Diamond guide
Diamond Guide Choosing the perfect diamond is an art, whether it’s for a stunning necklace, elegant earrings, a timeless bracelet, or a dazzling engagement ring. At Lumière, every diamond is hand-selected for its exceptional sparkle, ensuring you receive a gem that exceeds expectations." The 4Cs of Diamonds The 4Cs: Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat Weight
Diamond Guide
Choosing the perfect diamond is an art, whether it’s for a stunning necklace, elegant earrings, a timeless bracelet, or a dazzling engagement ring. At Lumière, every diamond is hand-selected for its exceptional sparkle, ensuring you receive a gem that exceeds expectations.”
The 4Cs of Diamonds
The 4Cs: Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat Weight are the ultimate standards for evaluating a diamond’s quality and beauty. These principles help you understand the key factors that make a diamond unique and guide you in selecting a piece that perfectly matches your style and needs.
CUT
COLOUR
CLARITY
CARAT WEIGHT
CUT
At Lumière, we offer only Very Good and Excellent Cut grades for our lab-grown diamonds. Each stone is hand-selected by our gemologists for its exceptional brilliance, fire, and overall light performance – because nothing less meets our standards for beauty.
Excellent Cut: Reflects nearly all light that enters the diamond, offering maximum sparkle and radiance.
Very Good Cut: Delivers impressive brilliance and fire, with only slight differences in light return compared to excellent Cut, often invisible to the naked eye.
We do not use lower cut grades (Good, Fair, or Poor), as they compromise a diamond’s sparkle. Every Lumière diamond is chosen to shine at its full potential, always.
All of our round cut diamonds are Excellent Cut. For fancy shapes (such as oval, emerald, pear, and others), we offer Very Good or Excellent cuts. Because grading standards for fancy shapes are more nuanced, each diamond is carefully evaluated for symmetry, polish, and overall visual beauty by our expert gemologists.
COLOUR
Diamond colour refers to how colorless a diamond appears. While diamonds can range from icy white to shades of yellow or brown, the less colour present, the more rare and valuable the stone.
At Lumière, we exclusively use diamonds graded D to F — the highest tier on the colour scale, known as “colourless.”These diamonds offer exceptional purity and brilliance, with no visible tint to distract from their natural sparkle.
CLARITY
Clarity measures the presence of internal inclusions or external blemishes. The fewer inclusions a diamond has, the higher its clarity grade and value.
At Lumière, we offer diamonds with superior clarity grades (FL to VS2), ensuring every piece radiates brilliance and perfection.
FL (Flawless) & IF (Internally Flawless): No visible inclusions, offering unmatched purity under magnification.
VVS1, VVS2 (Very, Very Slightly Included): Extremely minor inclusions, difficult to detect even under 10x magnification.
VS1, VS2 (Very Slightly Included): Minimal inclusions, invisible to the naked eye, making them an excellent choice for smaller, non-IGI-certified diamonds (below 0.3 carats).
SI1, SI2 (Slightly Included) & Below: Noticeable inclusions under magnification or to the naked eye, often compromising brilliance. Lumière focuses on higher clarity grades to ensure superior quality.
CARAT WEIGHT
Carat weight reflects a diamond’s weight and influences its perceived size. True beauty lies in choosing a size that complements your personal style and the design of your jewelry. Whether you prefer understated elegance or a touch of boldness, Lumière offers a range of carat options to suit every occasion and preference.
0.3 carats: A timeless choice for delicate rings, pendants, and earrings, offering a refined, everyday sparkle.
0.50 carats: Versatile and elegant, perfect for solitaire rings, studs, or pendants that balance subtlety and brilliance.
1.00 carat: A classic centerpiece, ideal for engagement rings or designs with a touch of statement appeal.
2.00+ carats: For those who prefer a bolder look, this size offers striking brilliance while maintaining timeless sophistication.
Lumière also offers smaller diamonds under 0.30 carats, ideal for pavé settings, halo designs, or delicate cluster jewelry. These stones add brilliance and charm to intricate, minimalist pieces—perfect for dainty rings, earrings, and pendants that radiate quiet elegance.
We understand that choosing the right diamond can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Once you’ve selected your preferred shape and carat weight, our gemologists will take care of the rest.
Instead of browsing through endless options, you can trust us to hand-select a diamond that perfectly complements your design. Each one is chosen for its brilliance, proportions, and overall beauty.
It’s a simpler, more refined way to experience fine jewellery, led by expertise and care.
Diamond Shapes
Diamond shapes define the style and personality of your jewelry. From the timeless brilliance of the Round cut to the sleek sophistication of the Emerald cut, each shape offers its own unique allure. Whether you gravitate toward classic elegance or modern edge, Lumière offers a wide selection of diamond shapes to suit every taste. Explore some of the most popular shapes below, and visit our dedicated Diamond Shapes page for a detailed guide.
Round
Oval
Emerald
Princess
Cushion
Radiant
Pear
Marquise
Heart
Diamond Buying FAQs
The most important ‘C’ depends on your personal preferences and priorities, but cut is often considered the most critical. A well-cut diamond maximizes brilliance, fire, and sparkle, enhancing the diamond’s other qualities, such as carat, color, and clarity. Even a diamond with excellent color and clarity can appear dull if poorly cut, making cut the biggest factor in how much a diamond sparkles.
The least important ‘C’ depends on your personal priorities and how you plan to wear the diamond. For many buyers, clarity is considered the least critical of the 4Cs. This is because most inclusions are microscopic and difficult to see without magnification, making them nearly invisible to the naked eye in well-chosen diamonds.
Carat weight measures a diamond’s weight, not its size. While it influences the perceived size, factors like cut quality, shape, and proportions also affect how large a diamond appears. For example, a well-cut oval diamond may look larger than a poorly cut round diamond of the same carat weight.
For assurance of quality, look for diamonds certified by reputable organizations such as the International Gemological Institute (IGI) or the Gemological Institute of America (GIA). At Lumière, we offer IGI-certified diamonds to guarantee excellence.
When buying diamonds, trust and expertise are key. At Lumière, we simplify the process by carefully handpicking each diamond for its brilliance and quality, so you don’t have to compare endless options. Our specialists ensure every diamond strikes the perfect balance of the 4Cs, giving you a stunning piece without the guesswork.