Selena Gomez puts it this way in song: “How you choose to express yourself. It’s all your own and I can tell. It comes naturally.”
If the sometimes Justin Bieber girlfriend were singing about diamonds, she would have to insert “colored” after naturally. As The New York Post recently wrote, “Fancy color diamonds (a gemological term for boldly hued diamonds) have become an increasingly coveted engagement ring choice over the past two years.”
The tabloid noted Ryan Reynolds popped the question to Blake Lively with a pink diamond while Dax Shepard picked a champagne diamond for his proposal to Kristen Bell.
While love may not be forever, chances are the trend is here to stay. The value of colored diamonds has been shattering world records. On May 13th at Sotheby’s Geneva, a 100.09-carat Fancy Vivid Yellow Diamond fetched $16.3 million. Just a day later, the world’s largest Fancy Vivid Blue Diamond, at 13.22 carats, sold for close to $23.8 million at Christie’s Geneva. On October 7, the day before The Post story an 8.41-carat Fancy Vivid Purple-Pink Diamond sold for $17.7 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong.
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Taking advantage of the appeal both from an aesthetic and investor angle, a three-year-old marketing group of top line retailers has been promoting colored diamonds under the banner of “The One and Only One” collection.
With the price tag for the baubles often reaching into seven figures, the group is now making house calls. In a press release, it stated, “A rare pear-shaped Fancy Intense Blue Diamond (2.06 carats), set in a ring with two Argyle Pink Diamonds, and a pair of pear-shaped Fancy Intense Yellow Diamond earrings (totaling 14.39 carats) are available by ‘fly-in’ appointment.”
Joe Padulo, CEO of Padulo Prive, which operates the program, said, “As more Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individuals around the world recognize Fancy Color Diamonds as a new asset class, the collection regularly flies its one-of-a-kind diamonds to the jeweler nearest the potential buyer for a private consultation.”
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Padulo told Elite Traveler its not unusual for the jewelers to fly to see clients as well as have clients visit via their private jet.
He also cites Rapaport Magazine which reported the only constant in the colored diamond market is the upward trend of prices, due to limited supply and increased demand. Pinks and blues are particularly rare, he said. The Cullinan mine in South Africa has produced 6 million carats of white diamonds in the past six years, but has turned up just a half dozen blues. He also noted that Australian mining company Rio Tinto’s reported prices for its Argyle Pink Diamonds have more than tripled since the year 2000. The mine is expected to close by 2020. “Intense blues and pinks are 10 to 20 times the price of fine white diamonds of comparable size and clarity,” he said.
Only one in 10,000 diamonds are naturally colored, according to Gemological Institute of America, a group which inspects and grades diamonds.
