Life's most endearing moments - engagements, birthdays and anniversaries - are celebrated with diamonds. But most people believe that a diamond with color is an inferior jewel.
Not so, according to Ross-
Simons Jewelers. On the contrary, colored diamonds are some of the most precious stones around.
Jennifer Lopez's 6-carat fancy pink engagement ring and Paris Hilton's 24-carat, $5 million fancy yellow engagement ring are credited with bringing colored diamonds back into the spotlight.
Like Hilton and Lopez, many women yearn to set themselves apart from everyone else. The rarity of fancy yellow diamonds - only 2 percent to 3 percent of diamonds mined in the world are considered "fancy yellow" - makes them popular among women who want to make a statement with their stones.
Mined mainly in Africa and South America, yellow diamonds are classified in order of price and rarity, beginning with fancy light and going up to fancy yellow, then fancy intense and finally, vivid - the rarest of them all.
But yellow diamonds can easily lose their luster with improper cutting and polishing. Whereas it would take a skilled diamond cutter two days to cut a 2-carat brilliant white diamond, it would take him or her two weeks to cut a fancy yellow diamond.
Knowing how to distinguish a quality yellow diamond is important when making a purchase. Here are some tips from Ross-Simons.
* Make sure the diamond is certified. The certificate should say "natural." Otherwise you may be buying a diamond that has been treated to look yellow.
* Look for an intensity of color. The certificate should also say "even." This guarantees an evenness of color throughout the stone and is evidence of a higher quality diamond.
* Stick to complementary settings; 18-karat yellow gold is best for enhancing the natural intensity of the yellow diamond.
