Fancy Color World

What Diamonds Are Considered “Fancy Color"  Diamonds ?

 

Fancy Diamonds are Unique  and Beautiful ,Diamonds that not belong to the one of the traditional D - Z Color scale like they have dominant yellow color inside the diamond is so strong that the diamond is no longer considered a tinted white diamond or "cape" (X-Y-Z  Color) but rather a full-fledged yellow diamond.

Diamonds can come in a variety of colors.  The chart below is an excellent graphical display of the variety of colors in which diamonds can be found.

 

How is Diamond Fancy Color Graded?

The World Fancy Color 

Fancy diamond color is graded along three different axes

Hue - the actual color like - red, blue,pink, green,yellow or anything in between

Tone - the relative lightness or darkness of the color – is it too bright or too dark ?

Saturation - how strong or weak the color has 9 level of grading from the bright to dark–  Faint, Light,fancy light, fancy , fancy intense, fancy vivid,   fancy deep and fancy dark

Fancy Color Diamond Hues

Hue is most often described as a combination of two or more colors.  When the first color is listed in an adjective form and the second color in a noun form (ie, Orangy Pink), the first color is the modifying color and the second color is the primary color.

In this example, the stone is primarily pink with a slight orangy tint. Occasionally, color is a 50/50 split between two hues.  In such a case, the color will be listed as two nouns : "Orange pink"

Stones with pure colors without any modifiers are generally considered more rare and therefore more valuable.  According the the GIA, there are only four publicly known pure Fancy Red (without any modifying colors) diamonds in existence in the world.

People often mistakenly believe that there is one axis of color strength in which fancy color is graded – Fancy Light, Fancy, Fancy Intense, and Fancy Vivid.  This is a very simplistic way to view things, and is mostly true only in reference to Yellow Diamonds.

The World of Fancy Diamond Color

Fancy Light, Fancy, Fancy Intense and Fancy Vivid

Fancy Light implies a stone with both weak saturation and a light tone.

Fancy implies a stone with either a slightly darker tone, or a slightly stronger saturation, and perhaps both.

For colors that are best displayed in a lighter tone (ie, colors that are generally “brighter”) such as yellow, and pink,

Fancy Intense implies a relatively lighter tone with a significantly stronger saturation.

Fancy Vivid  implies a relatively lighter tone, yet coupled with the strongest possible saturation.  For “darker” colors such as blue, Fancy Vivid can only refer to diamond with a fully saturated darker blue.

Fancy Deep   implies the darkest tone of a color will full

Exception :When Fancy Deep Pink gets just a bit more dark and a bit more saturated, it becomes Fancy Red.  Darker yellows become modified with the “Brown” hue, and darker Blue or Green often becomes “Grayish.”