why do people use the phrase "the stone faces up white"?...

[Dancing Fire]

shouldn''t it be faces up clear? like the color of water. to me white is like the color of milk, does this make sense?

 

[Greg]

White light contains the continuous range of colors in the spectrum. When a diamond faces up white, it's a reference to light return...not color. When a diamond looks yellow, it is absorbing some of the blue wavelength of white light that enters it.

...at least I think that's the case.

 

[Magnum]

If it were clear, that would mean all the light would be going through it like a piece of glass. The reason ideal cut stones face up "whiter" (or maybe it's more silver-white) is because they are so efficient at reflecting light, of which most happens to be white light, so the white light that is reflected is so intense that it masks whatever slight yellow body color the diamond has. That's why you can see the yellow better from the bottom, because you are not being "blinded" by reflected light, and are able to pick up the body color of the diamond.

 

[valeria101]

Make that "colorless" - I do not know of too many places that sell fancy white diamonds (the milk-white ones like THIS). And the occasional hazy thing gets the right note (EXAMPLE !!!!!)

I think this has something to do with the way diamodns are graded for color: culet-up that is. The ever so slight shades get lost in the sparkle face-up if lucky - or so the respective phrase says.