Fancy colored diamonds are diamonds that are not within the white diamond color scale. These range from diamonds that may be lower in cost than white diamonds such as more common browns (also described as champagne, cognac, chocolate depending on the hue and intensity of the fancy color) up to rare colors such as fancy pink.
Fancy colored diamonds are graded by three main criteria: Hue, Tone & Intensity.
When it comes to fancy colored diamonds, everything else such as carat, clarity and cut come second.
Color Hue
This refers to the actual color of the diamond, such as yellow, pink, etc. Often, the hue can be represented by a split tone like orangey-yellow, purplish pink, etc. The value of the fancy colored diamond will depend on this combination of colors, with some more desirable (higher demand) and some simply rarer (lower supply).
Color Tone
The tone of the fancy color refers to the lightness or darkness of the hue. So a light tone with a reddish hue would be defined as a fancy pink whereas a darker tone would be considered red.
Color Intensity
Finally, the intensity of the color indicates how strong or contrasting the color is. Fancy color intensity is graded from fancy faint to fancy vivid (low to high intensity):