COLOR GRADING

GIA’s grading terminology uses a combination of fancy grades and
color descriptions to identify a colored diamond’s characteristic color.
A fancy grade represents the combined effect of tone and saturation on the color of a diamond.

All LJ West fancy color diamonds are accompanied by a GIA color diamond report. All LJ West fancy color diamonds are of natural color. This means that their original nature, when mined from the earths depths, were of this color hue as seen in its final state. There is no treatment to the diamond to obtain the color that is seen within the diamond.

GIA has established a color grade scale that encompasses the hue, tone and saturation of color as seen by experienced gemologist. At GIA several gemologists must be in agreement for the unknown diamond to be assigned a final fancy color grade. All color diamonds are tested for all known treatments that can enhance or impart color to a diamond.

Hue

The Predominant Color

The appearance of a diamond to be classified as red, green, blue, violet, or anything in between. Color description of a diamond can be a combination of two or more colors. When reading the color description of a diamond on the GIA report the final color hue is the dominant color and any other color description before it is a modifier.

There are eight dominant color hues that are used in the GIA grading system and include: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet, and Purple. The red is further defined by using Pink as the dominant color completing the scale to eight colors. Brown and gray are not considered in the same context as the dominant eight and are often used as modifiers for specific hues, but can stand alone with a fancy designation.

Tone + saturation

Tone
Lightness or Darkness. The Tone of color grading refers to the lightness or darkness of the hue, or primary color of the diamond.

Saturation
Saturation refers to the dominance of hue in the color, and Intensity of it. Saturation is the measure of how strong and intense the primary color of the diamond actually is, such as light, deep, intense or vivid. A fully saturated color is the truest version of that color. Primary colors (red, yellow, and blue) are "true", so they are also fully saturated.

There are six categories in the GIA scale that equate to color saturation.