. Larger, heavier stones are more rare and therefore have a higher price. However, two diamonds of the same carat weight can vary greatly depending upon the cut.The larger the stone does not necessarily mean the better the diamond.

diag-caret-full diag-caret-full diag-caret-full diag-caret-full diag-caret-full diag-caret-full diag-caret-full diag-caret-full diag-caret-full
0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00 1.50 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00
Shown for proportion, not actual size.

Color

Diamonds are available in many colors. Some of the most expensive and highly prized being pink, yellow and even blue. However, when determining color in a white diamond, any yellow tint decreases its price and perfection.

GIA Diamond Color Scale
D E F G H I J K L M N – R S – Z
Colorless Near Colorless Faint Yellow Very Light Yellow Light Yellow

When a diamond’s color scale falls past Z, it is recognized as a Fancy Colored Diamond. Colored diamonds are more rare than white, for every 10,000 white diamonds, 1 colored diamond is found.

Clarity

Have you seen a “perfect” diamond? One that is flawless, with no imperfections? That’s where clarity comes into play. Clarity refers to the imclusions found in a diamond. Its level is based on the number, size, placement and whether it’s obvious to affect the diamond’s appearance. The better the clarity, the higher the value.

The GIA Clarity Scale ranks diamonds on characteristics visible under 10x magnification.

FL, IF VVS1, VVS2 VS1, VS2 SI1, SI2 I1, I2, I3
diag-clear-1 diag-clear-2 diag-clear-3 diag-clear-4 diag-clear-5
Flawless or Internally Flawless. Very, Very Small Inclusions. Very Difficult to detect. Very Small Inclusions. Visible under magnification. Small Inclusions. Not visible to the naked eye. Imperfect. Inclusions are visible to the naked eye.