What Diamond Sparkles the Most? | Best Diamond Buying Guide

There are lots of options you will find when it comes to choosing a diamond. It is up to you to select your perfect “dream” diamond. But there is an undeniable fact that you will wish to find the most sparkly one. Sparkle is why we prefer diamonds rather than other precious stones.

When it comes to diamonds, there is a 4C rule, which means carat weight, cut grade, clarity grade, and color grade. These are the factors that determine the quality of the diamond.

How Do You Choose a Sparkly Diamond?

Every diamond has a brilliance -sparkle- but still, some of them sparkle more. What makes a diamond sparkle, in other words, affect its brilliance, is the shape of the diamond and cut how. But how shape and cut affect the sparkles? Firstly, why diamonds sparkle at all? When the incoming light reflected from the surface of the crystal, also known as facets, it forms sparkles.

People often can’t differentiate between a diamond’s shape and cut. Diamond’s shape is an outline of the diamond while, Diamond’s cut means the diamond’s facet arrangement. Facets are flat surfaces, and they cut into the surface of the diamond. So, facets become like mirrors and reflect white light as wanted.

As the facet number increase, and get smaller, diamond reflects the incoming white light unchanged, which is brightness. Other facets, which are less in number and larger, reflect the light in different colors by dividing the white light into red, yellow, green, blue, and violet.

Also, you should be aware that jewelry stores put their lights such that to show diamonds fully sparkle. Because of so many spotlights and too much brightness, you wouldn’t differentiate which diamond sparks the best. You should check your diamond’s sparkle under different light sources.

First, try to find a less spotlight environment, so that you wouldn’t confuse. Then try to see sparkles at fluorescent lights. Thirdly, choose a background with both spotlight and fluorescent lights together. Lastly, observe your diamond on daylight.

Which Diamond Cut Is the Best?

Every diamond has its brilliance and quality, but the cut matters most. The typical industry standard diamond is the round brilliant cut diamond, also the most sold diamond type. The round brilliant cut diamond has 57 facets, and that high number makes the round cut type shine more than the other types.

A single cut diamond would have 17 facets. This high number is for a reason because it is the known most sparkly -most brilliant- diamond. Still, the round diamonds need to cut appropriately to shine bright. But even the round brilliant cut does not reflect all the light, which means no 100% sparkling.

Compared to the round brilliant cut diamond, other common shapes of diamonds ranking from higher to lower quality of sparkling: marquise cut, oval cut, pear cut, heart cut, princess cut, triangle cut, cushion cut, emerald cut, original Asscher cut, radiant cut, and baguette-cut.

Cutting Types

Extremely Brilliant

marquise cut
oval cut
pear cut

Very Brilliant

heart cut
princess-cut

Brilliant

triangle cut
cushion cut
emerald cut
original Asscher cut
radiant cut

Less Brilliant

baguette cut

Other Diamond-Cut Factors

Gemological Institute of America (GIA), which is the most credible authority on diamond certification, states that facets should be placed and spaced in an ordered way. Otherwise, incoming light wouldn’t be reflected perfectly. This is called the cut grade of a diamond. You should ask about a diamond’s cut grade and see its certification.

The cut grade of excellent or very good diamonds is the best choice since they almost have no dark areas in the stone, which means that they sparkle the most. Even a good cut graded diamond would have more dark areas in the diamond. Fair and poor cut grades are the least sparkly ones because they will have the most shaded areas in number.

A proper cut diamond will give the best sparkles because incoming light wouldn’t leak from the bottom or sides. The light should only be reflected from facets and to obtain this effect, jewelers should cut diamond with quite correct proportions. These are also called ideal cut diamonds. Diamonds have either deep cut or shallow-cut, they are cut for maximizing weight and to give a larger look.

Symmetry

Diamond symmetry also affects the sparkle. Symmetrical diamond means its facets and angles are ordered well. Diamond’s symmetry rating should be either good or excellent. GIA also rates this, and you can follow a rubric of the Diamond Grading Report. An asymmetrical cut in diamond, which will be graded as fair or poor, will have dark spots in the gem.

