Does strong blue fluorescence make diamond look blue?
“I’m shopping for a diamond engagement ring. I read your article on Brian Gavin Signature diamonds with blue fluorescence, and found the concept quite intriguing. The soft blue hues shown in the picture of the ring on the banner seem incredibly beautiful to me. It took me a moment to realize that this is how the diamond looks when the fluorescence within the diamond is activated by exposure to black light. Our favorite color is blue, so I think that she’d really like a blue fluorescent diamond. My concern is that I’ve read other articles online which indicate that blue fluorescence can make diamonds look over-blue or cloudy? Should I be concerned?”
Strong blue fluorescence vs over-blue:
It is a tragedy that so many people within the diamond industry seem to misunderstand the effects of blue fluorescence. I’ve read so many articles that are quite simply naïve and erroneous. It was not that many years ago, that diamonds with blue fluorescence were in the highest demand. Everybody seemed to want a “blue-white diamond” which is what fluorescent diamonds were referred to at the time.
In fact, the demand for “blue-white diamonds” was so high that some disreputable jewelers began to use blue light bulbs in their showcases in an effort to make non-fluorescent diamonds look blue. Which is ridiculous since diamonds with blue fluorescence look perfectly normal when viewed in normal lighting. Thus the illusion created by the blue light bulbs is patently absurd and a blatant fallacy.
In essence, the jewelers were trying to mimic the visible properties of a very small percentage of blue fluorescent diamonds which are considered to be over-blue, because they exhibit an extremely high amount of fluorescence. You’re not going to see anything like this in the range of medium to strong blue fluorescence, there simply isn’t enough of saturation to make the diamond look blue at those levels.
According to a study conducted by the Gemological Institute of America, fewer than 2% of gem quality diamonds are negatively impacted by fluorescence. The majority of those diamonds have fluorescence in the range of very strong to distinct blue. That means that 98% of gem quality diamonds with blue fluorescence are either positively affected by the presence of fluorescence, or not affected at all.
Does blue fluorescence make diamonds look cloudy?
Extremely high levels of fluorescence in a diamond can make it look cloudy, but not quite the way you might be thinking. Within the confines of that 2% of gem quality diamonds that are negatively impacted by fluorescence, once again, the majority of which are found within the range of very strong to distinct blue, but this is not to say that all diamonds that exhibit very strong to distinct blue fluorescence will be negatively affected by the fluorescence, the majority will not be… the few diamonds which do exhibit the property of being over-blue, might exhibit a slight blue hue when viewed in lighting circumstances that contain a high enough volume of ultra-violet light to activate the blue fluorescent molecules.
When activated, the blue fluorescent molecules glow blue and when combined with the effect that an extremely bright object has upon our human eyes, might appear to be cloudy due to the way our human eyes filter the light so as not to damage our eyes… think of how the iris of a camera lens adjusts when exposed to bright light.
The Peace of Mind provided by Brian Gavin:
One of the benefits of buying a Brian Gavin Blue Signature diamond is that Brian Gavin has personally inspected every diamond to ensure that the blue fluorescence is not creating any negative effects upon the visual properties of the diamond. Thus it really doesn’t matter whether the diamond exhibits medium blue, strong blue, or very strong blue fluorescence.
The only difference that you’re really going to see with your eyes, is the intensity of blue exhibited by the diamond when it is exposed to black light. The diamond is not going to exhibit any more of a blue hue when viewed in normal lighting than any other diamond, all of which exhibit a hint of blue when viewed in direct sunlight by the way. It’s just what diamonds do.
