Diamond Shape

Diamond shape refers to the geometric outline or silhouette of the diamond. Choosing a diamond shape is important as it the easiest way to show off your distinct style and personality.

Types of Diamond Shape

There are two categories of Diamond shape; round diamonds and fancy shape diamonds.

Round brilliant diamonds

Round brilliant diamonds are the most popular and traditional diamond shape. Round brilliants are a style of round diamonds that have been precisely engineered to maximise their brilliance, creating an unrivalled sparkle.

Due to their simplicity and elegance, round brilliant diamonds pair well with most ring designs.

Fancy shape diamonds

Fancy shape diamonds describes any diamond that is not round. This includes princess, pear, oval and many more.

From the sleek and modern princess cut, to the bold and elegant pear shape, each fancy shape diamond has a distinct style and character.

A fancy shape diamond displays your unique style and flair.

Shop by Diamond Shape

Diamond Grading

The Four Cs

Created by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), the '4Cs of Diamond Quality' is the global standard for describing diamonds.

The 4Cs of diamonds are cut, colour, clarity, and carat weight. These are the four characteristics used to determine the quality of a diamond.

What is Diamond Cut?

The cut of a diamond is a measure of how well balanced its proportions, symmetry and polish are. These three factors correlate directly with how beautiful and brilliant the diamond is.

How well a diamond is cut determines how much light it reflects, and how much it sparkles. The GIA has created standards to measure the diamond against which have been calculated to create the most brilliance, fire and scintillation.

As this is the most important characteristic for determining the beauty of the diamond, we only offer diamonds with a cut of Good or higher, rejecting all graded as Fair or Poor.

What is Diamond Colour?

Diamond colour is a measure of how colourless a diamond is. The more chemically and structurally perfect a diamond is the less colour it exhibits.

The GIA's colour scale ranges from D to Z. Grades closer to D are more colourless and rare, while grades closer to Z have more general discolouration, with a natural tint of either yellow or brown.

The colours presented in our diagrams are exaggerated for demonstration purposes. In reality many of the colour distinctions between grades are so subtle to be invisible as to the untrained eye.

What Colours do we offer?

The GIA's colour scale ranges from D to Z, however we only offer "colourless" and "near colourless" diamonds (grades D to G) to avoid yellowing, browning, and general discolouration.

D Colour

E Colour

F Colour

G Colour

What is Diamond Clarity?

Each diamond is unique as it is naturally forged over thousands of years deep within the earth. Because of this diamonds often contain unique imperfections, either internal (inclusions) or external (blemishes).

A diamond's clarity is a measure of how few inclusions and blemishes it has. Each diamond is graded on a scale between Flawless and Included, with Flawless diamonds being so incredibly rare that most retailers don't offer them due to their very high prices. Robert Price jewellers offers diamonds between the grades of IF and SI1, more information is available on these below.

Flawless

(FL)

No inclusions and no blemishes visible under 10x magnification

Internally Flawless

(IF)

No inclusions visible under 10x magnification

Very, Very Slightly Included

(VVS1 and VVS2)

Inclusions so slight they are difficult for a skilled grader to see under 10x magnification

Very Slightly Included

(VS1 and VS2)

Inclusions are observed with effort under 10x magnification, but can be characterized as minor

Slightly Included

(SI1 and SI2)

Inclusions are noticeable under 10x magnification

Included

(I1, I2 and I3)

Inclusions are obvious under 10x magnification which may affect transparency and brilliance

What is Diamond Carat Weight?

The weight of precious stones is measured in metric carats. Most diamonds used in fine jewellery weigh under one carat, with one carat being equal to 0.2 grams.

Confusingly, carat when referring to gold is a measure of the proportion of gold in an alloy, for example 18ct White Gold is 18/24 parts pure gold.

Responsible Sourcing

All Robert Price Jewellers diamonds are ethically sourced and conflict free, in compliance with the Kimberley Process.

All diamonds 0.25cts and above are also supplied with a GIA certificate. The GIA is the largest and most respected non-profit source of gemological knowledge in the world.

Lab-grown Diamonds

Laboratory grown diamonds are identical in every way to natural diamonds, apart from their origin. Made in a laboratory, there is no need for the mining required by natural diamonds. This makes lab-grown diamonds a more ecologically friendly alternative to natural diamonds.

Due to precise engineering and rigorous scientific process, lab-grown diamonds can be created to be a visually indistinct from the rarer, more flawless natural diamonds. All this and at a lower price.

Lab-grown diamonds are indistinguishable from natural diamonds to the naked eye. We are currently working on offering laboratory grown diamonds as an alternative on the website. In the meantime if you are interested in lab-grown diamonds please contact us and we will be happy to help!

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