Polishing

Jewelers polish the diamond to give a shine after they cut it. Polishing helps to a diamond to reflect the light better, and a nice shining. By doing polishing, a diamond will have a smooth finishing. Throughout diamond’s usage, life, wearing, tears, and creams will affect polishing. Also, jewelers can make polishing mistakes. Such mistakes can be seen under 10x magnification.

A jeweler could polish too rough and scratch the diamond’s surface. Even the highest polishing grading doesn’t mean a complete smooth polishing. To preserve your diamond’s polish and, of course, brightness, you can soak your jewelry in a soap water mixture and scrub it gently. Also, throughout your diamond’s usage life, wearing it, tears, harsh chemicals will affect polishing and you should try to avoid them.

Mounting

Mounting could darken your diamond if jewelers make mistakes. If a diamond is covered by metal, this will prevent light from coming in and exiting from the diamond.

Diamond Settling

After finding your diamond with excellent cut and shape, you should be careful about the settling of the diamond. For the most sparkling, your diamond should have a prong settling rather than a bezel setting. A bezel setting is elegant and modern, but it encases mostly of a diamond.

Prong settling keeps the diamond elevated from the metal band so that light could enter freely. It could be either a six-prong setting, which looks like a Tiffany cut or four-prong setting, which gives the best sparkling.

Add More Diamond

Another way to boost sparkling is to add more diamonds. You can add a halo of diamonds around the central diamond. Halo of diamonds will circle it, make an illusion of more sparkle and your diamond will look more prominent.

Metal of Ring

To add more shining to your ring, you should choose the ring’s metal as either white gold or platinum. These white metals will help to brighten your diamond by sending more light.

Does Diamond Clarity Affect Sparkle?

Clarity affects the diamond’s sparkle, especially for low clarity grades. The clarity of a diamond means flaws inside and outside, which are called inclusions. Inclusions large such as in SI1, I1, I2, and I3, the light can’t get inside the diamond because of flaws. As clarity grade increases, inclusions are less and smaller, and hence diamond sparkles more. This is applied for SI1 or lower clarity grades of diamonds.

Do Big Diamonds Sparkle More?

There is a misconception that bigger diamonds are sparkle more. However, if diamonds have the same color, clarity, and ratios, they will have the same sparkling, and the size wouldn’t matter.

Does Diamond Color Affect Sparkle?

Pure white diamonds will sparkle more such as D, E, and F types. But colored diamond types like H, I, and J wouldn’t be white and bright as D, E, and F types. White-colored diamonds are considered as no color inside. Icy-white diamonds, and white diamonds have the most sparkling since incoming light reflected back unchanged.

I recommend you look for a round brilliant cut diamond in a prong setting. A brilliant-cut diamond with high clarity and quality will let the light in every angle and sparkle the most.

In a high clarity diamond, there is nothing to prevent light from reflecting inside or on the surface. The prong setting keeps the diamond elevated from the metal band so that light could enter freely. High cut quality is all about jeweler’s talents since they cut the diamond in particular proportion so that the diamond will sparkle the highest.

There is a downside of choosing a round brilliant cut diamond, and you probably won’t have a unique enough designed diamond. Because it is the most selling diamond type. If you wish to have a more custom-designed diamond, you can check for the sparkle ranking list and check for the other options. They will be less sparkle but more unique to you.

Most Sparkly Diamond Jewelry You Can Find Online

IGI Certified 18k Gold Classic Round-Cut Diamond Engagement Ring (2.0 carat, H-I Color, SI1-SI2 Clarity) (Price: $19,972.47)

IGI-Certified 14k Gold Round-Cut Diamond Stud Earrings (1/4 – 3 cttw, H-I Color, I1 Clarity) (Price: $10,236.12)

IGI Certified 18k White Gold Princess-Cut 4-Prong Diamond Studs (2 cttw, H-I Color, SI1-SI2 Clarity) (Price: $9,399.99)

TriJewels IGI Certified Round Lab Grown Diamond (1 1/2 ct to 2 ct) Rabbit Bail Womens Solitaire Pendant Necklace 14K White Gold 18 inches Cable Chain (Price: $9,315.00)