Your fiancé-to-be will instantly tell that they're wearing something special and unique with a diamond's beautiful sparkle. It is a true show stopper to wear an engagement ring.
A diamond's sparkle, or brilliance, is well known, but depending on the lighting conditions, specific shaped diamonds or cuts of diamonds, it can sparkle very noticeably.
Sparkle - What Is It?
A diamond sparkles when it is exposed to light. A diamond that sparkles best has a structure that allows it to reflect light in the best way possible.
When cutting diamonds, the cutter should ensure high-quality facets to make them sparkle. A stone's facet is like a tiny mirror that twinkles and sparkles on its surface. It is therefore always essential to know their number and purity.
Why Does a Diamond Sparkle?
Before exploring the most sparkly-shaped diamonds, let's examine what makes a diamond sparkle.
The sparkle of a diamond is determined by its ability to capture light and reflect it to the viewer. Diamonds typically appear more sparkly when they reflect more light from their facets. That’s why diamonds are cut into facets because when the light bounces back and forth between the diamond's faces, it creates a beautiful sparkle.
As well-cut diamonds can reflect different types of light, it is essential to break down what "sparkle" means in this sense. "Brightness" and "fire" refer to the ability to reflect light.
White light is reflected by diamonds, resulting in their brilliance. A diamond must reflect as much white light as possible off its table to your eyes to be considered “brilliant”. In addition to its beauty and sparkle, this factor also contributes to its strength and durability.
The ability of a diamond to disperse coloured light is referred to as fire. A diamond's unique character and beauty can be enhanced by a coloured reflection that occurs when it has excellent fire. In addition to red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet, fire can take on any spectral colours.
Which Diamond Cuts Sparkle the Most?
Round Brilliant Cut
The round cut is the most brilliant or the most sparkling diamond cut. Fifty-eight facets (including the culet) are cut into brilliant round diamonds to allow light to pass through and reflect off each facet.
An interesting fact is that the round brilliant diamond cut was explicitly designed so that it would sparkle the brightest.
Marcel Tolkowsky, an engineer and diamond cutter, published his PhD thesis in 1919, explaining how to achieve optimum diamond brilliance. Round brilliant cut diamonds are now the most popular diamond shape in the world due to this formula.
A princess cut, a radiant cut, and a cushion cut
They all have beautiful sparkles that make them well known. They offer the same brilliance and fire as round brilliant cut diamonds but at a lower price per carat.
Princess Cut
Princess cuts are excellent at chopping up light and reflecting it. Princess cut diamonds can be highly sparkly in high cut quality.
Radiant Cut
This unique cut combines the best qualities of round brilliant and emerald cuts with 70 facets for a beautiful sparkle that reflects light.
Cushion Cut
This high brilliance and fire come from the cushion cut's ability to reflect light. Despite its lack of radiance, this cut offers a vital sparkle at a significantly lower price per carat than the brilliant round cut.
Here is the complete guide on Cushion Cut Diamond!
Oval, Pear, Heart and Marquise
Round brilliant diamonds share features with several other diamond cuts, such as facets that reflect light as much as possible. Cuts such as ovals, marquises, and pear shapes fall into this category.
Oval Cut
Unlike brilliant round diamonds, oval diamonds are cut in an oval shape and have similar faces. Oval diamond cut wears slightly more significant than differently cut diamonds of the same carat weight due to this elongated shape, similar to the marquise cut.
Pear Cut
There are similarities in the facet patterns of the pear cut and the brilliant round cut, similar to the marquise and oval cuts. A typical pear-shaped diamond has 58 facets, so it captures and reflects extraordinary amounts of light, just like a round brilliant.
Heart Cut
A heart-shaped diamond has 56 and 58 facets, similar to a round brilliant cut diamond. When these stones are cut well, they can have a truly stunning level of fire and brilliance.
Finding a heart-shaped diamond that is well-cut, as with other fancy diamond shapes, can be challenging. Please contact us for expert advice if you're interested in a heart-shaped diamond but don't know what to look for.
Marquise Cut
The marquise cut was developed in the 18th century due to a request by King Louis XV to have his mistress, Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, have a diamond cut to the shape of her lips.
Regarding facet pattern, the marquise cut has 56 facets, similar to the brilliant round cut. As a result, marquise diamonds have excellent brilliance, making them sparkly.
Additionally, a marquise cut diamond tends to appear larger than diamonds of the same carat weight cut differently. This option is worth considering if you want a diamond that combines a beautiful sparkle with an impressive presence.
Emerald and Asscher Cuts
Despite being beautiful in their own right, the Asscher and Emerald cuts do not have a high reputation for brilliance. They are generally less bright and sparkly than diamonds with a brilliant cut shape because of the design and facet pattern.
