When purchasing a pair of diamond earrings, there are four things to keep in mind: the cut, clarity, color and carat size of it. If you study these four characteristics, you will come away from the store with a diamond to be proud of for generations to come. A carat is the diamond’s measure of weight. Be sure to remember that carat with a ‘c’ and karat with a ‘k’ are two different measures.
The karat is used specifically for measuring the weight of gold and the carat is used only to measure the weight of precious gemstones. Clarity measures how clear the diamond earrings or other gemstones are. Lesser quality diamonds can be cloudy or have bits of material in them called inclusions.
The cut tells how precisely the facets, which bring out the brilliance of the diamond, were created by a craftsman. Finally, the color of a diamond is a bit more subjective. With all other things being equal, some people may prefer a bit of color in their diamond, but colorless is the standard.