The 4Cs, in plain words
Every diamond is described by four letters. Only one of them decides how much it sparkles — and it is not the one most people shop by.
Cut: the one that matters most
Cut is not the shape — it is how well the facets are angled to send light back to your eye. A well-cut stone looks bigger and brighter than a poorly cut one of the same weight. If you only spend extra on one C, spend it here: choose Excellent or Ideal.
Colour: whiter is rarer, not always better
Colour is graded from D (completely colourless) down the alphabet as warmth creeps in. Once a diamond is set, most people cannot tell D from G across a table. Near-colourless grades G–H give you the icy look for noticeably less.
Clarity: eye-clean is the goal
Clarity grades how many tiny inclusions a stone has under 10× magnification. Flawless stones exist, but you pay for something you will never see. VS1 and VS2 diamonds are usually eye-clean — nothing visible without a loupe.
Carat: weight, not size
Carat measures weight. Two one-carat diamonds can face up at different sizes depending on cut and shape — ovals, pears and marquises tend to look larger than rounds of the same weight.
Put the budget into cut, stay near-colourless, aim for eye-clean — then choose the size you love.
Every Novara diamond over 0.30 ct ships with its independent IGI report, so each of these four letters is written down, not promised.
Ready when you are.
Read the full 4Cs guideMore from the journal
Lab-grown · 5 min readLab-grown or mined: what actually differsSame carbon, same crystal, same fire. The difference is where it formed — and what that does to the price.Read the story
Shapes · 5 min readTen shapes, ten personalitiesRound, oval, emerald, pear and beyond — how each shape sits on the hand and which one fits the way she wears jewellery.Read the story
Proposal · 4 min readFinding her ring size without giving it awayFive quiet ways to get the size right before the question — and what to do if you guess.Read the story
