Does fluorescence make diamonds cloudy?
Hi Danny, I’m a long time reader of your blog and am finally in a position to upgrade the half carat diamond which Leslie helped me select a few years ago, to a one carat diamond! I’m kind of intrigued about the idea of a diamond with blue fluorescence, especially since the discount applied to diamonds with fluorescence will enable me to buy more diamond for my money… but I’ve read that fluorescence can make a diamond appear milky or cloudy and want to ensure that the diamond which I select from the Brian Gavin Blue collection is not going to be negatively affected by the fluorescence. What do you suggest? Kimberly C.
The Demise of the Blue White Diamond:
The interesting thing about diamonds with blue fluorescence is that for many years, colorless diamonds which exhibited strong to very strong levels of blue fluorescence were commonly referred to as “blue white diamonds” until 1938, when the Federal Trade Commission clamped down on the jewelry industry for what they deemed to be misuse of the term.
Up until that time, diamonds with blue fluorescence were considered to be so desirable, that disreputable jewelers were using blue-white lighting in their jewelry stores to give people the impression that the diamonds which they were looking at were “blue white” when in fact the appearance of the diamonds was merely being affected by the blue light reflecting off of the facets.
If jewelers were willing to go to such extremes in order to dupe their customers into buying “blue white diamonds” we can conclude that diamonds with high levels of blue fluorescence were all the rage for many years.
Why do diamonds with fluorescence cost less?
It is my understanding that the negative beliefs about the presence of strong to very strong blue fluorescence in diamonds began in the late 1970’s when an investment firm operating out of Asia decided to preclude diamonds with fluorescence from parcels of diamonds which they were offering as investment opportunities to their clients.
It is believed that the investment firm was merely trying to distinguish their offerings from similar parcels which were being offered by their competitors, but as often happens when one company does something to distinguish themselves from the competition, the competition followed their lead and this created an overstock of diamonds with fluorescence… which caused the diamond cutters to discount diamonds with fluorescence in an effort to entice buyers to purchase diamonds with fluorescence.
The unintended effect of the discount, was to imply that there must be something undesirable about diamonds with fluorescence, because why else would the price of one diamond be discounted below the price of another diamond with similar characteristics? Whoops…
Brian Gavin Blue diamonds with blue fluorescence:
The primary distinction between diamonds featured in the Brian Gavin Signature collection and those which are selected for the Brian Gavin Blue collection, is that the diamonds featured in the Brian Gavin Blue collection exhibit medium blue fluorescence, strong blue fluorescence, or very strong blue fluorescence.
While it is possible for high levels of fluorescence to make a diamond appear milky or cloudy, it is an extremely rare occurrence, and it is more likely that the fluorescent molecules within a diamond are going to have a positive effect upon the diamond by making it look whiter when the diamond is exposed to strong ultraviolet light which excites the molecules.
Diamonds which have a milky or cloudy appearance as a result of strong levels of fluorescence are commonly referred to within the industry as “overblues” and the biggest challenge with buying a diamond sight unseen via the internet is that many online dealers sell diamonds “on paper” without ever actually seeing the diamond.
However Brian Gavin personally selects every diamond which exists in our inventory, thus every diamond with blue fluorescence which is featured within the Brian Gavin Blue collection has been hand selected by Brian, and you can rest assured that he took the effect of the fluorescence upon the diamond into account during the evaluation process.
