Choco…Cognac…Champagne Diamonds?

[Diamond_Hawk]

A curiousity:

http://www.rareinvestment.com/natural-fancy-colored-diamonds/diamond-color/chocolate-diamonds.php

A lot of diamond pros roll their eyes at nicknames like “Choco, Cog and Champagne” for low D-Z or fancy browns. I’m interested in the consumer perspective. Obviously there has been successful marketing using terms like this (Le Vian trademarked “Chocolate Diamonds").

So here is what I am curious about:

For diamond lovers who like attractive browns, do you refer to them as food/drink colors to others, or do you say U Color, FLB, FDB, etc? Trade members can feel free to answer too, of course.

 

[FireMonkey]

I'm fond of brown diamonds; I don't own any, but when describing them to friends, I always use the often-heard terms: champagne, cognac, chocolate. I'd actually love it if whiskey, rum, and tequila started getting thrown around, too.

I think that for most laypeople, these terms provide a better mental picture of the stone's color. That said, once one decides exactly what color they're searching for, they should look to vendors for guidance using more color-specific language to accurately indicate tints and undertones. Because, as you know, there are so many variations of "chocolate", "cognac", etc.; people will have pretty specific preferences when it comes to choosing one over another.

Not sure if I addressed your inquiry in the way your were seeking, but there it is.

 

[Karl_K]

A friend of mine calls them poo diamonds.
As in who wants to wear a poo diamond on their finger.
Cracks me up.
I still have a hard time not calling them industrial diamonds even though some of them are pretty.
In general I just call them browns or brown diamonds and think the fancy smancy names are a joke.

 

[tyty333]

I like some "browns" especially the ones with the orangey-pink in them.

My mother has a pair of champagne colored solitaire earrings and a pear pendant. The pendant isn't bad but I don't care for the
earrings at all. I don't consider them brown. They are sort of a brownish-gold. Not really that pretty in my opinion.

Kind of like this color but lighter...
http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/fancy-color/brown/round-cut/0.71-carat-si2-clarity-sku-225280

 

[Lookinagain]

I prefer the use of the letters (U, W, etc) as I think it gives a better indication of color. I love the "champagne" diamond featured a few weeks ago that I believe was a W-Y set in rose gold. So if I wanted to buy one, I would want to know what to look for. If I just look for "champagne" I get all manner of brown diamonds at all levels of intensity. I would hope that being able to look for W-Y would get me closer to what I might want.

 

[Niel]

It depends on color, I guess.

Browns with yellow I do tend to call caramel in color, because that's what they look like. BUT, I usually use that interchangeably with brown, as I don't say it to romanticize the color, but to have someone picture it in their head.

Pink brown or cool browns I usually just say, well, that. As they don't look like a food to me

 

[Karl_K]

Lets not forget the other term once popular, fish tank gravel.
There are some I would call just that.

 

[pyramid]

Well I have considered getting a small one. I just thought of it as a brown diamond but did search under cognac and chocolate as I had heard those terms. I had got a pandora bead with a fake brown stone and loved how the color sparked out of it a sort of orangey brown, then thought hmm... maybe I would like a brown diamond. Had a look one day, thought prices although okay still a bit of money, then thought maybe it would not have the orangey brown and more a dull brown so gave up looking. If I saw one in person though I may consider it in the 30 point region.

I like the idea but don't think of them other than as brown but it was definitely a more than brown color I wanted, cognac I would
say describes it best.

 

[heididdl]

I think of them as not real diamonds..Sub par to regular stones.

 

[Dancing Fire]

A friend of mine calls them poo diamonds.
As in who wants to wear a poo diamond on their finger.
Cracks me up.
I still have a hard time not calling them industrial diamonds even though some of them are pretty.
In general I just call them browns or brown diamonds and think the fancy smancy names are a joke.

Yes it is a joke...a friend of mine said they are call "shitty diamonds"...

