Complete Guide to Buying a J Color Diamond

Are you wondering whether you should buy a J-color diamond? This article will explore whether purchasing the J color is a good or bad idea.

Read Benjamin Khordipour’s definitive article to learn everything you need to know before buying your J color diamond.

• How Much Does a J Color Diamond Cost?
• Hacks to Make J Color Appear Whiter?
• Shop J Color Diamond Rings

What is a J Color Diamond?

A J color diamond is a natural diamond with a slight yellow tint. It is the lowest classification for a diamond within the “near-colorless” color category.

A diamond’s color is graded based on its position on the diamond color scale. The scale divides colors into categories ranging from “colorless” to “light color.”

Take a look at the graph below to better understand where J color falls on the color scale. The scale goes from D color to Z color. D is “Colorless” and very expensive, while Z is at the end of the “Light Color” range and is usually very affordable.

Diamonds with more color than a Z color are usually called “fancy diamonds.”

Important Note: Many factors affect the overall appearance of a diamond’s color once it’s set in a ring. Practically, a J color diamond will often be an excellent choice for an engagement ring. See below.

How Much Does a J Color Diamond Cost?

J color diamond prices will vary based on multiple factors, including cut, clarity, and, perhaps most significantly, carat weight.

To accurately represent the cost of a J-color diamond, here’s a pricing chart for a round diamond with VS2 clarity. As you can see, the prices rise exponentially as the carat size increases.

To better understand how much a J-color diamond can cost, let’s take the example of a VS2 excellent-cut round brilliant J-color diamond and see how the price increases based on carat weight. Note that the prices below reflect market prices as of 2024. For exclusive pricing with better value, contact us at Estate Diamond Jewelry for the best rates.

Is the J Color Diamond Good or Bad?

The J Color diamond is one of the most controversial types of diamonds. Some will insist that it is the best diamond color to buy, and others will insist that it should be avoided at all costs. We’ll break it down for you.

Reasons it’s good: The most compelling reason people prefer the J diamond is affordability. The J-colored diamond is much cheaper than the whiter diamonds, and most consumers feel like it’s crazy to spend so much on a diamond that 99% of the family and friends you show the diamond to will never know it has a yellow tint. Additionally, following our advice below, your J-colored diamond will probably appear like a G-H color. Also, some consumers prefer the yellow tint of the J color diamond and find the white diamonds “characterless and cold.”

Reasons it’s bad: A J-colored diamond is more challenging to sell. Hopefully, this will never be a problem, and you’ll keep your diamond forever, but it’s a good thing to be aware of. Additionally, many don’t like the slight yellow tint, whether due to the color or the interruption to the sparkle. Also, there is the personal choice of some who feel that the J color is “too far down the scale,” and prefer something whiter.

I asked Afshin Shaddiae from Estate Diamond Jewelry, a best-selling author on jewelry, what he thought about J-color diamonds. “I love the J-color diamond,” he told me. “It has the perfect balance between white and yellow. The soft yellow glow from a J-color diamond gives the diamond an authentic vintage feel, which reminds me of a flickering candlelight.”

Buying Tips for a J Color Diamond

Most of our favorite buying tips will apply to all diamonds equally, but there are a few pieces of advice that we feel are especially directed toward the J color diamond:

1. Negotiate. J-color diamonds are less desirable and rare than whiter diamonds. This will give you more negotiating power. Of course, there are good techniques to implement when getting a discount. Click here to read our article on the topic.
2. Antique Diamonds. As we will mention later in our list of tips to make the J color look whiter, buying antique diamonds is a great way to maximize your spending when buying J-colored diamonds. Antique J-colored diamonds will appear far less white than modern J-colored diamonds.
3. Find Whiter J Colors. As with almost all diamond gradings, the coloring of the J color will be highly subjective and depend heavily on the gemologist who happened to see it. For that reason, there are “whiter J-colors” and “more yellow J-colors”. Comparing two J colors against each other will produce very surprising results.

Tips to Make a J Color Diamond Appear Whiter?

Based on what we established above, using a J-color stone for an engagement ring can be a much more cost-effective choice than an I or higher-grade color. Since the diamond will mostly be viewed from the top, the color difference won’t be very apparent, but you’ll pay less than an I-color stone would cost.

Several other factors will also help minimize any yellow tint, so let’s look at those below.

Tip #1: Find a J Color Diamond with a “White Face-Up”

We always suggest scrutinizing the diamond from every angle before purchasing it, especially from above. The reason is that a diamond in a ring will be viewed from above. The color that shows when looking directly above is called the “face-up.”

Some J-color diamonds show a very yellow face-up, while others hide the yellow and show a white face-up. The face-up is the most important factor when judging a diamond’s visual color.

So, when selecting your stone, examine it from the top and compare it against other stones for the whitest appearance. Often, a J color with a white face-up will look far better than an H color with a yellow face-up.

Tip #2: Search for an Antique J Color Diamond

Antique diamonds are renowned for appearing much whiter than modern diamonds. A J color diamond that was cut in 1920 may have the same face-up white color as an H color or I color modern cut diamond.

Antique diamonds were cut and polished completely differently than modern stones. Before highly accurate mechanical polishers were developed, diamonds were cut to respond to candlelight. These antique diamond-cutting techniques were primed to show a much whiter appearance.

This often means an antique diamond could easily pass for a much better color-graded diamond, especially from its face-up angle.

Antique diamonds also benefit from their own history and the fact that each one is utterly unique. Because of the very manual way antique diamonds were produced, unlike modern identically laser-cut diamonds, no two are exactly alike, further increasing the already large character antique diamonds possess.

