Diamond Clarity
The level of clarity in a diamond tells you how many internal and external flaws the stone has as well as how big and visible they are.
The clarity grade is a reminder that, after all, a diamond is a thing of nature — and like most natural things, it's rarely perfect.
Diamonds with fewer inclusions look cleaner, and light can pass unobstructed through such stones, making them sparkle.
Diamonds that are heavily included, on the other hand, look dirty. Their inclusions stick out and detract from the appearance of the stone, especially if they block some of the light that would otherwise have entered it.
In order to make sure that clarity does not spoil the appearance of your diamond, you should make sure that it doesn’t have any inclusions that can be seen with the naked eye.
When looking at the stone, you shouldn’t be able to see any flaws that stand out. It doesn’t matter that much if you can see any inclusions with a microscope or loupe as you and other people won’t ordinarily be looking at the stone using magnification.
Diamond cutters try to cut and polish a diamond to hide these inclusions or work around them, but they’re still there — and the clarity grade measures them. The scale ranges from flawless to heavily included:
- F (flawless inside and out)
- IF (internally flawless, which means there are blemishes on the surface but not inside the diamond)
- VVS1 and VVS2 (very, very slightly included – two levels)
- VS1 and VS2 (very slightly included – two levels)
- SI1 and SI2 (slightly included – two levels)
- I1, I2 and I3 (included – three levels)
The top clarity grade on the scale of the G.I.A. (Gemological Institute of America) is FL, also known as Flawless. These diamonds don’t have any inclusions that can be seen with the naked eye or even under 10x magnification.
However, Flawless stones are also extremely rare and therefore pricey. It is rarely worth it to spend so much money on such a diamond when there are lower clarity grades that are cheaper, and their inclusions are still invisible to the unaided eye.
Only about 2% of the world's diamonds are actually flawless. Most retail stores carry VVS as their highest grade. VS or SI are considered by most to be "fine quality" diamonds.
Remember: Clarity only needs to be good enough to make your diamond look good. If clarity is bad, it will spoil the appearance of your stone. Once you get above a certain threshold, however, any further improvement in clarity doesn’t make a visible difference but costs you more money.
What Clarity Is Good Enough?
Any clarity grade whose inclusions are not visible without magnification is a good choice. However, in order to get the most for your money, you should look for the lowest clarity grade in which inclusions cannot be seen with the naked eye.
This means that a diamond graded VS2 or SI1 is a good choice; any clarity lower than SI1 usually has some visible inclusions.