here was a time when the ideal diamond was an immaculate white, as close as possible to D Flawless: perfectly pure and colourless. But times change and diamonds lower down the colour grading scale, from M to Z, are taking their turn in the spotlight.
“For years, brown and pale yellow diamonds were regarded less favourably, in comparison with high-grade, white-coloured diamonds,” observes Ravi Bhansali, CEO and Managing Director of Rosy Blue NV, one of the world’s leading diamond manufacturers, speaking at GemGenève in May. “No-one knew what to do with natural brown, brown-orange, yellow-brown or yellow-orange hues, and so they traded at much lower prices. Now, demand for these colours is so strong, particularly among younger customers who value uniqueness and have a different definition of what is considered desirable, that their value has shot up.”
Figures confirm that attitudes towards these much maligned gemstones are indeed changing. Pinterest’s 2025 wedding report notes a 179% increase in searches for brown diamond engagement rings, 85% for champagne diamonds and 53% for chocolate diamonds. An article featured in the July 2026 issue of Vogue (“Champagne Diamonds are the Next Cool-Girl Engagement Ring Trend”) confirms that more and more brides-to-be are saying yes to a diamond in warmer tones.
Under pressure
The official GIA colour scale grades diamonds from D to Z, from colourless to light colour. Diamonds with a more marked presence of yellow or brown rank further down the scale and their value decreases accordingly. With one exception: a diamond with a colour so intense, it is classified as a fancy colour. The GIA distinguishes Fancy Light, Fancy, Fancy Intense, Fancy Vivid, Fancy Dark and Fancy Deep. Values can reach stratospheric levels: the Ocean Dream, a 5.5-carat fancy vivid blue-green diamond, sold at Christie’s Geneva on 13 May for CHF 13.57 million (US$ 17.37 million), setting a new world record in the process.
Whereas a diamond is coloured yellow by nitrogen, a natural brown diamond is the result of plastic deformation of the crystal structure. Diamonds are exposed to immense pressure and high temperatures in Earth’s mantle, or as they journey to the surface, and in certain cases this alters the crystal lattice. According to the GIA, this distortion is also associated with certain pink diamonds. Scientifically speaking, these two colours are therefore more similar than they might appear…
From imperfection to authenticity
“Every stone is unique,” Ravi Bhansali continues. “Two stones can each be certified, say, fancy brown-orange, yet be completely different one from the other.” What used to be seen as an imperfection is now the individuality customers want. This is, perhaps, where the real change lies. The whitest stones were once the most sought-after; now there is a desire for something else: a diamond that cannot be identically reproduced.
Fifty shades of brown
Champagne, cognac, chocolate, honey, tawny, desert… jewellers are inclined to describe brown diamonds in more poetic terms than a laboratory would ever use. Indeed, “champagne”, “cognac” and “chocolate” are marketing inventions, not categories defined by the GIA, which grades stones scientifically based on hue, tone and saturation.
Founder of Jaqueline Powers, Vince Gerardis has a long experience of working with coloured diamonds, and while he admits that “there are a lot of ugly brown diamonds” he refers to others that “look almost pink. The laboratory doesn’t assign them a pink hue, but they are really beautiful, almost a blush colour.” One of the necklaces he showed at GemGenève in May was set with a stunning brown-orange diamond of more than 42 carats.
He became interested in these warm-toned diamonds long before the current trend took hold, won over by their colour but also because they give more bang for the buck: “For 2,000 or 4,000 a carat, you can get what would cost ten or a hundred times that in any fancy colour.”
Ravi Bhansali concurs. With the best pinks and blues commanding such high prices, brown offers those outside the wealthiest circles the opportunity to acquire a large natural stone: “You can own a magnificent brown diamond without a huge budget,” he says.
Affordability is, of course, a relative notion and price is also determined by carat weight, clarity, cut, intensity of colour and the individual character of each stone. However, a natural brown diamond will be more affordable than a fancy colour with comparable characteristics.
