When you think of diamonds, you probably think of their sparkling facets that catch the light and create a dazzling display.
But what do you do if your diamond stops sparkling?
There are several reasons why a diamond might stop shining. It could be that the facets have become dirty or covered in wax, that the diamond is loose and needs to be tightened, or that there is a crack in the stone.
If your diamond doesn’t seem to be shining as brightly as it used to, don’t worry – you’re not alone. In this blog post, we’ll talk about why diamonds lose their sparkle and what you can do to restore their brilliance.
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How Diamonds Sparkle
Because of the unique angles and numbers of the facets, as well as how effectively they are cut, diamonds glisten and dance with fire.
If a diamond is relatively clean with few internal inclusions that can block light from traveling through it, then it should sparkle quite nicely, brilliantly in fact.
A poorly faceted diamond, regardless of how clean it is, externally or internally, will have a difficult time dancing and sparkling because the light that hits the surface and bounce off of each facet becomes blocked due to cutting at the wrong angle.
Cutting the facets in a diamond for optimal reflection is really the art of directing light.
Diamonds are refractive, that is, they bend light if permitted to do so, and so this means that they are literally light catchers.
They then throw this light around throughout the stone and the light then travels right back up through the surface and into your eyes to dazzle you.
This describes what is happening every nano-second that you see the sparkle and fire of a diamond.
There’s another aspect to consider when it comes to sparkle: whatever characteristics a rough diamond has when it is mined are exactly what it is, regardless of how you intended it to be.
You can cut the facets at perfect angles, but if it is full of cloudy inclusions or peppered with dark carbon spots, then light cannot bounce freely and travel through each facet after hitting the surface.
In other words, a milky diamond will always be milky regardless of how well cut the facets are because of the internal flaws.
How Diamond Cut Affects Sparkle
We do not want to confuse the cut of a diamond with the shape although one will affect the other.
A cut describes the angles that the facets are positioned to able to react to light, whereas the shape describes the silhouette of the diamond when you look at it from above.
Facets will always affect sparkle because those are the bits of “windows” that light is attempting to travel through. The more windows, and the better angle they are, the more sparkle there can be.
- A modern round brilliant will have 58 facet “windows,” as do most other shapes.
- A radiant cut diamond has the most at 70.
That said, if the cut of a diamond is done poorly and/or at the wrong angle, they are not able to fully bounce the light around.
There goes your sparkle.
How Diamond Shape Affects Sparkle
Diamond shapes can affect sparkle or brilliance, but this usually happens if the facets were cut at the wrong angle to accommodate the desired shape.
The job of a diamond is to chop up and redirect prisms of light, they then throw and return that light around like a boomerang.
How well it can do that is affected by the precision of the proportions of the angle of the facets as well as the clarity or internal characteristics of the entire stone.
If a diamond shape includes the stone not being cut to proper proportions, such as being too deep or too shallow, then often the shape is being blamed for the lesser amount of brilliance even though it is actually that the faceting was not cut at the optimal angle.
Should Diamonds Sparkle All The Time?
It’s not fair to expect diamonds to sparkle when there is no light, because they are light bearers.
No light=no sparkle.
It does not take much light to get at least some sparkle from a diamond, even moon light is plenty light enough.
A diamond can only reflect what it receives.
Beyond light, a diamond needs to be clean so that light can pass through and hit all the prisms (facets) to create the fire that you want to see.
There is one instance that can affect the sparkle of a diamond even though all other factors are optimal, and that is having a very strong blue fluorescence (glow) that suddenly shows up in certain types of lighting.
If a diamond has very strong fluorescence, there is a possibility that it will look cloudy even without having the natural inclusions that commonly would cause this.
Bright sunlight at just the right angle can suddenly bring out the fluorescence in a diamond and can make your stone look cloudy, but does not generally affect the value unless you are looking for an investment grade stone.
The right amount of fluorescence can even make a diamond shine and sparkle more too!
It is all about the lighting.
Why Your Diamond Looks Cloudy All of a Sudden
It is the “all of a sudden” that we are going to address.
