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What color diamond doesn't have a yellow undertone?

cameeelia

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I enjoy the look of a suuuuuper faint pink, or champagne diamond, where it is so light it could ALMOST pass as a colorless. But I do not like the undertone of clearly yellow. What would my options be, because champagne diamonds are usually too dark :(

1SonaBrownHTHP33ct_0.jpg

Something a little whiter than this
 

kenny

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Many colors . . .

You can buy diamonds with just a touch of color of many different hues.
I have bought 20 naturally-colored diamonds from Leibish & Co., and have been very happy with them.
Here is a thread about them: [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/fancy-colored-diamond-collection.159746/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/fancy-colored-diamond-collection.159746/[/URL]

This is a link to their website: http://www.fancydiamonds.net/

Click on ADVANCED SEARCH on the right side of the screen.



Then click on the color you like and select the more faint intensities like this:



Then, click on FIND.

as.png

as2.png
 

diamondseeker2006

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For a normal diamond ring, you can stay in the colorless range, D-F, and even G-H do not appear yellow from the side. But if you are wanting a light pink stone, then you will have to go to sites than sell fancy colors. And they are usually much more expensive than regular colorless to near colorless diamonds. Here are some pinks:

http://rockdiamond.com/index.php/categories/pink-diamond-rings
 

cameeelia

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Thanks for your replies! What color of stone would be closest to the image I posted?
 

kenny

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kathleenparrish|1322537936|3070539 said:
Thanks for your replies! What color of stone would be closest to the image I posted?

You can never be sure about color you see in diamond pics because there are a zillion reasons for it to not be accurate, but I'd guess something in the Champagne or Chocolate category like:

Faint Pinkish Brown
Faint Brownish Pink
Very Light Pinkish Brown
Very Light Brownish Pink

Orangey Brown is another possibility because it often looks pinkish.

The color in that diamond is so faint that GIA may place it the D-Z category, rather than the colored diamond category.

I think (someone correct me if I'm wrong) when a very faint color is certain shades of yellow, brown or grey it is more likely to be put in the D-Z category but if the diamond has the same amount of color but that hue is considered fancier, such as pink, blue, green, purple, violet, orange, etc., GIA puts it in the much more expensive fancy color category.

That's why some of the prettier diamonds towards the N through Z end of the D-Z range can be great deals.
 

yssie

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kenny|1322538059|3070541 said:
I think (someone correct me if I'm wrong) when a very faint color is certain shades of yellow, brown or grey it is more likely to be put in the D-Z category but if the diamond has the same amount of color but that hue is considered fancier, such as pink, blue, green, purple, violet, orange, etc., GIA puts it in the much more expensive fancy color category.
.


I think exactly the same thing - I don't know where I heard/read/found that info either, though!


kathleen - I've seen that colour. I'm 95% sure of it. I saw it in DBL's office in NYC a couple of weekends ago - a 4ctw pair of RBs. I couldn't for the life of me describe it then and I can't now - that light browny pinky beigy *something* - though I think the stones I saw weren't so strongly coloured. I couldn't take my eyes off them! Hopefully RD will see this thread and be able to tell us more, I've lost the few photos I had.
 

acebruin

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when it comes to anything less than fancy and it has yellow or brown undertone, GIA puts it with a D-Z color spec... U-V light brown...

any other color they drop the D-Z and just have light pink, or faint green, etc...

dunno about grey though...
 

yssie

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acebruin|1322544344|3070624 said:
when it comes to anything less than fancy and it has yellow or brown undertone, GIA puts it with a D-Z color spec... U-V light brown...

any other color they drop the D-Z and just have light pink, or faint green, etc...

dunno about grey though...


Someone please correct me if I'm mistaken, but I believe D-J can be many colours. I remember an old poster PQCollectibles posted about a "blue J" from BG when he was w/ WF. My understanding is that a "blue J" will have comparatively less actual body colour than a "yellow J" - the scale for colours other than yellow/brown is narrower, and more than a minute amount of colour is enough to push a blue or a pink past the D-J range into Fancy territory.

