What makes Diamond "Sparkle"? ~ Diamond Inhouse Blogs

What makes Diamond "Shine" and "Sparkle"?

If there is one word that everyone sees in diamond, it’s the “sparkling” feature. The bright and shiny appearance of the diamond is the part that attracts the people in the world.

Diamond have been variously describing as “Sparkling”, “a Rainbow color shine” or “flashy light”. There is no doubt, about the diamonds sparkling feature, as it is the part of its unique character. It’s one of the reasons why women fell in love with a diamond and choose it over all others.

Diamond is one of the hardest materials. As it is made from the carbon. A diamond has a three-dimensional arrangement of carbon linked together. So, in this article, we will discuss why diamond shine and sparkle and which property makes it shiny, etc.

"Why do diamonds sparkle?”

Diamonds are developed under very high intense pressure, found very deep in the earth’s crust, billions of years old. As the diamond is formed naturally, each diamond will have some marks on it, known as inclusions. These are the flaws that are created in the diamond’s structure, yet most diamonds have them.

When a rough diamond is mined, the manufacturer will consider the natural state of the whole rough when deciding how to cut it into a polished stone or stones. There are many factors to consider when planning how to cut a rough diamond - one of them is the number and position of inclusions inside the rough diamond. Why is this important? Because one of the key factors in the way a diamond sparkles is its arrangement of inclusions. Inclusions can block or hamper the movement of light waves inside a diamond, which significantly affects that way it sparkles in the light.

Reasons for diamond sparkling:

1. Density

Diamonds have a crystal structure with a cubic lattice and are so intense that when the light passes through them, the rays of light slows down. Normally, when light travels at a speed of 186,000 miles per second, but due to a diamond’s density, light slows down by half of its speed when passing through it. This leads to higher levels of sparkle with you see any diamonds.

2. Cut

Diamond’s cut has a huge impact on throwing the lights back or sparkling features. Any Brilliant cut diamonds are designed in such a way that they have many as 57 facets and are not in very shallow or deep cut but an ideal cut for the light to pass perfectly and make the diamond sparkle.

3. Clarity

Diamonds clarity is also one of the important points, as the less inclusion in diamond will help in the less distorted the light which passes through it. Like, the less imperfect diamonds will be more sparkling or shining than the more imperfect one.

4. Color

Color also affect the way a white diamond sparkles. A perfect, sparkly diamond is not ‘white’. It is, in fact, colorless; the absence of color is what gives diamonds their pure clear appearance as same as the water.

However, the diamonds with the color tends to have less shine and sparkle than the one which is white or colorless.

5. Jewelry Setting

The way the diamond is set can have a significant impact on its sparkling features. Like not just the diamond itself that affects the sparkling or shining.

When we use yellow gold settings, the tinge in the diamond’s color, it may look a little dull and less sparkly, while white gold can enhance the appearance of a sparkle but this goes for the colorless, near colorless and white diamonds.

When it comes to rings, the different setting has different effects on diamonds like prong settings or tension settings tend to sparkle more when the diamonds are more exposed to light. Bezel settings, which enclose the diamond on all its sides, block the light which makes the diamond sparkling less.

6. Diamond shape

Diamonds are cut in a wide range of shapes like oval, pear, marquise etc. The brilliant round cut that maximizes the diamond’s interaction with light and creates the stunning brilliance and sparkle. Whereas the other diamond shapes, such as the oval, marquise and pear, tend to sparkle less than the round brilliant, yet are still a sparkly alternative.

Finding the right Sparkling Diamonds:

The sparkly feature in a diamond is due to several factors as mentioned above. If you want a diamond which maximizes the sparkling feature, then make sure to choose a diamond with the perfect cut, color, shape and of course taking into the consideration with the jewelry settings.