ROCK THE RAINBOW

Diamonds are the stuff of dreams, and some of us dream in Technicolor.

ROCK THE RAINBOW

Bright color isn’t mandatory in a diamond, but where would life be without the things we don’t actually need but go for anyway? Fact is, a precious stone is all about self-expression, and a diamond’s distinctive hue can winningly reflect a distinctive you.

Each diamond—born of heat and pressure within the Earth—is unique. And one way the diamond reflects individuality is in color, from pale to vivid.

Because some hues are extremely rare and costly, a good place to start investigating colored natural diamonds is with the more common shades: brown, gray, black and yellow.

Of course, you can always dream, and diamonds also shine in pink, red, violet, blue, green and orange— though these stones are rare. Just be prepared to spend more per carat for a good quality, intense pink.

It may be hard to imagine, but such dramatic hues start with impurities, extreme heat and sometimes irradiation, which impact growing crystals. For instance, nitrogen can produce yellow, and radiation yields green—the envy of your friends.

In love with pink but want to get more dazzle to the dollar? Remember that lab-grown diamonds, often a more economical choice, also sparkle their way around the color wheel.

They say there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but even better than gold (or a fine accompaniment to it!) is finding, somewhere on that rainbow, the just-right stone you’ll always cherish.

From top: 18K white gold fancy yellow fashion ring containing a 6.13ct fancy yellow cushion-cut diamond with 2.67ct white diamonds, $102,600; three-stone ring with 0.94ct pear-shaped fancy blue-green diamond with two 0.14 fancy pink pearshaped diamonds set with 0.21ct argyle 6P pink diamonds and 0.38ct white diamonds on platinum and 18K pink gold, $70,000; 18K yellow gold diamond bracelet containing 205 fancy shaped diamonds with a total weight of 67.21ct, $346,125.