Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
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124 | JANUARY + FEBRUARY 2015 nshoremag.com Top to bottom, yellow diamond from Royal Jewelers, pink diamond from Elyse Fine Jewelers, solitaire from DeScenza Diamonds, and halo from Elyse Fine Jewelers COLOR Color, paradoxically, usually refers to the absence of color. The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) grades diamonds on an alphabetical scale running from D to Z, where diamonds graded D through F are white, bright, and desirable, while Z-rated diamonds are light yellow or brown castoffs. Generally, price drops dramati - cally as you move along the scale. (One important caveat: diamonds colored in shades like pink, blue, and orange are graded on a sepa - rate scale that gauges hue, tone, and saturation.) CLARITY Clarity refers to the existence of inclusions and blemishes on the inside or outside of the diamond—vestiges of when they were formed in the earth's mantle aeons ago. Graded under 10x mag - nification, diamonds range on an 11-tier scale from flawless to very slightly included (VVS1-VVS2), very slightly included (VS1-VS2), slightly included (SI1-SI2), and included (I1-I3). Flawless dia - monds are as expensive as they are rare—rare enough that plenty of jewelers have never seen one. CARAT WEIGHT Carat weight—the last of the Four C's, and a different measure from the karats that measure the pu- rity of gold—gauges the heft of a diamond. One carat (1 CT) equals 200 milligrams. Higher numbers mean larger stones and potentially larger costs, but carats aren't the be-all-end-all metric they're some - times cracked up to be. "You could have three stones that all weigh a carat, but all are going to look very different," says Molloy. recent years, while the round bril- liant cut shape remains as popular as ever. No matter what year it is, keeping up with the Joneses is always in fashion: Most spouses- to-be seek stones at least as large as the ones their betrothed friends are wearing, Leed says. "It's not THE FIFTH C Because no two diamonds are the same, Nguyen proposes an ad- dendum to the Four C's: combina- tion. "You don't want to concen- trate too much on one aspect or sacrifice too much of another: Y ou want to look at it as a balance," says the Royal Jewelers execu - tive vice president. That means looking past benchmarks for the so-called "best" color, clarity, cut, and carat weight you might find through Google searches and judging each diamond on an indi - vidual, holistic basis. WHERE TO BUDGE TO MEET YOUR BUDGET Buying a diamond without going broke requires compromises, but these four jewelers all stress the same thing: never sacrifice cut quality. "Cut is most important," Nguyen says. "That's what creates the sparkle factor, and that's the first thing people notice." By con - trast, diminished clarity can lead to cost savings without affecting appearance: A diamond whose inclusions are only visible under magnification could look the same as a higher-graded counterpart. "To the naked eye, it's not going to look any different, but it's going to bring down the price consider - ably," Molloy says. Additionally, a ring setting can help obscure imperfections, like those on the edge or underside of the diamond, Berberian says. THE LATEST TRENDS Halo settings (a large center stone surrounded with smaller dia- monds) and pavé settings (small diamonds placed close together, creating the appearance of an unbroken diamond surface) have become two of the hottest styles in photographs by Robert Boyd in-depth SHOP