Diamond rings have always been associated with glamour and luxury as the jewel diamond is considered the most precious jewel of all time for women, and sometimes men. It isn’t surprising though, considering the price tag that comes with your purchase. So it’s completely understandable that you gather as much information as you can on diamonds before you make a decision. Traditionally there were only four Cs associated with diamond grading. However, more and more jewelers are adding a fifth C to make it easier for most people to choose the diamond rings that they want.

A diamond’s clarity is established through its inclusions and blemishes. The inclusions are internal irregularities while the blemishes are considered to be the surface flaws. Although diamonds are made out of pure carbon, sometimes, during the process, various minerals tend to mix, producing the inclusions and blemishes. The clarity of a diamond is determined through a 10x magnification by a certified diamond grader. The higher the clarity the more expensive a diamond ring will be. People tend to misconstrue carat as the diamond’s price value but the truth is a diamond’s carat signifies the gem’s measure of weight. Since large diamonds are rare compared to their smaller counterparts, the price of diamond rings which boast a higher carat also tend to become more expensive.

The perfect diamond rings are considered to be colorless. Although there are diamonds that have a hint of color in them, their prices tend to drop. Diamonds with a yellow tinge are cheaper and are given the lowest grade while diamonds that are colorless are given the highest marks. Perhaps the most essential yet the most difficult part to achieve is the perfect cut. How a diamond is cut can significantly affect its brilliance and its price value in the market. Poorly cut gems have the lowest grades while diamonds that are perfectly cut are given the highest marks by diamond grades. Typically, diamonds rings that showcase a perfectly cut diamond are also more expensive.

The modern princess cut diamond ring is result of over five hundred years of refinement of the art and science of diamond cutting. Princess cut diamonds take advantage of the natural molecular structure of diamonds in order to create the maximum amount of sparkle and shine, which is technically known as “fire.” Princess cut diamond rings have a great deal more of this fire than most traditional round cuts.

If you can visualize two pyramids joined at the base – an eight-sided polyhedron, or octagon – you know what diamonds look life when they first come out of the ground. The reason for this has to do with the shape of the carbon molecules that make up diamond crystals. When jewelers finally learned how to cut this substance, they simply followed the gem’s natural shape. Princess cut diamonds represent the pinnacle of the diamond cutter’s art.

Princess cut diamonds first appeared almost thirty years ago, and was the innovation of a Los Angeles diamond cutter named Israel Itzkowitz. Prior to this time, the stones used in diamond rings were either “round cut” – with equal cuts around the face of the stone – or “square cut” – meaning that four sides were long and the other four were short, so the face of the diamond approximated a rectangular shape. A Princess cut diamond ring is the result of three years of intense study on the part of Itzkowitz in his attempts to come up with a cut that combined the best features of both the round and the square cuts.

Princess cut diamonds, also called “modified square brilliant,” are the second most popular choice today for diamond engagement rings and other jewelry. Both traditional white and the wide range of colored diamonds account for most of the mounted and loose diamonds sold today. One of the reasons that Princess cut diamond rings are rapidly gaining in popularity is not only because of its brilliance compared to other cuts; it is in fact the most economical way to cut a diamond. Of all diamond cuts, the princess cut wastes the least of the original stone, so it retains substantially more of its original weight. Because of this, these pieces are less costly than similar rings with round cut gems. All around, a princess cut diamond ring represent the best jewelry value on a per-carat basis.