In order to get an idea of how much "color" a Moissanite stone has, news customers often ask, "What color is it on the diamond scale?" Charles & Colvard and Moissanite retailers often reply, "Moissanite is not color graded with the diamond color grading scale developed by GIA. It does not apply". Here is the reason why.

If you have two natural diamonds, both I/J color, for example, one is poor cut, while the other is ideal cut, you will notice that in most lighting the ideal cut stone appears to be significantly whiter. This is due to the higher return of light through the top of the stone which acts to "whiten" the stone. If Moissanite typically grades an I/J color on the diamond grading scale, its perceived color is much whiter because of its near perfect cut, and the very high level of fire and brilliance which exceeds even that of a diamond. Therefore, although it may rate an I/J color, the color grade appears to be higher than that. For this reason, the GIA diamond color scale can be misleading when applied to Moissanite as a diamond and Moissanite with the same color grade, will appear to be different shades of white.

Because the brilliance and fire of the stone helps to cancel out much of the perceived color of the stone, there is a direct correlation between the cut's brilliance and the stones perceived color. By definition, the round brilliant has the highest brilliance. Therefore, it is the whitest in color. In our opinion, the scale of highest to lowest brilliance is as follows:

Round
Cushion
Oval & Square Brilliant
Heart
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Radiant
Marquise
Pear

Because the radiant, marquise and pear cut tend to have lower brilliance than others, we do not sell these cuts in finished jewelry. Moreover, while the brilliant cuts are nearcolorless in color, these three cuts can have a slightly greenish tinge in some lighting.

The "color" of Moissanite can be more apparent in some light conditions (i.e. overcast days). This is because of the reduction of incoming light. The brilliance and fire of the stone suffers because, after all, gemstones can only refract and reflect light, but they do not give off light themselves. Therefore, poor lighting conditions equates to decreased fire and brilliance, and as a result, a bit more color can be seen (since the brilliance/fire is not cancelling out this color).

Over the years, we have had many customers contact us with concerns about the color of Moissanite, but decided to purchase anyway. The vast majority of these customers were extremely pleased with the final result. In general, we have a very low return rate due to the color of the Moissanite stones, especially with the more brilliant cuts.

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We have included some large, real life images of the more popular Moissanite cuts below to demonstrate the beauty and color of each stone. All the stones pictures below are 2ct or larger.

Please click on the thumbnails to see the full image.

ROUND BRILLIANT


CUSHION


SQUARE BRILLIANT


OVAL