Diamonds are a girl's best friend. Marilyn Monroe expressed exactly what many women fear to admit: - you are what you wear. If you have a diamond on, you are considered to be a beautiful and classy woman, as you without a doubt are. The harder and more resistant the diamond, the tougher and more resilient you are. Each diamond has its personality; each one has its soul. As each woman is, each gem is. Diamonds are a girl's best friend because we look up to them. They are the way we wish we could be, they are our models.

The diamond is the most famous allotrope of carbon. It is also one of the hardest substances on Earth, therefore highly valued as jewelry and as an industrial tool. The other substance that comes from carbon is graphite. It's strange to believe that graphite and diamonds are just different molecular formats of the same element. This can be a natural allegory for social differences.

Most true diamonds come from Africa, although they can be found at practically any volcanic area in the world. Synthetic diamonds are made in a laboratory, but they almost never can compare to natural ones. They are mostly used for industry; rarely do they have quality good enough for jewelry making.

The major company that deals with diamonds is DeBeers. Many problems and suspicions have gone around this company because of its wideness and seemingly monopolistic characteristics.

The Value of a Diamond

Diamonds show the deepest element on Earth. The name diamond comes from the Greek adamas ('impossible to tame'). Diamonds have been treasured as precious ever since they began being used as religious icons in India 2500 years ago. Their use as a tool is also from way back.

Diamonds are usually evaluated by the four "c"s: carat, clarity, color, and cut. Since evaluating diamonds began to follow these rules, they became the most popular jewel.

Diamonds be of different carats. A carat is a mass unit for the diamond. One carat is exactly 200 milligrams. The value of a diamond rises exponentially according to the weight of the diamond, because the larger the diamond, the more rare it is.

Internal defects in diamonds are called inclusions. Clarity will tell us how pure a diamond is. Inclusions can be foreign material in a diamond, or it can also be a mal-formation of the crystal structure. This results in white spots or even cracks in the stone. Only 20 percent of all natural diamonds are considered clear enough for gemstone usage, the other 80 percent goes to industry. Diamonds are graded on clarity on a scale from Flawless to Imperfect.

A 100 percent carbon diamond, that is completely pure, is clear in color. Yet, no natural diamond is completely perfect. The yellow hues are less valuable, while blue and red are the most valued in the market. Transparent diamonds are also very much valued, but not as much as the blue and red ones.

Diamonds never come cut and clean from the rough. They are usually odd shaped and it is usually difficult to detect a diamond without it having been cut. Diamond cutting is a very complex art because it requires great molecular knowledge of the crystal structure and great mathematical knowledge. Cutting can be measured by the way the light refracts in the diamond.

These four "c"s are fundamental in evaluating a true diamond. No woman is dignified if she does not once in her life hold a true diamond. They are perfect.