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Carly Wickell

Carly's Jewelry / Accessories Blog

By Carly Wickell, About.com Guide to Jewelry / Accessories

Does Your Diamond Change Colors?

Friday October 16, 2009

jewelry organizerThere's a sneaky little characteristic that can make a diamond appear to change colors when it's carried from one kind of lighting into another. Let's say you're in a jewelry store and the diamond you love looks nearly colorless. You buy the diamond and take it home to show everyone. When you remove it from the case the diamond looks like it has more of a yellowish tint than it did in the jewelry store. What happened?

The shift might not be your imagination -- the diamond is probably affected by a characteristic called fluorescence, which makes diamonds appear to change color when they are exposed to ultraviolet light (fluorescent and natural). That means your brand new diamond jewelry might look totally different inside under standard incandescent lights than it did under the jewelry store's fluorescent lighting. The change can be a pro or a con, depending on your attitude and the type of color shift that occurs. Here's why.

Photo © Paul O'Driscoll / Getty Images

Comments

October 20, 2009 at 3:06 am
(1) Natural Gemstones says:

One thing to note is that the colour of the diamonds are also affected by the colour of the surrounding palcve. eg. If the furniture around the place is brown or yellow, the diamond might seem to have a yellow tinge and so on..

December 29, 2009 at 1:02 am
(2) Nicole Rice says:

I was a bit concerned about that when we purchased our matching james allen diamond wedding bands. But the online jeweler, via email, has explained all what I can expect for my purchase so that there will be no surprises there..

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