However, the clarity and lustre of these shapes make them highly sought after. An Asscher or Emerald cut diamond can have a unique, elegant appearance if cut well and has a high clarity grade.
Grading Diamond Based On The 4C’s
Each 4Cs of Diamond Quality is used to grade lab diamonds, mined diamonds, and Nexus Diamond alternatives. Robert M. Shipley, the founder of GIA, invented this universal method in the early 1940s. To provide jewellers with knowledge and training, he created this grading scale. There were several inconsistencies in the technical terms merchants used to describe the characteristics of colourless diamonds before this universal system was adopted. Colour, Clarity, Carat weight, and Cut are the 4Cs.
The Colour
It describes how much hue is visible in a diamond on the D-to-Z colour scale. Colourlessness makes diamonds more valuable since clearer and more petite yellow diamonds are more valuable. There are four levels of colour grade, beginning with (D) colourless and ending with (Z) light, which appears as a yellowish colour. The earth or a lab cannot create a chemically pure stone with no hue. An untrained eye can't see many of the subtle colour variations. Because of its lower cost and nearly colourless appearance, many people opt for subtle colours like (G) or (H).
The Clarity
Describes how many inclusions or blemishes are found in a stone and where they are located.
The average consumer cannot see many inclusions and blemishes on the product's surface. It is possible to confuse a VS1 with an SI2 by looking at them from the same angle. Prongs or other metalwork can hide some inclusions, resulting in a nearly perfect stone for much less money. When diamonds are formed, tiny crystals become trapped and cause inclusions. Since they are produced under the same conditions of heat and pressure, they can be found in both mined and lab settings.
The Carat Weight
According to their apparent size, diamonds are measured. Using the diamond carat chart, all stones are measured in metric "carats" of 200 milligrams. Larger stones are more desirable and rare, so the price increases with carat weight. Value is not solely determined by size, as each of the 4Cs contributes to value.
The Cut
One of the essential 4Cs is the diamond’s cut, which should never be confused with the stone’s shape. Diamond cuts are determined by how well their facets interact with light. As facets are measured, brightness, fire, and scintillation are analysed to determine the diamond's brilliance (the amount of sparkle it produces).
Buying A Diamond Should Also Consider Other Factors
The more facets a diamond has, the more it will sparkle compared to diamonds with fewer facets.
Many factors determine how strongly a diamond sparkles, including its shape. Diamonds' brilliance, fire and overall ability to sparkle are affected by many other factors, including their cut quality, width-to-length ratio, and depth-to-table ratio.
Choosing The Right Setting
How much your diamond sparkles can significantly affect your chosen setting. Prong settings maximise the sparkle and brilliance of diamonds by allowing light to enter from every angle.
Setting diamonds in bezels prevents light from entering the diamond and reflecting off its facets, so they should be avoided.
A halo setting features smaller diamonds surrounding the centre diamond, increasing its perceived size and giving it extra presence on our fiancé-to-be's finger.
There is more sparkle with more diamonds, as you might expect. Halo settings will not increase your centre stone's brilliance or fire, but the small diamonds that make up the halo will still sparkle.
Choose Diamonds That Are Gia Or Ags Certified
GIA and AGS-certified diamonds are the best choices. In the world, these two diamond grading entities are the most trusted and reliable. It provides objective, accurate assessments of a diamond's quality without embellishment or exaggeration.
Conclusion
The round, brilliant cut is the brightest diamond shape you can find if you want the sparkliest diamond. During the early 20th century, this cut was designed to maximise sparkle, giving a well-cut round brilliant diamond unsurpassed brilliance and fire.
It is also possible to get a stunning diamond sparkle with diamond shapes such as the marquise, oval, pear or heart cut. In addition to the princess, radiant, and cushion cut diamond, all are great choices when cut to a high standard. A diamond sparkles for more than just its shape. Diamonds with an Ideal or Excellent cut grade (GIA or AGS) are more likely to reflect light and sparkle beautifully.
Now that you have an idea of different cuts of diamonds check now some of the diamonds that are on a holiday sale!
FAQs
What is the cheapest diamond cut?
The most affordable cuts are emerald and Asscher. As step-cut diamonds, they produce less waste than rough diamonds, which, regardless of how they are cut, will cost the same.
Why is my diamond not sparkly?
Dirty diamonds don't sparkle since light cannot enter the stone and causes it to appear dull. You can quickly restore the lustre of your diamond jewellery if you notice that it gets cloudier over time due to a dirty surface.
Are VS1 and VS2 very different?
When viewed under 10x magnification, inclusions in VS1 diamonds are almost impossible to see. There is only 5 percent of gem-quality diamonds in the world. A diamond with VS2 clarity will only have eye-visible inclusions 5 percent of the time, whereas stones with VS3 clarity will have inclusions 5 percent or more of the time.