 

[Niel]

A friend of mine calls them poo diamonds.
As in who wants to wear a poo diamond on their finger.
Cracks me up.
I still have a hard time not calling them industrial diamonds even though some of them are pretty.
In general I just call them browns or brown diamonds and think the fancy smancy names are a joke.

Yes it is a joke...a friend of mine said they are call "shitty diamonds"...

I never understand why people are so rude about brown diamonds.

An engagement ring is a very emotional thing, and I see no reason to tell people their rings look like shit.

Clearly they are not everyone's cup of tea but i can respect someone wanting a subtle sparkly brown stone.

 

[Dancing Fire]

And if they added the word "fancy" in front of "chocolate" then they can charge 3X the price...

 

[Gypsy]

Well. "Fancy" without a GIA lab report that states that is misleading.

As for chocolate. Well, think about there's not much with positive connotations that the color brown is associated with. Things that are the color brown: excrement , dirt, wood, and chocolate... kinda the basics right there. So of all of those-- chocolate is by far the least offensive and the only one that really says "buy me".

So yeah, if you aren't going to use fancy. I think chocolate is a good idea. As most colored diamonds are more or less unique I'd also say things like ... "orange understones" and stuff like that to let us know what the gemologist sees color wise.

 

[Diamond_Hawk]

I never understand why people are so rude about brown diamonds.

An engagement ring is a very emotional thing, and I see no reason to tell people their rings look like s***.

Clearly they are not everyone's cup of tea but i can respect someone wanting a subtle sparkly brown stone.

I agree with this point in many ways. The reason I started the thread, in part, is a good friend of my fiance was very excited about her 3.05 carat "chocolate" engagement ring.

I have not seen the grading report, but in casual observation I thought the diamond lacked the intrigue and subtle hues that could be found in many fancy colored diamonds on the market.

That said, she was over-the-moon happy about both the engagement and the diamond - so there was only congratulations and well-wishes all around.

So - would she have been as happy if it had been marketed with the actual color grade from the grading report when it was purchased? Words mean things - but how much is this just "A Rose by any other name...?"

 

[cbird]

Yeesh. Tough to hear some of these comments as someone who purchased a "champagne" colored diamond for an ER. We liked the color and the idea of setting it against rose gold. I wonder if these thoughts are commonplace. I wouldn't want my future fiancee to walk around getting laughed at behind her back...

 

[pandabee]

I feel like those clever names are purely for marketing. Like Gypsy said, not many other good things associated with the color brown so they came up with things like "chocolate" and "vanilla" to associate good feelings with stones that are *generally* less desirable to the majority of people searching for any sort of diamond jewelry, not just engagement rings.

 

[Diamond_Hawk]

I prefer the use of the letters (U, W, etc) as I think it gives a better indication of color. I love the "champagne" diamond featured a few weeks ago that I believe was a W-Y set in rose gold. So if I wanted to buy one, I would want to know what to look for. If I just look for "champagne" I get all manner of brown diamonds at all levels of intensity. I would hope that being able to look for W-Y would get me closer to what I might want.

Lookinagain,

For the 'casual' diamond shopper, the type of consumer who does not come to PS and does not spend the time educating themselves on the ins and outs of diamond purchasing - do you feel it is 'sneaky' or 'false' simply to name it as something else? Maybe it is just giving a reason for someone to feel good about a purchase that others call poo.

 

[Wednesday]

It's just a way to market something different than the old standard, a colorless (or near-colorless) diamond. It makes it seem like something new and gives buyers language to describe their purchase.

I like some of the low-color browns. A few people have posted rosy-brown cushions that I thought were gorgeous.

As far as the maul jewelers go, it's just another way for them to push inexpensive product. But they are not impressive in the traditional "colorless" diamond market either, so I wouldn't really use them as a guidepost in a Pricescope discussion of brown diamonds.

 

[Niel]

Yeesh. Tough to hear some of these comments as someone who purchased a "champagne" colored diamond for an ER. We liked the color and the idea of setting it against rose gold. I wonder if these thoughts are commonplace. I wouldn't want my future fiancee to walk around getting laughed at behind her back...

