While shopping for diamond, nobody wants to behave like a total tool and wants to get the best for their buck. We must accept it now that diamonds are not cheap even if you get a deal for lifetime. They are one of the most cherished and desired stones, which are most expensive in the market and have the highest requirements.

You want that big rock to sparkle and shine the most, when you expose it on your neck, ear lobe and wrist. And this is where 4C's comes. It means cut, color, clarity and carat. Let's understand more about the four determining factors of diamond.

Cut means the actual cut of the stone. It does not mean the general shape of the rock like round or square, it is far beyond those terms. One must know that, when diamonds are removed from the ground as raw and unrefined stones, they are shaped like a piece of gravel. These are then cut down to finished products by using large set of rounding turn-tables. If the quality of the cut is higher, the angles will be better and the stone will reflect more light back to the viewer's eye.

Color refers to the color of the rock. A diamond of poor color will appear to have amber tint and a perfect stone is colorless. While buying a diamond, you must see the rate of the stone on alphabetical coloring system. The D,E and F grades are considered to be perfectly colorless and D have the least color of all.

Clarity means number of flaws in diamond, which gets developed due to minerals trapped inside the stone during its formation. A clearer diamond would be more appealing when seen by naked eyes.

Carat is simply the size of the diamond that is measured by weight. If the carat number is larger, the stone will be bigger.