Champagne Diamonds & Engagement Rings

What better name for a precious stone than "Champagne Diamonds"?
It conjures up images of luxury and decadence and is considered one of the fancy colored diamonds that are so sought after by celebrities and the rich and famous.

They are also sometimes referred to as chocolate diamonds because of their rich brown tones, but we like the name champagne better. A champagne diamond engagement ring just sounds so much more romantic than a chocolate one. Wouldn't you agree?

Champagne colored diamonds come in a variety of golden brown tones ranging from light champagne (from which their name is derived) to deep cognac and brown, with every shade in between.

They aren't as commonly seen as the other fancy colored diamonds (relatively speaking) but are just as beautiful and with the right setting, a complete knock-out.

They have an innately old world feel due to their coloring which makes them particularly interesting when incorporated into a modern ring setting.

When used in an engagement ring they can really become a striking symbol of eternal love and a classic heirloom piece that will be cherished for generations to come.

Most of the world's natural champagne diamonds come from Western Australia and the Argyle mine which produces that oh-so-desirable and highly coveted stone found in pink diamond engagement rings.

They are formed deep within the earth and are believed to attain their color through trace elements, heat, and pressure over thousands of years. Only one in ten thousand diamonds can be considered a natural colored diamond so needless to say, they are not easy to come by. Oh, yeah....and they are very expensive!

We all know that white diamonds cost so much due to their rarity so now imagine that just 1 in 10,000 of these precious gemstones comes out of the earth naturally colored. Given that, you can easily see why fancy colored diamonds come with a huge price tag and hold their value over time. If you really want one and can afford it, they are a great investment, much more so than their white diamond cousins.

Other Types of Champagne Diamonds

Like with all the other fancy colored diamonds, gemologists have figured out a way to reproduce natural champagne colored diamonds in a lab. They make these lab diamonds by using natural white diamonds and subjecting them to intense heat and pressure, and irradiation (they basically nuke the diamond) to simulate the color and what happens naturally within the earth over thousands of years.

Through this process, they can create all the different subtle hues and tones found in nature and help those of us with tighter budgets afford a fancy diamond  engagement ring that ends up looking exactly like the real thing except for the fact that it isn't naturally colored.

So, what you end up with in fact is a genuine diamond that is colored to look the same as a naturally colored diamond but is much less expensive. It obviously doesn't hold the same value as the real McCoy, but it is a genuine natural diamond!

Another option, if you're in the market for a more affordable engagement ring is to buy one that is set with a synthetic or man-made diamond. Again these are real genuine diamonds (just not naturally formed ones) because in this case the diamond itself is grown in a lab where they simulate what happens during the hundreds of years it takes to make a diamond. The scientific composition of the stone is the same as a natural one, the only difference is that it was born in a lab under non-natural conditions.

Champagne diamonds, cognac diamonds, chocolate diamonds, or brown diamonds, whatever you choose to call them have an inherent quality unlike any of the other colored stones. They work beautifully set in yellow gold, white gold, platinum or even rose gold and can be paired with white diamonds, pearls and other neutral gemstones.

So, if your heart is set on champagne diamond ring but you're on a beer budget consider a topaz engagement ring as an alternative--you'll get the same look as a champagne diamond engagement ring at a fraction of the cost.