Gemological laboratories study a modern diamond’s cut based on how its facets interact with light, prescribing an excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor grade. Excellent and very good sparkle the most. Since this C determines the overall appearance of the modern day brilliant cut diamond, we consider it to be one of the most important. We recommend only selecting diamonds with an 'excellent' grading.

The modern round brilliant cut diamond has 57 facets, or sometimes 58 if the cutter included a culet, which is an additional facet at the bottom of the pavilion. Today, diamonds are cut with a precision up to 1/100th of a millimeter allowing the perfect balance of proportions to reveal a diamond's beauty.

Gemological institutes grade white diamonds based on the absence of color. Though diamonds are primarily carbon, they often include trace elements that can affect their color. The most common trace element is nitrogen, which gives off a subtle shade of yellow. The more a diamond crystal is tinted with yellow, the more common they are which decreases their value. However, diamonds that posess a vivid yellow hue past "Z" are also a rarity and increase in price.

To grade white diamond color, gemological institutes use letters of the alphabet, starting from D (colorless) all the way to Z (light yellow). For natural diamonds, truly colorless options are quite rare and therefore you will see a price jump when compared to diamonds with a lesser color grading. For lab-grown, the ability to control the environment the crystal is formed in allows for colorless diamonds to be more common where the difference in price for higher and lower grade options is less substantial. You should note that subtle hints of color are difficult to see with the naked eye. The most common color ranges are D through F and G through J.

Diamond carat (ct) refers to a diamond’s weight. Both lab-grown and natural diamonds rise in price as they increase in carat weight. The bigger the diamond is, the more rare it is to find nature. In a laboratory, they take more time to grow.

The price for natural diamonds rises more exponentially as they increase in weight when compared to lab-grown diamonds prices.

Diamond cutters today use advanced technology to achieve the best proportions, ensuring that each diamond is cut following similar ratios. This allows them to estimate the diamond's diameter based on its carat weight. Though this is still an approximation, it can help you identify the best carat weight for your desired size.