Chocolate diamonds – what a fancy name and how many positive associations it evokes! Chocolate diamond rings for women sound too good to be true. For one thing it is a diamond and then it even has a chocolate part in it! And we all know how very much women like chocolate 🙂
So what are chocolate diamonds? Chocolate diamonds are a registered trademark of Le Vian Corp. but basically they are just brown diamonds. Le Vian Corp. skillfully attaches the term chocolate to diamonds to market them better and is quite successful with it. In its advertising campaigns Le Vian Corp. even asks what happens if you combine a girl’s best friend with its favourite aphrodisiac. Apparently you get a chocolate diamond!
So let’s discuss brown diamonds and see what you have to pay attention to when buying a brown diamond.
The popularity of the brown diamond
Now, brown diamonds don’t sound as fascinating as chocolate diamonds do. Which is precisely why Le Vian Corp. uses the term “chocolate diamonds” for marketing purposes.
Truth be told: Brown diamonds are the most common diamonds that can be found out there! They are followed by white diamonds, yellow diamonds, pink diamonds, green diamonds, blue diamonds, red diamonds and black diamonds.
Many people have not heard much about brown diamonds because they have not been used as jewellery diamonds for a very long time. Brown diamonds are mostly used for industrial purposes and end up in grinding wheels. In fact it was only in the 1980s when increasingly more brown diamonds were found that diamond producers began to look for ways to sell more brown diamonds.
Still, it is all a matter of taste and a brown diamond – especially combined with a rose gold ring setting – can look stunning and give off a very warm and feminine aura.
How to choose a brown diamond?
The first question you will have to answer for yourself is whether you badly want to have a real trademarked chocolate diamond ® from Le Vian Corp. or just a regular brown diamond you can choose from any supplier. I have found that Le Vian Corp. is charging an extra premium for selling you their brown diamonds as chocolate diamonds. I know that many people attach importance to be able to say that they bought a “real” chocolate diamond and this is entirely okay. The best place to buy chocolate diamonds from Le Vian Corp. online is Kay Jewellers.
The only problem you have to be aware of when buying a chocolate diamond ring from Le Vian Corp. is that you usually will not be able to design your own ring. You can choose from different ring settings and diamond combinations but you will ultimately not be able to tailor the ring after your own taste. Most importantly you will not be able to control what kind of diamond you will be provided with. Le Vian Corp. does not issue any GIA or AGS certificates accompanying their chocolate diamonds. It is quite likely that you could get a better diamond yourself if you thoroughly looked for one and made sure that it is accompanied by a grading report of a reputable lab.
This is why I would rather recommend choosing your own brown diamond and make sure that it is a high quality stone with a good cut. Brown diamonds can have a lot of sparkle, too. The difference compared to white diamonds however is that they do not have any fire, i.e. the light will not be reflected back to the eye in rainbow colors. Still, as in normal diamonds it makes a lot of sense to go for a brown diamond with the best possible cut.
The best place to buy buy brown diamonds on the internet is James Allen in my opinion. James Allen has quite a big inventory of brown diamonds, all their diamonds are GIA or AGS certified and most importantly James Allen provides high definition 360° videos of all the diamonds. This means that you will be able to choose a real high quality stone and must not hope for providence to provide you one.
Now, if you really want to choose a diamond with a chocolate color tone, you should go for either Fancy yellowish brown, Fancy dark yellowish brown or Fancy dark orange brown!
I personally think that the fancy dark yellowish brown hue comes closest to what I would associate with chocolate but it is a matter of taste. And apart from that, there are many different kinds of chocolate, I guess 🙂
When choosing your brown diamond for your engagement ring you should follow my general guidelines for designing an engagement ring.
What kind of ring setting to choose?
When designing your brown diamond engagement ring you will also have to consider which ring metal to choose.
As far as brown diamonds are concerned I personally think that they blend in particularly well with rose gold ring settings. The reason is simply the transition from the unusual diamond color to the ring setting becomes smoother. Thus rose gold ring settings give brown diamonds more of an overall pleasant touch.
Chocolate diamonds are simply not classic diamonds used in rings. Thus, the brown diamond color definitely stands out and in my opinion the contrast is a little bit too strong if paired with a yellow gold or white gold ring setting:
But in the end the decision is completely up to you. There are people who like to play with strong contrasts and this is absolutely fine. You will certainly make the right decision if you simply follow your gut feeling.
As you might have noticed all of the chocolate diamonds I have shown you up till now were always set in some of the fancier ring settings. Just look at this chocolate diamond below set into a solitaire ring setting and compare it to the other two rings! I bet that you will think that the other two rings looks better:
The diamond in the middle has more of an edge to it and does not blend as smoothly as the other two diamonds with the ring setting. The reason is quite simply that the small diamonds in the ring setting provide for a nice transition and take some of the attention away from the unusual diamond color.
If you should have any more question just write me a comment or drop me a mail!