With cut comes colour
Compared with a white diamond, a coloured diamond is cut with a different result in mind. Rather than prioritise maximum light return, as with white diamonds, a master cutter will cut a coloured diamond to obtain the most beautiful, intense colour when viewed from above. The diamantaire plays a decisive role. “We never know what we will be left with until we have finished cutting,” says Ravi Bhansali. “The rough stone is brown but the precise outcome will only be revealed when it is complete, and our master cutters behave more like artists and sculptors, trying to find the right tone as they cut the stone.”
The angle and proportion of the facets, as well as the way light travels through the stone, can have a significant impact on how its colour is perceived. It’s not uncommon for Rosy Blue to recut a stone. Ravi Bhansali cites the example of a 16-carat brown diamond whose colour he considered too pronounced: “I was certain that recutting would give us something far better. We lost a carat and gained a magnificent orange-brown diamond – the colour of a lovely peach.” A more desirable colour at the cost of a carat: the difference between white diamonds and coloured diamonds in a nutshell. A cutter must know how to “read” the stone and sense its potential almost intuitively. “Cutting a stone is an art that cannot be achieved through technology,” continues Ravi Bhansali.
From champagne to desert
The diamond industry has already spearheaded campaigns to reframe brown diamonds as desirable. In the 1990s, Rio Tinto invented an entire vocabulary of “champagne” and “cognac” to describe stones from the Argyle mine in Western Australia. Three decades later, at the 2025 JCK Las Vegas trade show, De Beers launched Ombré Desert Diamonds: a marketing concept designed to stimulate interest in natural diamonds and celebrate the gradient of diamond colours, from warm whites through to champagne and amber tones, reminiscent of desert landscapes.
A response to synthetic stones
There was a clear purpose behind this decision: to turn one of natural diamonds’ perceived drawbacks — variations in colour — into a defining and desirable characteristic that would set them apart from a growing tide of lab-grown stones.
Countering the near perfection of synthetic diamonds, the natural diamond industry chose to emphasise those aspects of a stone that are beyond human control: imperfections, inclusions, unpredictable colour… and the fact a natural diamond can never be identically replicated. De Beers makes no secret that Desert Diamonds is first and foremost a marketing tool, designed to drive demand and bring customers into stores.
Celebrities get a kick from champagne
Brown diamonds are also riding a cultural wave. Antique rings, Old Mine and Old European cuts, and diamonds that are not so icy white have returned spectacularly to the fore, thanks to celebrities followed by hundreds of millions of fans: an unexpected and global showcase for these natural beauties. Taylor Swift’s engagement ring, set with a warm-toned antique diamond, played a huge role in propelling this aesthetic into the spotlight, even if, technically speaking, it isn’t a brown diamond (De Beers describes it as “warm white”).
Swift isn’t the only global icon with a taste for unusual natural diamonds. Performing at the Super Bowl 2026 halftime show at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, Bad Bunny wore a marquise-cut “honey desert” diamond earring set in yellow gold. Jeweller Marvin Douglas, whose design took inspiration from the shape of an American football, told Only Natural Diamonds: “I wanted him to have something personal and unique that would always symbolise this milestone performance.”
Character and charm
Ravi Bhansali sees this renewed enthusiasm for warmer-toned diamonds as part of a generational change: “When young people buy diamonds, they want something unique and special, something with colour, for a reasonable budget. Brown is a great choice, a natural wonder that costs less than a white diamond. A brown diamond is one-of-a-kind. It would take me maybe ten years to find two with exactly the same colour. These are rare stones that have been historically overlooked.”
For Vince Gerardis, brown diamonds are an antidote to a certain uniformity of taste: “I prefer to find customers who see themselves as tastemakers,” he declares.
A delightful paradox indeed. After decades of telling consumers to look for the whitest diamonds possible, now the industry is directing our attention towards stones we were previously taught to dismiss.
When describing the special qualities of brown diamonds, Ravi Bhansali chooses a word that falls outside the gemmologist’s usual vocabulary: “There’s a word I sometimes use to describe these stones that has no scientific definition, and that word is ‘charming’. The stone has to draw me to it, with its lovely, warm, natural tones.”
As brown diamonds love to remind us… individuality has its charm.
