One of the most frequently asked questions in the diamond industry is whether fancy colored diamonds are more expensive than their colorless counterparts. Sadly, there is no straightforward answer to this. A thorough understanding of the colored large loose diamonds and the colorless ones is necessary to digest the concept of determining the price of the diamonds. Below is a discussion on the cost of diamonds with regard to their color.

Basic Rules of Economy – Rare Diamonds are More Expensive

Colored diamonds are very rare to find. They make up only 0.1% of the total number of diamonds. Although rarity is often the factor that leads to a higher price, several colored diamonds that fall in this category are much affordable when compared to the colorless diamonds.

The basic rule of product sales applies for these diamonds too – demand and supply control the price of the diamonds. It depends on how difficult it is to find a diamond and the task of obtaining it.

Demand is driven by one of the most common human traits – the desire to own what no one else owns. Such a rise in demand causes a sudden spike in the prices. However, any such shift in trends usually lasts for a very short period of time.

Mixed Collection of Colored Diamonds – Base Colors and Shapes

Fancy color diamonds can be categorized broadly into 4 different groups:

• Affordable colored diamonds, which includes brown, grey and fancy yellow diamonds.
• Medium priced diamonds, such as vivid and intense orange diamonds and yellow diamonds.
• High priced diamonds, such as blue, violet, pink, green, and purple.
• Extremely priced diamonds, such as the rarest diamonds, which are found only once, or anything similar that cannot be substituted.

The Affordable group of colored diamonds can be a great alternative for white diamonds. These are even more attractive than the colorless diamonds and cost much lesser, making it suitable for everyone. There are exceptions to this rule though, such as the vivid yellow diamonds, which are the most famous in this category, and hence, they cost slightly higher than the rest.

Meanwhile, you can go ahead and create a customized diamond ring and any other piece of jewelry with low-priced colored stones, such as brown (including the chocolate colored or the champagne variant), gray, etc. You can buy cheap diamonds from this category while staying within your budget limit as well.

Medium Priced Diamonds

The Medium priced range of diamonds includes a set of diamonds whose prices show variation depending on the presence of a secondary color, the intensity of the color, or a secondary hue. For instance, pure orange diamonds are priced extremely high, which almost touches the price range of the High priced diamonds.

Another good thing about this category of diamonds is that sometimes, the presence of a secondary hue or a secondary color will reduce the price dramatically. Yellowish orange diamonds and brownish orange diamonds are perfect examples of this. Nonetheless, the price range is quite wide and you will find cheaper diamonds than the white diamonds and higher ones.

Interestingly, canary diamonds, which fall under the category of intense yellow diamonds, are very close to white diamonds in terms of price, whereas yellow diamonds are rated way higher than the white diamonds.

A good benefit of darker shade color diamonds is that they shield the inclusions very well. Hence, you can get a cheaper diamond by compromising on clarity too. In the case of white diamonds, you should not buy anything lesser than SI2. Yet with colored diamonds above the deep yellowish orange diamond, you can go for a grade of I1 too and still get totally eye-clean stones.

Extremely Rare Colored Diamonds are Extremely Expensive

The diamonds in the Extremely priced level are considered the costliest colored diamonds in the world. These are also the rarest of all. This includes violet, green, pink, pure oranges, and purple. As for these diamonds, the price of the stone is placed in the range of tens of thousands of dollars per carat. Improvements in attributes like stronger color intensity (vivid or intense) or bigger size will lead to an exponential rise in the prices as well.

Remember that the smallest of changes in the diamonds of this category makes a huge change in the price range. For instance, a quarter of a carat will be more eye-catching than 1 carat colorless diamond of D color and VS clarity. Thus, it can be said that the colored diamonds are costlier than the white diamonds when the comparison is made purely based on clarity grading and carat weight.

Which is the Most Expensive Diamond Color?

When it comes to white diamonds, the D colored diamonds are the costliest. As for the costliest colored diamond, it is red because of the rarity in finding it. They are rated at the highest price range in the entire diamond list.