White diamonds: the D–Z colour scale, in plain language

Most people who ask for a “classic diamond” mean a white diamond: a stone whose face-up look is colourless or nearly so. Laboratories describe that look with letters from D to Z. That is the only colour system we use in the white collection.

What the letters mean

D, E, and F sit at the colourless end. G, H, I, and J are near-colourless — still what jewellery clients usually call white, especially once the stone is set. From K onward the tint is easier to see in larger sizes and in certain lights, often as a soft yellow, brown, or grey.

The scale measures the absence of colour, not a rainbow of hues. A G-colour white diamond is not “a little pink.” If the colour is a true hue — yellow, pink, blue — that stone does not belong in white. It belongs in fancy.

How we list a white diamond

• Category: White.
• Colour: one letter from D to Z.
• Cut, clarity, carat, and the laboratory report sit beside that letter, not instead of it.

White is not CVD

D–Z describes how little colour you see. CVD describes a laboratory growth method. A manufactured stone can also be graded with a letter. That does not make it a white diamond in this house. Our white collection is certified white diamonds on D–Z. We do not add CVD, HPHT, or other laboratory-grown goods to the catalog.

If you are choosing between D and H, start in white diamonds on this site and tell us size, cut, and budget. The quote is private.