

Colored Diamonds
What Is a Colored Diamond?
The future is looking a lot more technicolor! More and more brides are choosing colored focal stones to set in their engagement ring, and for good reason. A colored stone is the perfect way to make your engagement ring eye-catching and uniquely yours. While you might immediately think of sapphires or emeralds, colored diamonds are the perfect focal stone for a colored engagement ring. A colored diamond is made just like a white diamond: millions to billions of years ago, deep under the earth’s surface under intense heat and pressure, or by replicating the earth’s natural process in a lab. While a naturally colored diamond is extremely rare, advancements in the process of creating lab-grown diamonds have made a colored diamond much more prevalent. So, what gives a colored diamond its color? Ultimately, a diamond gets its colors from impurities. A white diamond is made of pure carbon, but the addition of other elements or a flaw in the atom structure will result in a colored diamond. Diamonds can come in all different colors, the most notable being champagne, yellow, blue, pink, and green diamonds.
How Do You Grade a Colored Diamond?
Grading a colored diamond is a lot like grading a white diamond. Institutions like the Gemological Institute of America and the International Gemological Institute grade colored diamonds using the 4 c’s: color, clarity, cut, and carat. The difference is that color is graded on a different scale. While white diamonds receive a letter grade based on colorlessness, quantifying the color of a colored diamond is more complex. Any diamond outside the white diamond spectrum is called a fancy diamond, and the color grade will vary depending on the diamond’s color saturation. Fancy diamonds are graded according to this scale: fancy light, fancy, fancy intense, fancy vivid, fancy deep, and fancy dark. Melanie expertly sources colored diamonds, taking color as well as the rest of the 4c’s into account. Each colored diamond is carefully curated and each piece is designed with intention and hand-crafted at our studio in Andover, Massachusetts, USA.


Melanie’s Favorite Colored Diamond Rings
While you can find all of our colored diamond engagement rings in our Colored Diamond Collection, here are some of Melanie’s favorite design elements to use when setting a colored diamond.
Hello, Halo
A halo engagement ring surrounds the focal stone in smaller accent diamonds, almost like the focal stone itself is radiating light. Melanie loves adding a halo to a colored diamond ring because the white diamonds of the halo contrast the color of the focal stone, drawing even more attention to the unique centerpiece. Melanie has a lot of halo engagement rings in the collection, and each one offers something different. While some wrap tightly around the focal stone, others incorporate negative space to create a scalloped edge and bring weightlessness to the setting. The Helio Ring features a halo that rises and falls like the sun’s rays. Even a very light-colored diamond, like the natural light pink diamond shown here, stands out against the white diamond accents.


Set it in a Bezel
A bezel engagement ring offers a different kind of framework than a halo engagement ring, surrounding the focal stone in metal. Once again, contrast is key. The proximity of bezel metal to colored stone enhances the center color through contrast in a colored engagement ring. One thing to always keep in mind is choosing a complementary color combination. Melanie loves setting soft pink diamonds in 14k yellow gold bezel settings because the yellow metal draws the warm tones out of the stone. You can see that here with this one of a kind Formation Ring which surrounds the orangy-pink focal diamond in a slender, crisp yellow gold edge.
Bold Accent Work
A colored diamond ring with bold accent work brings drama to any colored diamond. Bold accent work can mean many small diamonds, a few bigger diamonds, or a unique composition in which the colored diamond is perhaps just one of two or three focal-like stones. Melanie’s bold accent work brings balance to a colored diamond ring, enhancing the unique focal rather than overpowering it. The Moonrise Ring features both large side stones and hidden diamonds, bringing boldness to any angle. While the focal diamond remains the star of the show, the large side diamonds extend sparkle across your finger. These white diamonds also rest slightly behind the focal stone, so the colored diamond appears to rise above the composition.


Completely Unique
Sometimes a colored diamond sparks inspiration! Most of our one of a kind designs showcase a colored diamond. There’s not much that unites our collection of one of a kind designs because each one is truly unique. The one thing they have in common is that they’re unlike anything else! The Nebula Ring with a 0.76ct. natural yellow diamond features a cluster of diamonds bursting from the colored focal stone like stardust. Each accent diamond is set at a different height, bringing dimension to every angle. You can find all of Melanie’s one of a kind colored diamond engagement rings in our Colored Diamond Collection but each one is extremely limited edition, once it's gone, it's gone for good. If you want to know exactly when Melanie’s dropping a new design, sign up for our email list. You’ll get exclusive access to a preview before every Friday drop.


Recap!
- A natural colored diamond is very rare but growing diamonds in a lab has made them much more readily available
- A colored diamond is graded using the 4c’s and the fancy color scale
- Melanie hand-selects each colored diamond for color and quality
- Each of our colored diamond rings uses unique design elements to highlight these one of a kind stones






