CLARITY
Clarity refers to generally minute imperfections or birthmarks, which are inherit in all diamonds. We grade for clarity though a ten-power microscope, so even those rare diamonds graded as flawless are only flawless at ten-power. If we were to go to higher magnifications we would probably find imperfections in them as well.
Under 10X magnification, a diamond's grade is one of the following:
- (FL/IF) Flawless or Internally Flawless will have no inclusions visible
- (VVS) Very,Very Slight Inclusions ( VVS1 - VVS2) may have minute inclusions, extremely difficult to find
- (VS) Very Slight Inclusions (VS1 - VS2) has minor inclusions, difficult to find
- (SI) Slight Inclusions (SI1 - SI2) may have noticeable inclusions, easy to find
- (I) Imperfect (I1 – I3) has obvious inclusions, visible to the naked eye
KEY POINT
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Out of the eleven possible grades, the first eight are going to look the same to the naked eye under normal conditions.