Tip #3: Use the Right Metal to Mount the Diamond

Another great tip we suggest to our customers to ensure their diamond appears as white as possible is to put a lot of thought into which metal they use to mount the diamond.

The setting you choose can make your j-colored diamond appear much whiter.

Because the J-color diamond already has a yellowish tint, the best metal to use is yellow gold or rose gold. These metals will give the illusion that the diamond is only yellowish because they reflect the yellows from the metal.

That being said, many jewelry wearers will still gravitate towards platinum, even with J-color diamonds. Platinum is much better quality, hypoallergenic, and a far more pretentious metal. They don’t feel that a bit of yellow in the diamond is worth compromising on something as important as quality and craftsmanship.

Tip #4: Use a Halo and Accents to Contrast Against the Diamond

A great way to soften the harshness of the yellowness of the J-color diamond is to distract the onlooker with an optical illusion.

Suppose you surround the J color diamond with a halo of L-M color diamonds. The L-colored diamonds make the center diamond appear far whiter than a J color grading.

Additionally, if you surround the diamond with a colored stone halo, such as sapphires, emeralds, and rubies, the halo’s color will draw the eye away from the diamond’s yellowish color.

Tip #5: Avoid Diamond Laser or Chemical Treatments

It’s important to mention at this point that there are laser and chemical enhancements and treatments that can also be done to make the diamond appear white. We strongly caution against trying any enhancement techniques. They will negatively affect the value of your diamond.

It is a very bad idea.

Tip #6: Bezel the Sides of a Yellow Diamond

Regarding J-color diamonds and lower, we recommend choosing a bezel setting instead of a pronged one. As mentioned above, diamonds will usually appear more yellow from the sides. A bezel setting will hide as many of the side angles as possible.

Tip #7: Find a Diamond with Fluorescence

This advice will probably be shocking to most of our readers, but it is a great tip. Diamond fluorescence does a great job masking yellow colors.

Of course, fluorescence will come at the cost of a little bit of dullness to the sparkle, but if you want to hide the yellowness of the diamond, fluorescence is the way to go.

Additionally, buying a diamond with fluorescence will usually ensure a good discount on the stone.

Shop J Color Diamond Rings

Here are a few examples of J-color diamond rings. Feel free to contact us for advice about shopping for a J-color diamond.

Differences Between I Color and J Color

The price difference between the I and J colors is quite significant. With all things staying the same with the other specifications, you can still expect a big bump in price between an I and a J.

The difference between the shades of color, however, is minimal. In the image above, you can see the color difference between an I-color and a J-color diamond. To get the best comparison, we kept the other specs the same. Both are 1-carat and round brilliant cuts with an IF clarity grade.

As you can see, the color difference is extremely hard to detect when viewed from the top (which is how most diamonds will be viewed when set in a ring). However, the color difference becomes much more apparent when viewed from a side angle.

Look at the same diamonds in the graph above but from a side view.

The graph above demonstrates that these same diamonds have a much more pronounced color difference when viewed from a side angle. The J color has a detectable yellow tint, while the I color looks nearly clear.

Frequently Asked Questions

We’ve been selling diamonds for over four decades. Here are some of the most common questions and answers that we receive concerning J-colored diamonds.

Q: Is the J Color Diamond Too Yellow?

We believe the J color diamond is not too yellow, especially if you follow the advice we noted above.

If you want a diamond that doesn’t show any yellow, a J-color diamond is not a good idea. The J-color diamond will show yellow and will not be clean white like a D, E, or F-color diamond.

Q: Is Lab-Grown J Color a Good Idea?

No. It is a horrible idea. We make no secret of our belief that lab-grown diamonds are a massive mistake. In fact, we wrote a famous (and highly trending) article on why lab-grown diamonds are a scam.

To summarize, it doesn’t matter what color lab-grown diamond you get or what price you pay; do not buy lab diamonds unless they are the same price as cubic zirconia.

Q: What Does I-J Color Mean?

I-J colored diamonds are diamonds with a color that fits somewhere between I color and J color. The I-J (or I/J color) allows the gemologist or jeweler to express their uncertainty about exactly which color the diamond has.

Practically speaking, dealers and customers usually consider an I-J color to be a J color. This is good news for the customer because they will get a whiter diamond at the price of a more yellow diamond.

It is important to note that GIA will never use terminology like I-J color for the whiter diamonds on the spectrum. Only once the colors get really yellow (starting at O or P color) will they use two digits for colors.

Q: What Does J-K Mean?

J-K colored diamonds are diamonds with a color that fits somewhere between J color and K color. Like the I-J color mentioned above, the J-K (or J/K color) allows the gemologist or jeweler to give a vaguer coloring for a diamond.

Q: What Clarity and Carat Weight is Best for a J Color Diamond?

Although this is a very popular question, it’s very hard for us to answer because clarity and carat weight don’t really correlate with color.

It is important to mention, though, that those who compromise on color and settle for a J color can usually get a diamond with better clarity or a larger diamond.

Q: Which Fluorescence Grade is Best for a J Color Diamond?

As mentioned before, fluorescence will counterbalance against yellow. The downside of fluorescence is that it will give the diamond a hazy effect.

We recommend that if you’re using fluorescence to hide some yellow, don’t use a diamond with strong fluorescence. At most, look for a diamond with faint or medium fluorescence.

Talk to a Diamond Expert

So, in short, a J diamond should be a great color choice for most people.

Ready to find your diamond? Talk to one of our diamond experts at Estate Diamond Jewelry, or fill out the form below, and we’ll respond within one business hour.

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