Blue Color Diamond Buying Guide

What is a Blue Color Diamond?

Blue diamonds are among the rarest of the fancy color diamonds. Their beautiful color is often due to boron, a chemical element that makes up only 0.001% of the world’s crust. A few boron atoms penetrated nearby diamond crystals over millions of years, replacing carbon atoms in the crystal lattice and developing the blue diamond color. The reason why blue color diamonds are scarce is that boron atoms are rarely present when natural diamonds form.

The atoms of boron are small enough to enter the diamond crystal lattice. In contrast to carbon, the boron atom has one less electron available. A diamond’s crystal structure is defective due to a lack of electrons, which changes how light passes through it. The diamond acquires its blue color due to selectively absorbing and transmitting light.

Boron atoms in a diamond don’t ensure a blue color because nitrogen can produce defects in the diamond and reduce the effect of boron. Diamonds with rich blue colors contain a minimal amount of nitrogen. Radiation and hydrogen defects can also produce a blue color. Hydrogen defects cause blue color diamonds to be described as grey-blue to grey-violet, whereas radiation exposure causes green-blue diamonds.

Blue color diamonds only exist in a few mines worldwide. Mines like Cullinan in South Africa, owned and operated by Petra Diamonds, and Argyle in Western Australia closed in 2020 because of rising costs and a stagnant diamond market. India’s Golconda mine once produced blue diamond color.

How Affordable are Blue Color Diamonds?

The blue colored diamond is among the rarest and most expensive colors in the fancy color diamond category. A larger blue diamond color costs more per carat because it is even rarer.

Color intensity increases the value of blue diamond color, as they’re rarer. You may consider a blue colored diamond with secondary shades of gray or green if you seek a relatively affordable option.

Are Blue Color Diamonds Rare?

A blue colored diamond is rare and expensive, but not as much as a pink color diamond. There have only been a few jewelers who have seen blue color diamonds. Natural blue diamonds are extremely rare and expensive. Thus, fancy blue diamond color were created using new methods. Blue color diamonds are still expensive because the percentage of successful creations is low.

How to Choose a Blue Color Diamond?

Color

Blue colored diamonds are evaluated based on three factors:

• Hue
• Saturation
• Tone

Diamond Blue color have a primary hue of blue, which is the visible color of a diamond. Secondary hues can also affect the value of stones. Gray and green are the most common secondary hues in diamond blue color.

The value of secondary hues is added when they enhance the primary hue or don’t detract from it but diminish when they detract. The rarest and most expensive diamonds are natural blue colored diamonds.

Color saturation refers to how intense the color is. A diamond’s value increases with its saturation. That’s why vivid blue colored diamonds are more expensive than faint colors.

A color’s tone refers to how light or dark it is. You can choose the tone based on your preference, but the stones in the middle are the most popular. The intensity levels of blue colored diamonds are:

• Faint
• Very Light
• Light
• Fancy Light
• Fancy
• Fancy Intense
• Fancy Vivid
• Fancy Deep

Clarity

A blue colored diamond’s clarity is graded the same as a colorless diamond. A higher clarity grade means fewer inclusions. The value of blue diamond color is higher if they are high in clarity, but this characteristic is not necessary for fancy-colored stones. Compared to colorless diamonds, blue color diamonds are less affected by flaws because of their blue color.

Blue diamond colors should be eye clean, which means there should be no visible inclusions on the stone. There’s not much difference between diamonds in the VS or even VVS clarity range and blue colored diamonds in the SI1 – SI2 range.

Carat

The natural blue color diamond is one of the rarest gems on earth. Due to this, the price per carat of these stones rises rapidly as the size of the stone increases. A gem of one carat that has good color can be sold for six figures.

Cut

All fancy color diamonds, including blue colored diamonds, are not graded the same way as colorless diamonds. It is important to note that fancy diamonds are not cut to maximize their fire, brilliance, and scintillation, unlike colorless diamonds. These are considered secondary characteristics.

Blue diamonds are usually cut into fancy shapes to maximize color intensity. For colorless diamonds, the proportions considered ideal may not always work for blue colored diamond. It is important to remember that an excellent-cut blue diamond color costs a premium, so it is better to focus on its hue, saturation, and tone rather than its cut grade.

Where to Buy Blue Color Diamonds?

Always choose a reputable and trustworthy retailer when buying blue diamond colors. It is always advisable to obtain a certificate of authenticity from an independent laboratory and to inquire about the stone’s origin.

If you’re looking for loose blue colored diamonds, we recommend checking out the Blue Nile. They have one of the largest online diamond inventories and offer a wide variety of blue diamond color at reasonable prices.