Where are the pros when you need them? :devil:


ETA:
[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/j-color-in-very-open-setting.15833/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/j-color-in-very-open-setting.15833/[/URL]
and grey is mentioned in this one too [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/how-common-are-colors-other-than-yellow-in-g-k-diamonds.15824/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/how-common-are-colors-other-than-yellow-in-g-k-diamonds.15824/[/URL]
 

Rockdiamond

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Hi All!

Without looking up specifics- here's my take:
If the diamond has brown- even as light as K color- GIA will notate that.
I may have even seen an I with the notation- but I can't say for sure.
brown.jpg

If that tint is pink, we forgo the letter scale.
So a Faint Pink might be equivalent to an I or J in terms of tint

ETA- Yssie- when we're discussing a "blue J" the only answer is fluorescence

Stones with strong blue can indeed have a "blue white" sort of coloration- even in normal room lighting- although sunlight will make it more noticeable.
 

yssie

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No, I'm definitely not talking about fluor - only the body colour of the stone. So am I understanding correctly (w/ reference to GIA's grading only):

1. GIA will call a stone with *yellow* body colour of certain strength/saturation (let's call this "X") a K.
2. GIA will call a stone with *brown* body colour of certain strength/saturation >= "X" a K, and will note that colour is due to brown on the report.
3. GIA will call a stone with *yellow* body colour of strenght/saturation < "X" an E-J.
4. GIA will call a stone with *brown* body colour of strength/saturation < "X" an E-J, but you are unsure if there will be a brown notation.
5. If the stone is cut from *pink* rough, it is either a D (completely colourless) or a Faint, Very Light, Light, Fancy, Fancy Intense, Fancy Vivid, Fancy Deep. There is no possibility of acquiring a GIA G with an inkling of *pink*. Same with *blue*.
6. We have no idea what PQCollectibles is talking about when she refers to her "steely blue J WF ACA cut from blue rough", other than that it does not in fact have an inkling of *blue*, because if it did it would be a Faint/VeryLight/Light/...
7. This quote from one of the threads linked above is also wrong: "grey diamonds are graded d-j. if there is more color than a j, it's fancy grey".
8. Diamonds with inklings of any colour other than yellow or brown will NOT be assigned a letter from E-J. If they are completely colourless they are Ds, if they have even an inkling of a colour other than yellow or brown they go straight to the Faint/Light/etc. scale (which changes depending on the specific colour).

I apologise to the ghosts of posters past for calling them out. There's so much info out there, much of it conflicting... I just want to understand what's really going on.

ETA: hope you don't mind the detour Kathleen!
 

cameeelia

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I like the look of G's and H's, maybe even an F because theres no yellow tint, but as it works it's way down if they had a brown or pink undertone would that still be in the D-Z scale or fancy? Would it just be noted as having brown as some of you said?
 

cameeelia

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I am so picky haha! I do not want a full on grey diamond, or pink, or brown. Just something in the d-z scale, that rather than a yellow undertone if it had one has a SLIGHT pink or brown. Is there such a thing? My budget for my stone is about 5,000, so getting a pink diamond in the size I'd like is not really realistic, especially if the pink or brown is so faint.
 

kenny

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kathleenparrish|1322593071|3070957 said:
I am so picky haha! I do not want a full on grey diamond, or pink, or brown. Just something in the d-z scale, that rather than a yellow undertone if it had one has a SLIGHT pink or brown. Is there such a thing? My budget for my stone is about 5,000, so getting a pink diamond in the size I'd like is not really realistic, especially if the pink or brown is so faint.

I'd call up one of the good PS vendors like Jonathan at Good Old Gold or Vera at Whiteflash, or James Allen and just tell them what you are looking for.
They could tell you the chances of finding it.
 

acebruin

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if you like the look of F-G and want a brown undertone, you should look for the highest color grade with a faint brown in the GIA... the highest i've seen with a faint brown was a K... anything higher than an I might not have the faint brown in the grading, just because it's too faint... i have no idea on this though... maybe David can chime in here...

here's an L that i used to drool over and still do now...

http://rockdiamond.com/index.php/jewelry/soldthree-stone-diamond-ring-200-light-brown-radiant-diamond-vvs2-gia--emerald-sides
 

cameeelia

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acebruin- that stone is so pretty! The color is very much like what I'm looking for, but I think I'd like it with maybe even less of a tint.