When a diamond is mined, cut and polished, it is finished and the appearance and internal characteristics of it will not change. If that same diamond had great sparkle once upon a time and then “all of a sudden” it does not, then we can only presume a few things have happened:
- It is in need of a good cleaning and rinsing. Oil film, even from just touching the surface with your fingers will “suddenly” stop light from entering the surface and refracting throughout your diamond. Ditto for dirt or lotion build up under the stone. Check it out, use a soft baby toothbrush and some Mr. Clean to cut the oil and loosen the dirt. Also consider using an ultrasonic cleaner.
- You bonked the diamond on something and it now has an internal crack inside…or several. Cracks will prevent light from passing through each prism and will make a diamond look cloudy at certain angles.
- You are in bright sunlight and the fluorescence inside your diamond is showing and you did not notice that effect before. Go step under a tree or go inside and see if this does not suddenly change the appearance.
That’s it.
Nothing else can account for a diamond that suddenly went cloudy.
Key word is “suddenly” because it is essentially the exact same diamond that it always was.
Unless.
Did you take it into a jewelry store for work and had to leave it there?
If so, did you notice that the diamond had lost its sparkle when you picked it up? If too much heat was applied during a repair, then the diamond could have gotten burned and now has a film on it.
This can be removed by sending it out to a lapidary for polishing. Also, we hate to have to even ask this…but are you sure that the diamond in your ring is still your original stone?
Check out our article on choosing a reputable jeweler.
How To Make Your Diamond Sparkle Again
Much like the love in your relationship, you can make your diamond’s sparkle last forever with just a little work on your part. If your diamond isn’t sparkling, don’t panic! Try the following:
Cleaning Your Diamonds
Clean it with Mr. Clean (the green stuff) and hot water.
Let it soak in 1 part Mr. Clean to 5 parts of hot water.
Then get a soft toothbrush after it has soaked a few hours and scrub the underside and between the prongs. Rinse and repeat until you are thrilled. Repeat this often or each time it starts getting dirty from everyday wear.
If this works then you may want to invest in a small ultrasonic cleaner to make your life easier for regular cleaning.
Do Diamonds Need Polishing?
If you have a diamond and it was graded as having “poor polish”, then you might as well send it out to a lapidary for polishing.
We repeat, a lapidary, not a goldsmith because those two professions are not the same thing.
A poor polish grade means that your diamond will not brilliantly throw light around nearly as well as it could have if it had only been polished well from the jump.
A diamond really does not ever need polishing (unless it has been burned) once it has been cut, faceted and polished from the mine.
But sometimes whomever did the polishing step did not do a good job.
This can be fixed.
3 Tips For Keeping Your Diamond Sparkling
Once you get your diamond cleaned and polished, if necessary, then you will want to keep it that way. Here are three easy tips:
Remove Your Jewelry When Showing, Swimming, or Working
Diamonds don’t like oil, dirt or muck.
They don’t even like soap or shampoo or conditioner the same way you do.
Diamonds prefer that you don’t even touch them with your fingers at all if we are to be honest. You will leave a layer of oil and they will stubbornly refuse to dazzle you unless you clean it off first.
So take your ring off when you are cooking, gardening or even doing dishes.
The same goes for swimming in the ocean or a pool. And if you have an oily job like being a mechanic, take it off while you are working.
Protect Your Diamond From Being Damaged
If you know that you are going to do some rough work, then kindly take your diamond out of the line of fire.
Bashing your diamond hard enough can result in a crack or chips. These will then be areas that will block light resulting in the diamond no longer being able to sparkle for you.
Have Your Jewelry Inspected
It is always a good idea to have your diamonds inspected at least once or twice a year if you wear them daily, to be certain that the prongs are still intact.
Beyond that, an inspection can reveal any damage or chips that you may not realize have happened.
Additionally, a jewelry store will usually clean your diamond ring for free and will use steam to blow out anything that your tooth brush could not reach.
Final Thoughts
You may think that your diamond can no longer sparkle for you and might be tempted to go out and “upgrade”.
Good on you if you can afford to do that, however, if you can’t or really don’t want to, then cleaning it and/or having it inspected for damage is likely all that is really needed to bring back its brilliance.