BGD Blue vs. Yellow Fluorescent Diamonds
I just got off the telephone with a customer who wanted to know why all of the diamonds contained in the Brian Gavin Blue collection exhibit blue fluorescence, since other colors of fluorescence exist, such as white, yellow, and green. In fact they thought that a diamond with green fluorescence might be kind of cool; and while that might be true, the reality is that there is a reason why Brian Gavin finds diamonds with blue fluorescence so appealing…
Quite simply, the color blue filters out yellow, and thus one of the benefits provided by blue fluorescence in a diamond is that it helps to offset any yellow which might be present within the diamond; blue fluorescence is kind of like nature’s whitewash for diamonds.
The effect of strong blue fluorescence on J-color diamond:
The common effect of strong blue fluorescence on a stone like this 1.133 carat, J-color, VS-1 clarity, Brian Gavin Blue round ideal cut diamond, will be to boost the color of the diamond towards the high end of the scale for J-color, so that it faces up closer to I-color, especially when the diamond is subjected to a light source which provides a high volume of ultra-violet light, such as direct sunlight. The diamond will face-up bright and white when viewed in normal lighting situations, but will give off this beautiful neon blue color when the diamond is exposed to black light, which can be found in some restaurants, poster shops, and aquarium shops, I think it’s a very cool look!
So the diamond will face-up white and look perfectly normal in the majority of lighting situations, but will exhibit this beautiful neon blue color when exposed to black light, thus blue fluorescence in diamonds is kind of like a hidden super power that nobody needs to know about except for you, and the people who you decide to share it with.
While blue fluorescent molecules tend to help filter out yellow tones in diamonds, yellow fluorescent molecules can make a diamond appear to be a bit yellower than it would be without fluorescence; and white fluorescence doesn’t seem to have much of an effect at all; while green fluorescence can also help to bring out the yellow tones in a colorless and near colorless diamond, so these diamonds are generally not selected for the Brian Gavin Signature and Brian Gavin Blue fluorescent collections.
Another hidden benefit of blue fluorescent diamonds is that the presence of fluorescence commands a discount, which actually has nothing to do with the visual effect of blue fluorescence upon a diamond; but rather is a residual market effect left over from the decision of some diamond investment firms to preclude diamonds with fluorescence from parcels of “investment diamonds” that were marketed in the 1970’s.
I don’t believe that the people in charge of diamond buying for the investment firms really knew all that much about diamonds, because there are plenty of experienced diamond buyers within the industry who LOVE diamonds with blue fluorescence, but rather the investment firm was merely trying to make a statement about what differentiated the diamonds selected for their investment parcels of diamonds, from the parcels being offered by other investment groups… but the end result is that the scenario makes it possible for you to buy exceptional diamonds from the Brian Gavin Blue collection that exhibit the highest degree of visual performance, at a slight discount which has nothing to do with the effect of fluorescence upon the diamond.