Would a K with brown be lighter than that L? I am setting it in white gold.
 

kenny

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kathleenparrish|1322597830|3071007 said:
Would a K with brown be lighter than that L?

Yes.
There is more tint as you approach Z and less tint as you approach D.
 

Rockdiamond

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Thanks Ace! That was a remarkable piece.
We've actually tried setting a stone of the same hue with a slightly deeper color ( Fancy Yellow Brown versus Fancy Light Yellow Brown) - but it did not take the suggestion of pink nearly as well.

As I mentioned- I may have seen an I with the notation- but I can't say for sure.


Kathleen- one thing I can say for sure- these stones are super hard to find.
Basically accidents of nature:)

One time we had a round graded "Faint Pink" by GIA.
For years we had it.....

It was super expensive, and the pink was so barely visible....
 

Rockdiamond

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Yssie|1322583943|3070840 said:
acebruin|1322544344|3070624 said:
when it comes to anything less than fancy and it has yellow or brown undertone, GIA puts it with a D-Z color spec... U-V light brown...

any other color they drop the D-Z and just have light pink, or faint green, etc...

dunno about grey though...


Someone please correct me if I'm mistaken, but I believe D-J can be many colours. I remember an old poster PQCollectibles posted about a "blue J" from BG when he was w/ WF. My understanding is that a "blue J" will have comparatively less actual body colour than a "yellow J" - the scale for colours other than yellow/brown is narrower, and more than a minute amount of colour is enough to push a blue or a pink past the D-J range into Fancy territory.

Where are the pros when you need them? :devil:


ETA:
[URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/j-color-in-very-open-setting.15833/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/j-color-in-very-open-setting.15833/[/URL]
and grey is mentioned in this one too [URL='https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/how-common-are-colors-other-than-yellow-in-g-k-diamonds.15824/']https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/how-common-are-colors-other-than-yellow-in-g-k-diamonds.15824/[/URL]

Hi Yssie-
In my experience there's no such thing as a "Blue J" without FL- and I've seen quite a few like that...but never one that looked blue for other reasons than possibly the color of shirt I was wearing:)

Or are we speaking of the Toronto Blue Jays? :lol:
 

yssie

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Your experience matches what GIA said, so that's probably a good thing! I was mistaken..
And that'd be college lacrosse for me ::)
 

davi_el_mejor

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You can also ask for "top light brown." IIRC that's what an appraiser told me was an old trade name for 'em.

Good luck and happy hunting :D
 

Tom Gelb

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Hello Yssie,

I believe I can shed a little more light here. I worked in fancy colors at the GIA for a number of years. Please note the responses in red below. If you have anymore questions please let me know.

All the best,

Tom

Yssie|1322592285|3070941 said:
No, I'm definitely not talking about fluor - only the body colour of the stone. So am I understanding correctly (w/ reference to GIA's grading only):

1. GIA will call a stone with *yellow* body colour of certain strength/saturation (let's call this "X") a K. Correct
2. GIA will call a stone with *brown* body colour of certain strength/saturation >= "X" a K, and will note that colour is due to brown on the report. From K-M Faint brown, N-R Very Light Brown, S-Z Light Brown
3. GIA will call a stone with *yellow* body colour of strenght/saturation < "X" an E-J. Correct
4. GIA will call a stone with *brown* body colour of strength/saturation < "X" an E-J, but you are unsure if there will be a brown notation. No brown noted, except on internal GIA documents
5. If the stone is cut from *pink* rough, it is either a D (completely colourless) or a Faint, Very Light, Light, Fancy, Fancy Intense, Fancy Vivid, Fancy Deep. There is no possibility of acquiring a GIA G with an inkling of *pink*. Same with *blue*. If a diamond is graded D-F it will get only a letter grade regardless of the underlying tint. Remember D-F is termed "colorless" so although there may be something there it would be quite strange for a diamond to be called both colorless and blue. If a diamond has a color other than yellow brown or gray and has an equivalent color grade of G or below the diamond would then be graded in the fancy color grading scale starting with Faint.
6. We have no idea what PQCollectibles is talking about when she refers to her "steely blue J WF ACA cut from blue rough", other than that it does not in fact have an inkling of *blue*, because if it did it would be a Faint/VeryLight/Light/...
7. This quote from one of the threads linked above is also wrong: "grey diamonds are graded d-j. if there is more color than a j, it's fancy grey". Gray diamond are a strange exception and treated differently. The post is correct in that a diamond with a gray undertone would be graded on the D-Z color scale until it reached K color. At that point the diamond wold be graded on the GIA fancy color grading system starting with Faint Gray.
8. Diamonds with inklings of any colour other than yellow or brown will NOT be assigned a letter from E-J. If they are completely colourless they are Ds, if they have even an inkling of a colour other than yellow or brown they go straight to the Faint/Light/etc. scale (which changes depending on the specific colour).

