Boodles Diamonds

The 4Cs is the industry standard for assessing diamonds. Cut, colour, clarity and carat weight are the key factors that determine the quality of a diamond. When we're buying, we carefully consider all these factors, and plenty more besides to ensure that your heart skips a beat when you glimpse our diamonds for the first time.

A diamond is a true wonder of nature – a rare and beautiful thing – but it is only when a master cutter gets to work that its true brilliance is revealed. Diamond cutting requires great artistry and accuracy, and we source our diamonds from a close network of suppliers who excel at both. Even our melee diamonds – the small shoulder stones we use in clusters – are top “Collection quality”, the whitest, brightest and cleanest diamonds you can buy, with the full number of facets (57, just so you know).

The cut of a stone also refers to its shape. We use the round brilliant cut the most. Its multi-faceted, symmetrical design gives an exceptional sparkle and it works especially well on engagement rings. We incorporate a huge variety of cuts into our jewellery – brilliant, oval, emerald, pear, marquise, cushion, heart, princess, briolette and radiant – and we are always on the hunt for exciting new ones. Most recently, we sourced some stunning Flanders cut diamonds, which are similar to a princess cut but with more light-reflecting facets, we are also using Ashoka cut diamonds in our designs which are rarely seen in the UK.

Ashoka diamonds

The Ashoka is the most difficult diamond  cut to produce and there are only a few cutters in the world who have mastered the art. Modified from the antique cushion cut, the Ashoka has 62 scissor-cut facets – more than any other diamond – and rounded corners, which gives it a brilliance beyond compare. We are the only jeweller in Britain to offer Ashoka diamonds, which we source from a single cutter. This year, we have expanded our Ashoka jewellery range with some wonderfully sparkly engagement rings.

Using colour to describe a diamond is something of an anomaly. Graded on a scale from D to Z, the finest-quality white diamonds are D which are colourless. It is this absence of colour that intensifies the flashes of fire visible in the very best diamonds. D and E colour diamonds are frequently referred to as “exceptional whites”, F and G's as “rare whites”, and only an experienced gemmologist can distinguish between them. Put simply, we are looking for purity of colour, and we keep our standards consistently high: every Boodles white diamond is an “exceptional” or “rare white”. We also love working with fancy coloured diamonds, so you'll find natural yellows and pinks in our jewellery. Both are extremely rare and extremely precious, with most of our pink diamonds coming from, Argyle in Australia.

Each diamond is unique, like a snowflake. Nearly all contain crystals or minerals, formed during their creation in the earth and visible to the trained eye as minuscule specks. It is these tiny blemishes, known as inclusions, which affect a diamond's clarity and make it possible to compare two diamonds of exactly the same cut, carat and colour. Ranked on a scale of clarity, the most perfect “flawless” diamonds are renowned for their rarity and value. At the other end of the spectrum are mottled diamonds, the least precious and pretty to look at. We are very stringent when it comes to clarity – all Boodles diamonds are perfect to the human eye, and any inclusions are barely discernible even when magnified by 10 times.

Carar weight is the factor that everyone's most interested in: how big? But it is not that simple, since carat is a measure of weight, not size, and the cut of a diamond can make it seem bigger or smaller than it actually is. Sometimes, higher-carat diamonds appear more brilliant because the greater surface area refracts more light. Also, it does not necessarily follow that a two carat diamond will be twice as expensive as a one carat stone of identical cut, colour and clarity. Larger diamonds occur less frequently in nature, making them rarer and much more valuable. For reference, and as a guarantee, all of our diamond rings have the carat weight engraved inside the shank.

We have been working with the world's greatest diamond-cutting centres for generations — most of our diamonds come from these centres and they are well-informed  about what we look for. Our team of specialists will check a diamond's credentials: the 4Cs. All of our diamonds over 0.75 carats are, generally, certified. Every diamond is inspected and, if it hasn't got that special something, it will never make it on to a Boodles piece of jewellery. All Boodles certified diamonds are personally checked by Jody Wainwright, Head of Gemstone buying. It's all about personality and liveliness – we only buy stones that charm and delight. If you're going to be wearing a diamond every day, why settle for anything less than extraordinary?

All of our diamonds are purchased from legitimate sources that are not involved in funding conflict and in compliance with United Nations resolutions. We deal with suppliers we have known for a long time, who guarantee their diamonds are non-conflict.