The Guide to Buying Pink Diamonds

When buying a pink diamond, it is imperative that you buy it from a vendor that supplies high quality videos or photos like James Allen or Blue Nile. Leibish & Co are also an excellent choice thanks to their sterling customer service and expertise in the colored stone market.

A Pink Diamond’s Color

We aren’t sure how pink diamonds obtain their color. Unlike other colored stones, they don’t contain impurities which imbue color. But that hasn’t stopped a number of theories being presented on where the color comes from. Some believe t is from the pressure on the diamond during formation. Others believe that it could have been caused by a shock that changed the diamond’s molecular structure.

Although we don’t know why it is pink, it still makes for a beautiful stone for engagement rings and other forms of jewelry.

The Intensity of Pink Diamonds

The shade of the pink in a pink diamond is graded by its intensity and strength. As well as pink, these diamonds can also have a secondary color such as purple or orange.

GIA grades pink diamonds in the following way:

Faint
Very light
Light
Fancy light
Fancy
Fancy intense
Fancy vivid

It is hard to evaluate the intensity of a pink diamond. That’s because each grade is also actually a range. A diamond expert is your best bet for finding out your diamond’s grade.

Pink diamonds can also be graded on a number scale from 1-9. GIA is usually the standard, however.

The Rarity and Price of Pink Diamond

Pink diamonds are found the world over, but most are found in the Argyle mine in Western Australia. It is incredibly rare and only a few are produced each year. Over the last couple of years, prices have increased significantly owing to marketing efforts and Ben Affleck’s proposal to Jennifer Lopez with a pink diamond in 2002. They are the most expensive naturally colored diamond in the world behind only red diamonds.

The price of pink diamonds shoots up as the size and intensity of the color grows. It is important to have a clear budget in mind so that you don’t overshoot and can narrow your search. As part of this, you will need to determine which intensity you want.

Just a slight increase in color or carat size can have a huge impact in price, often adding tens of thousands of dollars. We show you the full chart on the home page.