I apologise to the ghosts of posters past for calling them out. There's so much info out there, much of it conflicting... I just want to understand what's really going on.

ETA: hope you don't mind the detour Kathleen!
 

yssie

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Tom Gelb|1322843543|3072952 said:
Hello Yssie,

I believe I can shed a little more light here. I worked in fancy colors at the GIA for a number of years. Please note the responses in red below. If you have anymore questions please let me know.

All the best,

Tom

Yssie|1322592285|3070941 said:
No, I'm definitely not talking about fluor - only the body colour of the stone. So am I understanding correctly (w/ reference to GIA's grading only):

1. GIA will call a stone with *yellow* body colour of certain strength/saturation (let's call this "X") a K. Correct
2. GIA will call a stone with *brown* body colour of certain strength/saturation >= "X" a K, and will note that colour is due to brown on the report. From K-M Faint brown, N-R Very Light Brown, S-Z Light Brown
3. GIA will call a stone with *yellow* body colour of strenght/saturation < "X" an E-J. Correct
4. GIA will call a stone with *brown* body colour of strength/saturation < "X" an E-J, but you are unsure if there will be a brown notation. No brown noted, except on internal GIA documents
5. If the stone is cut from *pink* rough, it is either a D (completely colourless) or a Faint, Very Light, Light, Fancy, Fancy Intense, Fancy Vivid, Fancy Deep. There is no possibility of acquiring a GIA G with an inkling of *pink*. Same with *blue*. If a diamond is graded D-F it will get only a letter grade regardless of the underlying tint. Remember D-F is termed "colorless" so although there may be something there it would be quite strange for a diamond to be called both colorless and blue. If a diamond has a color other than yellow brown or gray and has an equivalent color grade of G or below the diamond would then be graded in the fancy color grading scale starting with Faint.
6. We have no idea what PQCollectibles is talking about when she refers to her "steely blue J WF ACA cut from blue rough", other than that it does not in fact have an inkling of *blue*, because if it did it would be a Faint/VeryLight/Light/...
7. This quote from one of the threads linked above is also wrong: "grey diamonds are graded d-j. if there is more color than a j, it's fancy grey". Gray diamond are a strange exception and treated differently. The post is correct in that a diamond with a gray undertone would be graded on the D-Z color scale until it reached K color. At that point the diamond wold be graded on the GIA fancy color grading system starting with Faint Gray.
8. Diamonds with inklings of any colour other than yellow or brown will NOT be assigned a letter from E-J. If they are completely colourless they are Ds, if they have even an inkling of a colour other than yellow or brown they go straight to the Faint/Light/etc. scale (which changes depending on the specific colour).

I apologise to the ghosts of posters past for calling them out. There's so much info out there, much of it conflicting... I just want to understand what's really going on.

ETA: hope you don't mind the detour Kathleen!


Thanks so much Tom! This is REALLY helpful. I appreciate the surety of your responses - the gemologist whom I spoke to did seem hesitant on some points, so perhaps her specialty was elsewhere. You've answered all my questions so far, but I'm sure there's more to come!

I'm going to quote this post in the other thread that I started regarding this specifically, I hope that's okay.
 
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