Additional colors that occur in diamonds are known as secondary hues, secondary colors, or overtone colors. The ultimate color of a diamond is influenced by these secondary colors. There are no secondary colors in a diamond with a pure hue, such as a natural fancy vivid yellow. There are about 230 color combinations in fancy colored diamonds, with over 90 secondary color combinations and 9 intensity levels.
Although there are countless numbers of color possibilities in diamonds, there are only 230 recognized color combinations when it comes to grading fancy colored diamonds. Natural fancy colored diamonds with secondary colors are more common, but they are still rare and extraordinarily beautiful.
How Secondary Diamond Colors are Graded
Diamonds with secondary hues contain both primary and secondary colors, with the addition of a third color on odd occasions. When browsing natural fancy colored diamonds online, you'll find that certain secondary hues are categorized as "greenish" or "brownish," while others are described as "green" or "brown." This is a measurement of the secondary hue's intensity.
For example, if a diamond's primary color is pink (more than 50%) and it has a strong orange tinge (more than 35%), the diamond is classified as "orange pink." If the presence of the secondary hue is less than 15%, it is considered a faint secondary color and is referred to as an "orangey pink" diamond.
Do Fancy Colored Diamonds With Secondary Hues Cost Less?
Diamonds with secondary colors are typically less expensive than pure colored diamonds. This is due to the fact that a pure colored diamond is significantly rarer, with certain colors such as pink and blue natural fancy colored diamonds being very hard to come by and hence among the most expensive natural fancy colored diamonds.
The price of a pure natural fancy colored diamond is also determined by the diamond's color intensity level. A natural fancy pale pink diamond, for example, will be less expensive than a natural fancy vivid pink diamond. In addition, even with secondary colors, the diamond's worth is determined by how sought after the color is.
Colorful diamond rings
Secondary Colors in Fancy Colored Diamond Jewelry
When buying diamond jewelry or designing your own, make sure the hue of the diamond matches the jewelry metal type as well as the other diamonds in the piece.
If you want to match multiple fancy colored diamonds in a multi stone diamond pendant chain, for example, you'll want to make sure they're all different colors. It will be tough to exactly match diamonds with secondary colors to each other. The big upside here is that the resulting piece will not only be beautiful, but also completely unique to you.
Finding small matching diamonds for pure colored diamonds, such as fancy canary yellow diamonds, is considerably easier. If you only want the center stone to be fancy colored, you'll have a lot more options when it comes to the surrounding diamonds or side stones. You should, however, verify that the surrounding diamonds are all the same clarity grade as the central stone for the best possible match and overall appearance.
A colorful diamond ring
