Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but a pink diamond sounds like a BFF to me. Something about a soft baby pink diamond sitting atop a sleek white gold ring exudes an air of elegance but somehow seems playful as well. I’m not alone in thinking people around the world are captivated by these rosy colored treasures. To make them even more alluring, they are rare...like super rare.
What Makes a Diamond Pink?
Natural pink diamonds get their color from an unlikely source. While most gems derive their color from trace elements found in the stone's makeup, pink diamonds are pink because of a distortion in the crystal lattice. This means that when the diamond was forming, something caused the diamond to form crooked. This formation flaw isn’t visible though, it’s on a molecular level. Just as Bob Ross would say, it’s a beautiful little accident.
How is the Color Graded?
Pink diamonds are graded just like any other fancy colored diamond. Fancy pink diamonds are graded on the fancy color grading scale. This scale measures the tone and saturation to determine the grade. These grades indicate the intensity of color and tone, vivid being the most sought after all of the pink shades.
- Faint
- Very Light
- Light
- Fancy Light
- Fancy
- Fancy Intense
- Fancy Dark
- Fancy Deep
- Fancy Vivid
How much do Pink Diamonds Cost?
I’m not going to lie, you’ll want to sit down for this. Like I mentioned before, pink diamonds are quite rare and that shows in the price. To give you an idea of how rare we are talking, here’s an example that will blow your mind. Only one-half a carat (0.5 ct) of usable diamond rough is obtained out of 2,000 pounds of mined rock, and less than 1% of that usable diamond rough is pink. The price range for pink diamonds starts at $10,000 per carat and, at its highest ever recorded (during auction), has reached $2 million per carat. These prices are based on natural pink diamonds, lab grown pink diamonds are a whole different ball game.
Where do they Come From?
Just like colorless diamonds, these beauties are formed deep within the earth, and then by means of a volcano, are transported to the surface where a lucky human finds them. That being said, there is one mine that is infamous for producing the largest amount of the words supply of pink diamonds. Scientists are unsure of why there is a concentration of pink diamonds in this location. That place would be the Argyle mine in the Kimberly region of Australia. 90% of all the world’s pink diamonds call the Argyle mine home. Unfortunately, this mine closed in November of 2020 and won’t reopen until 2025. Because of this, it’s very likely we will see a spike in pink diamond prices until the reopening. Australia isn’t the only place you’ll find pink diamonds, plenty of other mines have produced these stones, but none of them come close to producing the number of carats that makes the Argyle mine so noteworthy.
Synthetic Pink Diamonds
So many people fall in love with the idea of a pink diamond engagement ring, but don’t have the funds to splurge on a natural. To those people, I would introduce lab grown pink diamonds. They look identical to a natural pink. If you placed one of each beside each other you’d be hard pressed to tell them apart. Synthetic pink diamonds cost significantly less than their natural counterpart. Prices for a man made pink diamond start at $3,000 per carat and go up depending on the overall quality of the diamond. Pro tip: Since lab grown diamonds are in a controlled environment, it’s more likely to have a high clarity diamond. Man made pink diamonds are most commonly formed using the CVD (chemical vapor deposition) process. In this process, a mix of gasses is exposed to low to moderate pressure while inside a vacuum chamber.
Treated Pink Diamonds
Another way to get a pink diamond is through treatment. Some colorless, yellow, and brown diamonds can be subjected to irradiation and HPHT (high pressure high temperature) to achieve a pink stone. Unlike some treated stones, this process penetrates the stone and colors it to the core. Isn’t science just amazing? It’s important to note that by law, all retailers must disclose if a diamond has undergone treatment or is lab grown.
I hope this has helped you understand more about pink diamond engagement rings, and maybe even helped you narrow down what you want. Now, take all you’ve learned and get shopping! Best of luck finding your perfect pink treasure and don’t forget to connect with Rare Carat’s trained gemologists with any questions you may have.
