C hoosing the right Diamond

Brilliant or Step?

There are two general types of diamond cuts: brilliant and step. Brilliant cuts have facets that are mostly triangular or kite shaped and radiate from the center. Step cuts have long, narrow facets in rows that produce a “hall-of-mirrors” effect.

Brilliant Cut Diamonds

Reflected by its overwhelming popularity, a round diamond is the ultimate in brilliance. Due to the ability of its 58 facets to reflect light, the sparkle factor of a round brilliant is nearly unmatched.

While the princess cut doesn’t direct light back to the center quite as efficiently as a round, it comes the closest to achieving a similar level of fire and brilliance.

Radiant diamonds were actually the first square cut with a brilliant facet pattern, before the princess debuted. They round out the top three shapes for consistently achieving maximum brilliance.

Oval, marquise and pear diamond shapes are harder to cut well due to the “bow-tie effect.” With all fancy-cut diamonds, there’s a visible area that sucks light into the center of the stone.

While this effect is harder to avoid with these elongated shapes, very well-cut ovals, marquises and pears can be very flattering.