Don't worry what other people think about your gf's e ring. Every ring could be picked apart by somebody. Will some people maybe say something? Maybe. Some people are caty. But just like heart shape diamonds or marquise diamonds, brown diamonds have their admirers, and detractors can just keep it to themselves

 

[the_mother_thing]

I never understand why people are so rude about brown diamonds.

An engagement ring is a very emotional thing, and I see no reason to tell people their rings look like shit.

Clearly they are not everyone's cup of tea but i can respect someone wanting a subtle sparkly brown stone.

I agree wholeheartedly! I LOVE warmth & color in diamonds, and would gobble up my Ginger (champagne) diamond if I could. It's a preference thing; not necessarily an "affordability" thing. I don't like icy super-white diamonds, but I won't say why so as not to offend the masses here who may prefer them. But suffice it to say, if someone made such a snobby, rude comment about my diamond as to say it's "shitty" or "poo", I would let 'em have it. The world has enough azzholes without adding to the numbers by criticizing someone's choice about something that has zero impact on others.

 

[anne_h]

I love certain shades of brown diamonds and own a pair set in 18k yellow gold... those are color C4.

I'm less into the deeper "chocolate" colors... I like more the "champagne" range.

Anne

 

[Lookinagain]

I prefer the use of the letters (U, W, etc) as I think it gives a better indication of color. I love the "champagne" diamond featured a few weeks ago that I believe was a W-Y set in rose gold. So if I wanted to buy one, I would want to know what to look for. If I just look for "champagne" I get all manner of brown diamonds at all levels of intensity. I would hope that being able to look for W-Y would get me closer to what I might want.

Lookinagain,

For the 'casual' diamond shopper, the type of consumer who does not come to PS and does not spend the time educating themselves on the ins and outs of diamond purchasing - do you feel it is 'sneaky' or 'false' simply to name it as something else? Maybe it is just giving a reason for someone to feel good about a purchase that others call poo.

Sneaky? No. I kind of think that the casual diamond shopper might learn about the "4 Cs" and normally be looking for a higher color diamond for color. Someone who decides to buy a "champagne" diamond probably does it because they like the color. So really, whether you call it champagne, or label it W-Y is probably not an issue to them and they know they are not buying a white diamond. However, they certainly might be surprised, or insulted, that someone else called it poo. There might be people out there that think anything lower than D-E-F VVs1-VVs2 is poo. Does that make it so?

 

[bcavitt]

Didn't Argyle come up with these names as a marketing tool to help sell the boat load of brown diamonds they were digging up?

 

[LoversKites]

I like brown diamonds. If it's not accompanied with a GIA report I think of them as light, med-light, medium, med-dark, or dark brown since the colour brown doesn't have varying saturation/intensities, only varying tone (there are no GIA graded intense or vivid brown diamonds). With a GIA report I prefer to go along with their grading. Browns with modifiers, well... it depends on how strong the modifier is. Generally I don't like the romanticized names, but to each their own.

I don't think all those extra names are sneaky per se, it's just marketing... which can be sneaky at times, I guess. I think it definitely makes a brown diamond sound more appealing when it's associate it with chocolate, champagne, etc. and it's a common colour so they obviously want to raise demand and sell them. Actually, it's not sneaky because if someone doesn't like the look of a brown diamond they are not gonna buy one just because it's marketed as 'chocolate' or 'caramel' coloured.

I agree with Niel. I don't get the point of mocking a diamond colour.

I love this brown diamond ring: [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/victor-canera-champagne-engagement-ring.206944/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/victor-canera-champagne-engagement-ring.206944/[/URL]

 

[Texas Leaguer]

Well, if Topaz is popular enough to be enshrined as one of the twelve birthstones, I would expect many people to find diamonds in the brown range to be even more attractive/intriguing/distinctive and enjoyable to own. I think the appeal of a particular stone revolves around the subtleties of tone and secondary hues as well as the creativity of the design and its execution by the jeweler. Being able to enhance the attractive qualities of any fancy color is key to outcome of the finished piece.

