The most important things to note in a Diamond are Cut, Clarity, Colour, Carat Weight and Certificate.  These are the things universally used to grade Diamonds and what you need to know. 

Cut
The brilliance of a diamond depends heavily on its cut as it is the diamond's reflective qualities.  The grading of the cut are Ideal, Premium, Very Good, Good and Fair & Poor.

1. Ideal Cut is intended to maximize brilliance and applies only to round Diamonds.
2. Premium cut is intended to provide maximum brilliance and fire.
3. Very Good cut reflect most of the light that enters them to create their brilliance. 
4. Good cut  reflect much of the light that enters them.
5. Fair & Poor cut reflects only a small proportion of the light that enters it and often for maximizing carat weight.

Clarity
All Diamonds contain inner flaws (inclusions) that naturally occur.  The visibility, number and size contribute to the clarity.  Therefore the fewer the greater the Clarity.  Flaws are known as inclusions which are air bubbles, cracks, other minerals, scratches, pits, and chips in the Diamond.  Grade list: 

1. F = Flawless,
2. IF = Internally Flawless,
3. VVS1 and VVS2 = Very Very Slightly Included very difficult to see with 10x magnification,
4. VS1and VS2 = Very Slightly Included seen only with 10x magnification,
5. SI1and SI2 = Slightly Included easily seen with 10x magnification,
6. I1and I2 and I3 = Included and visible to the naked eye.

Colour
Colourless diamonds are the most expensive and sought after, as they tend to sparkle more.  The more the colour the less sparkle and therefore less desirable.  Whiteness is graded with a colour scale that begins at D for colourless and ends with Z for a brownish-yellow

• Colourless = DEF,
• Near Colourless = GHI,
• Faint Yellow = KLM,
• Very Light Yellow = NOPQR,
• Light Yellow = STUVWX and on…

Carat Weight
This is a unit of weight of a diamond.  Prices rise greatly with its size.

Certificate
The certificate or grading report is a professional evaluation of a diamond and as such is just as valuable as the Diamond itself to a buyer or seller, and even the owner as it describes the Diamond in such great detail that it’s fingerprint.

Certificates also serve as proof of the diamond's identity and value, but a certificate is not a valuation, it only documents the quality.

General guide for buying Diamonds.

Size is not everything.  The larger the Diamond the less the quality in terms of clarity and colour and remember that slender fingers tend to make smaller Diamonds look bigger.

As a general rule, real Diamonds tend to be mounted in the purer gold bands.  This means 18ct and above.

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