Golden instead of white light?

[natascha]

I bought a pair of champagne ear studs, love the body color, hate the light return. Where all my other diamonds scintillate with white light these throw out a golden-yellow light .

Now I am pretty stumped, do all colored diamonds give colored light and if so at what color intensity do they start to deviate visibly from white light?

The photo below shows one of my normal studs (OEC H/I color) between the new ones. The champange look even more golden in real life but this kinda shows the issue. So is this normal?


Now, I love warmer diamonds, and dream of a light brown chunky monkey but I still want white not golden light return. This might be a possible contender:

Do you guys think this one will also do the golden thing?

Oh and for reference here is the same company's photo of the brown earrings.

 

[Karl_K]

yes it is normal, white light return from a diamond with visible color is either a reflection off a facet or high enough intensity that the eye overloads and sees it as white.
So in other words if you want white appearing light return the majority of the time get a diamond under around k color.

 

[natascha]

yes it is normal, white light return from a diamond with visible color is either a reflection off a facet or high enough intensity that the eye overloads and sees it as white.
So in other words if you want white appearing light return the majority of the time get a diamond under around k color.

Thank you so much for your answer!

Another question, should the light return of a brownish stone be brown? What stumps me is that the body color of the studs is brown with a bit of yellow yet the light it returns is golden yellow.

I am now hoping that if I find a true light brown stone the light will at least not be yellow. It is not really the fact that it is not white that bothers me, it is that it is yellow. I like all colors except yellow and orange.

 

[Karl_K]

Another question, should the light return of a brownish stone be brown? What stumps me is that the body color of the studs is brown with a bit of yellow yet the light it returns is golden yellow.

I am now hoping that if I find a true light brown stone the light will at least not be yellow. It is not really the fact that it is not white that bothers me, it is that it is yellow. I like all colors except yellow and orange.

No it is usually yellowish.
Now that you mention it I don't recall ever seeing one that it wasn't.
A lot of true brown diamonds are treated to make them white or yellow.
That leaves the yellow browns that cant be treated on the market.
But even the ones with brown body and no visible yellow had yellowish brown light return in some lighting.

 

[natascha]

Another question, should the light return of a brownish stone be brown? What stumps me is that the body color of the studs is brown with a bit of yellow yet the light it returns is golden yellow.

I am now hoping that if I find a true light brown stone the light will at least not be yellow. It is not really the fact that it is not white that bothers me, it is that it is yellow. I like all colors except yellow and orange.

No it is usually yellowish.
Now that you mention it I don't recall ever seeing one that it wasn't.
A lot of true brown diamonds are treated to make them white or yellow.
That leaves the yellow browns that cant be treated on the market.
But even the ones with brown body and no visible yellow had yellowish brown light return in some lighting.

Interesting, I wonder why there is still a yellowish tint to the light return. Do you know if that is also the case for other fancies( like pinks, blues and grey)?

I did not know that you can not treat yellow browns, that explains why it seems so hard to find light brown diamonds.

 

[Karl_K]

Interesting, I wonder why there is still a yellowish tint to the light return. Do you know if that is also the case for other fancies( like pinks, blues and grey)?

I did not know that you can not treat yellow browns, that explains why it seems so hard to find light brown diamonds.

Yes to the first question, it makes sense if you think about it, if you lightly tint a mirror what happens?
Everything looks tinted, same principle. Yellows are a slight exception because the lighting indoors these days is over blue(clf) which masks yellow. Incandescent bulbs(standard bulbs not specialty or full spectrum bulbs) on the other hand were/are over yellow which made all diamonds look yellowish.

tlb(top light brown) and lb(light brown) diamonds have pretty much disappeared from the market because of treatments.