Gemstone: Cut, Color, Clarity, Carats and Why Its Important

Youve likely heard the term knowing the “Four C"s for your engagement stone. The four C’s stand for:
-Cut
-Color
-Clarity
-Carats

Why are these important?

-Cut: With a bad cut, a gemstone can look dull and lifeless. Check out two gemstones below that are both the same material lab sapphire but different cuts. Can you tell the difference?

This is standard commercial cut lab sapphire in an oval shape

An oval lab sapphire cut by me in a design by Arya Akhavan

Cuts can determine the brightness of your stone, and to some extent, the color saturation at certain angles.

In the above example, we have two cut stones from lab sapphire. The top one is a commercially cut gemstone oval while the second is an artisan cut gemstone, with a very optimized design by my favorite gemstone designer - Arya Akhavan.

Just changing the angles of your gemstone can make a huge difference in how sparkly it is!

This image from the GIA shows exactly this.
Angles can change the way light is reflected to the viewer from the table (top of the gemstone). That’s why good cuts are important and worth investing in.
The top emerald in this example has a window (a light sink, where the gemstone looks almost glass-like), whereas the last gemstone that has a deeper pavillion tend to look much better.

At The Pacific Lights, almost every design I work with is either tried and tested from other wonderful gemstone designers, or they are optimized and created by myself. Gem cutters use computer software to be able to enhance and maximize gem cuts so that you are getting the most sparkly bang for your buck.

You will never see a commercially bought and cut stone here - all gemstones are cut with our own hands!

-Color: Color can be a tricky subject with clients, so like to divide this into two categories - lab material and natural stones.

My most asked-for material is lab sapphire, and while lab sapphire is a great alternative to natural sapphire, there are limited colors for lab sapphire (there is no true teal, and no true lavender colors yet). However, most lab colors come out fairly consistent and similar to previously cut stones. While its not always a perfect match, we do ask clients to be very specific when asking for a color and material. In addition, we do tell our color-sensitive clients that sometimes different cuts will very slightly alter color and brightness too.

Below are two examples of the same blue material, in the exact same cut, but different sizes. You can see some very slight subtle differences from the size change and consistency.

Both gemstones are from the same design and material, but overall consistency can waver when sizes change

It can become very complicated, but at The Pacific Lights, all of my lab material for each category will cost the same unless they are a very rare manufactured color. Sometimes a color will come in a very rare batch from laboratories, and as such, those colors can go for a higher cost than the most commonly used colors.

In regards to natural gemstones, color can be very tricky to asses, and sometimes certain colors can fetch for higher prices than other colors. For example, the famous Montana sapphires tend to go for higher prices when purple or pink colored or deep blue, but less so when they are pale blue.
Garnets are in a similar boat when they are more purple, tend to be higher priced. Red garnets are very common, and even within that category, certain garnets from certain locations can be priced for more due to specific colors found in a specific region.

This leads to the next C, which is:

-Clarity: Clarity refers to how clean the gemstone is. You may have seen some funny little strayations or “silk” in your natural gemstones. These occur naturally from the crystal growth process and usually are not a bother to your natural gemstone unless they are visible on the outside or near the girdle of the gemstone.

All the natural gemstones that I cut are fully disclosed in regards to clarity.

While there are loads of ways to describe how included a gem is, the easiest and most straight forward way myself and other cutters use is the term “10x loupe clean”. What this refers to is that under 10x magnification, there are no inclusions present.
”Eye clean” terminology refers to viewing the gemstone at eye level, with no noticeable inclusions.
This does not mean the gem has no inclusions, but indicates that to the naked eye, one would not see anything.
All and any inclusions should always be truthfully detailed and written in descriptions.

A natural Montana sapphire with inclusions under 10x magnification, and the same sapphire below with eye level “loupe clean”.

Natural gemstones aside, almost 99% of the time my lab materials will never have inclusions and will have 10-20x Loupe clean and eye clean characteristics. The only lab material that could potentially not have this characteristic is Hydrothermal Emerald - as emerald crystals can sometimes be purposefully made to have inclusions to enhance a more “natural look”.

A Columbian Hydrothermal Emerald cut by me in the design “Brilliant Rectangle” by Wayne Emery, with inclusions shown

-Carats: The last C we will be discussing is Carats - which is the weight of the gemstone. Why does this matter? Well, with natural stones, its extremely common as a method of pricing. For example, a 1.5 carat Montana sapphire will cost more per carat than a 0.8 carat Montana sapphire of the same cut, clarity and color. Essentially, the heavier your stone is, the more it is worth (and usually, larger).

As a primarily lab gemstone cutter, I have personally adopted a pricing strategy in terms of size in mm, and not with carats. Why? Due to most gemstone designs being highly optimized for your piece, there is no excess ‘bulge’ or added weight to the stone. A lot of stones tend to be heavier for no good reason, in fact, it is something I have seen commonly done with natural gemstones to make the gemstone heavier and seem larger but to no benefit of the client other than they are paying more for a stone that is cut too deeply.

Because our designs are heavily modified and adjusted to give great movement, shine and sparkle, I do not charge per weight with my lab materials.

My natural stones will always disclose carat weight and dimensions and will be charged accord to color, cut and clarity. Less bulge and more sparkle = a better investment.

A very deep pavilion, bulgy gemstone = heavier weight = more carats. This does not necessarily imply the gem performs well!