I don't see any problem with marketers attaching names to certain color ranges that are relateable and evoke pleasant images. Unless of course it crosses over into misleading or false statements or implications about rarity or value.

 

[Rena7]

I don't really care about the names. I do think that diamonds of all colors can be lovely. I learned that here actually which is why I now have a k. I also have a pendant with champagne diamonds that I bought on ebay, I think it's pretty.

 

[Calliecake]

I have seen some gorgeous champagne diamonds. I'm hoping one of the experts can answer a question. Is it difficult to find a 2.5 carat very light champagne colored diamond? I was looking a few years ago for one and the jeweler told me that it was difficult to find one that size with the color was distributed evenly. I always wonder if this was a true statement or him just wanting to sell me a higher color grade diamond? He also said it was a marketing ploy to sell junk diamonds. I ended up buying a higher color grade diamond but would still love a beautiful light champagne colored stone one day.

 

[Niel]

I have seen some gorgeous champagne diamonds. I'm hoping one of the experts can answer a question. Is it difficult to find a 2.5 carat very light champagne colored diamond? I was looking a few years ago for one and the jeweler told me that it was difficult to find one that size with the color was distributed evenly. I always wonder if this was a true statement or him just wanting to sell me a higher color grade diamond? He also said it was a marketing ploy to sell junk diamonds. I ended up buying a higher color grade diamond but would still love a beautiful light champagne colored stone one day.

heres a post from David from another thread.

You used the term "fancy Light Brown"- and in my experience, this grade exists- but it's rare as chicken's teeth.
Far more common are stones with a second modifier- like Fancy Light Yellowish Brown.

Which will sell for more- a Fancy Light Brown, natural color or a Fancy Intense Blue, irradiated?
That's a good question, and I'd love to know the answer

...}

 

[the_mother_thing]

I have seen some gorgeous champagne diamonds. I'm hoping one of the experts can answer a question. Is it difficult to find a 2.5 carat very light champagne colored diamond? I was looking a few years ago for one and the jeweler told me that it was difficult to find one that size with the color was distributed evenly. I always wonder if this was a true statement or him just wanting to sell me a higher color grade diamond? He also said it was a marketing ploy to sell junk diamonds. I ended up buying a higher color grade diamond but would still love a beautiful light champagne colored stone one day.

A PS member was selling one a little while back. The listing link is no longer working but she goes by Pinkbow on the listing board, so you might find her with another listing to see if the stone is still available for sale. She sold the setting separately. [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/forum/preloved-ps-jewels/2-45-oec-transitional-champagne-diamond-ring-t205732.html']https://www.pricescope.com/forum/preloved-ps-jewels/2-45-oec-transitional-champagne-diamond-ring-t205732.html[/URL]

 

[Calliecake]

I have seen some gorgeous champagne diamonds. I'm hoping one of the experts can answer a question. Is it difficult to find a 2.5 carat very light champagne colored diamond? I was looking a few years ago for one and the jeweler told me that it was difficult to find one that size with the color was distributed evenly. I always wonder if this was a true statement or him just wanting to sell me a higher color grade diamond? He also said it was a marketing ploy to sell junk diamonds. I ended up buying a higher color grade diamond but would still love a beautiful light champagne colored stone one day.

A PS member was selling one a little while back. The listing link is no longer working but she goes by Pinkbow on the listing board, so you might find her with another listing to see if the stone is still available for sale. She sold the setting separately. [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/forum/preloved-ps-jewels/2-45-oec-transitional-champagne-diamond-ring-t205732.html']https://www.pricescope.com/forum/preloved-ps-jewels/2-45-oec-transitional-champagne-diamond-ring-t205732.html[/URL]

if I'm remembering correctly I really liked this one.


Thank you Niel