Purple diamonds are extremely rare but being unique and rare makes these gems even more desirable. It is worth mentioning that not all purple diamonds are natural. Some of them are artificially enhanced colored diamonds but that does not mean they are not real. These diamonds are as real as any other diamond. Let’s read a little about colored diamonds and how they are different from the standard, crystal clear diamonds.

Natural diamond is a rare form of crystallized carbon. A perfectly crystalline structure with the entire composition of carbon is completely colorless. Some diamonds come with inclusions and defects that occur during the crystal growth and their journey within the earth. These defects in the diamond can alter the way light passes through them. Due to some defects, the diamond crystal has to selectively transmit some light wavelengths while absorbing the others. As every wavelength of light responds to a different color, selective absorption and transmission transform the diamond’s color. The other form of colored diamonds includes enhanced color gems. These stones begin their journey quite like the colorless diamonds. To induce a hue into them, these are passed through a color-enhancement process via irradiation or high pressure, high temperature (HPHT).

The purple diamonds exist in both natural and artificially enhanced colored forms. The former ones are rare and valuable while the latter are available relatively easily and are more affordable. The natural colored purple diamond is the real diamond from all perspectives. As for the artificially enhanced diamond, the stone is a natural diamond but the color is artificially enhanced. In the natural colored loose diamonds, the cause of the purple hue is the presence of significant amounts of boron and hydrogen.

Purple diamonds are available in multiple color intensity levels. The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) does have a grading scale for fancy diamonds. The color grade increases with the richness and saturation of the purple gem. The GIA grading scale includes faint, very light, light, fancy light, fancy, fancy intense, and fancy vivid, fancy deep, or fancy dark categories. As for the rarity, the majority of purple diamonds you will find are with overtone colors.

There are multiple base colors in natural fancy colored diamonds, like pink, blue, gray, orange, brown, yellow, and green. Apart from that, there exist unique color combinations, which are formed out of the combination of two or even three hues. However, these color combinations have limited availability. For instance, you will not find blue-purple diamonds. The fancy color diamonds are extremely rare. Usually just one out of 10,000 carats of mined diamonds come out as a gem-quality colored diamond. Purple diamonds are one of the rarest of all colored diamonds, after the red diamonds. Usually, the purple diamonds you find are with secondary colors and hues like gray, brown, and pink.

Color diamonds have several different names. For instance, brown diamonds are also known as Chocolate or Cognac diamonds, while Canary diamonds is another name for yellow diamonds. Similarly, purple diamonds are also known as Orchid diamonds, Plum diamonds, Mauve diamonds, Lilac diamonds, Grape diamonds, and Lavender diamonds.

The purple orchids became popular in 2014 when they appeared in the Hong Kong Jewelry and Gem Fair. They originated from a mine in South Africa, which is one of the few locations containing pure purple diamonds. The original stone appeared as a four-carat rough diamond. It went through several months of cautious cutting and polishing. After the processing, the diamond weighed 3.37 carat and was VS2 clarity fancy intense pink-purple with a cushion cut. The Royal Purple Heart is another purple diamond that became quite popular. It weighed 7.34 carat, perfect heart cut, and fancy vivid purple diamond. It is deemed as the largest purple gem to be discovered. Its origin remains undisclosed. However, it is speculated that its mine of origin is located somewhere in Russia. Another famous purple diamond, known as the king of all purple diamonds, is the Supreme Purple Star. This diamond appears as purple or crimson when looked at from different angles. This gem appeared first in 2002 in London when an anonymous seller presented the diamond as an ordinary gemstone. That diamond has a brilliant-cut and a weight between 2 to 5 carats. The exact weight remains undisclosed along with the stone’s discovery date, origin, and characteristics.