A Crushed Ice Diamond uses modified faceting to create many small, fragmented reflections that resemble crushed ice. The appearance is common in cushion and radiant shapes. It is not a clarity grade or separate diamond type. Buyers should judge brightness, reflection pattern, scintillation, and overall face-up balance.
A Crushed Ice Diamond is a diamond where the facet pattern creates many small, broken reflections. There is no official laboratory that provides this cut grade, and therefore, this terminology is more of a description. This cut is common in cushion and radiant diamonds. This is because these shapes allow for more facets in the pavilion which creates many small reflections. The overall effect can resemble crushed ice.
This effect creates a soft, splintery appearance, and therefore, many prefer this style cut, while others prefer larger, more distinct flashes, like a traditional brilliant cut. Crushed ice diamonds come in a variety of shapes, and each buyer should evaluate each stone based on the face-up appearance to determine quality.
Some stones in the Cushion Cut Diamond category exhibit a crushed-ice appearance. While evaluating Loose Diamonds, buyers should be aware that two diamonds of the same measurements and grade may appear very different.
What is a Crushed Ice Diamond?
A diamond with numerous small reflections is described as a crushed ice diamond. As previously explained, this effect is created by the relationship of many facets, and it is not a separate diamond species.
Definition
Modified brilliant faceting is a technique that creates the appearance of many small facets when viewed face up. A crushed ice appearance occurs when these small facets reflect light and overlapping reflections merge.
A Modified Brilliant Cut Diamond describes a crushed ice diamond where the pavilion is modified in a manner similar to modified brilliant faceting.
Importance for Buyers
One key difference among diamonds of similar shape, color, and clarity, is the manner in which they reflect light. A Crushed Ice Diamond reflects light in a particular way that is distinct from other styles of faceting.
Importance for Consumers
For buyers and consumers of crushed ice diamonds, there is added difficulty in distinguishing the face-up appearance of crushed ice diamonds from other diamonds of similar shape, color, and clarity.
Appearance of a Crushed Ice Diamond
What appears to be crushed ice is a byproduct of light’s interaction with a diamond’s faceting. In the case of a Crushed Ice Diamond, faceting is done in a manner that reflects light in many small places.
Pavilion Faceting
Diamond pavilion facets are side facets, and like pavilion main facets, can be modified to control the manner in which light is reflected.
Diamond Faceting Patterns
When a diamond is faceted in a crushed ice pattern, the face-up appearance of the diamond includes many small reflections. Patterns that control the manner in which light is reflected can achieve a face-up appearance that is fragmented.
Virtual Facets and Small Flashes
When light travels through a diamond and strikes a physical facet at an angle, it can create an apparent reflection at an angle with respect to the physical facet. These apparent reflections are called virtual facets. Virtual facets can appear as a dense arrangement, giving the appearance of crushed ice.
The stone generally shows a field of fine contrasting flashes of light, instead of broad flashes. Thus crushed-ice diamonds can display a textured appearance.
Light Return
A stone can display a crushed-ice appearance, but reflect light poorly. Reflection can appear uniform or contain watery or dark regions.
Therefore, to assess the performance of a diamond displaying a crushed-ice appearance, the pattern of reflections has to be taken into account, in addition to Diamond Light Return.
Crushed Ice Cushion Diamond
Cushion diamonds have the visual potential to display a crushed-ice appearance. Other pavilion arrangements can result in broad flashes of light.
So-called crushed-ice appearances can be obtained by modification of the brilliant facet arrangements. Modified brilliant arrangements may result in a less defined facet appearance, when viewed from the top.
The grading report alone will not be sufficient to evaluate this effect. While the report may describe the shape and cutting style of the diamond, the visuals of a crushed ice pattern, for example, can only be appreciated by examining the diamond itself, or by means of a quality video or a series of consistent photographs.
Elongated Cushions
A crushed ice pattern can also be observed in an elongated cushion shaped diamond. The outline of the pattern would also be elongated, while the internal visuals would be determined by the pavilion design.
When considering Fancy Shape Diamonds, it is important to distinguish the reflection pattern from the outline of the diamond. A crushed ice reflection pattern in a cushion shape diamond may also appear as a long bolt of light.
Crushed Ice Radiant Diamond
A Radiant Cut Diamond may also exhibit a crushed ice reflection pattern, which is somewhat expected of a pattern caused by the facet arrangement.
A crushed ice appearance may be observed in other areas of the facet arrangement as well and is not limited to the center of the stone. A centralized crushed ice appearance may be organized, while an indirect, or off-center, reflection may appear fragmented.
Bow-Tie and Uneven Light Reflection
Radiant shaped cut diamonds may exhibit areas of different light reflection across the face. In such cases, a dark, or bow-tie effect, may also be desirable in a diamond, particularly if it is a crushed ice effect.
The stone should appear balanced when viewed while being moved. Reflections this small will not make up for larger areas of dullness.
crushed ice vs brilliant cushion
When deciding on crushed ice vs brilliant cushion, one must consider the size of the reflections and the level of organization of the reflection pattern. Crushed ice leads to a greater number of small reflections, and a brilliant cushion creates larger, more defined reflections.
Crushed Ice Cushion vs. Brilliant Cushion
Reflection Pattern
Visual Texture
Faceting
Scintillation
Face-up Appearance
Importance
In the world of diamond cushions, neither crushed ice nor brilliant are inherently better. A preference for crushed ice may be for a greater number of smaller flashes. Alternatively, a preference for brilliant may be for larger, broader flashes.
In discussing diamonds, Diamond Scintillation is the term for the flashes and contrast of a diamond resulting from the movement of the diamond or the person wearing it relative to the position of the light.
Performance of a Crushed Ice Diamond
When evaluating a Crushed Ice Diamond, it is important to take into account the full Diamond Light Performance of the diamond. A crushed ice diamond should not just be assessed for the presence of small reflections.
Brightness
Though a diamond’s face-up appearance is important, reflecting too little light will diminish the overall brilliance of the stone. A good diamond will reflect a useful amount of light throughout the entire stone.
Fire
Fire is the term given to colored flashes of light that occur with dispersion. Dispersion occurs when light strikes a diamond with a virtual face (facet) that is too small to internally reflect the light. Because of this, smaller flashes of dispersion will occur.
Scintillation
The movement of a diamond will cause light to reflect in patterns of bright and dark areas. Quick and frequent changes will cause a diamond to display a high degree of scintillation.
With a Crushed Ice Diamond, the reflections need to be small and numerous. If the reflective pattern appears too flat, it will appear drab. The overall reflection pattern should be vibrant.
Evaluating a Crushed Ice Diamond
Since there is no lab that can grade a diamond based on the crushed ice standard, visual evaluation is the only means of evaluation.
When evaluating, look for an attractive balancing of smaller reflections. For a Crushed Ice Diamond, the center should have a higher concentration of smaller reflections, and the edges should have fewer and larger reflections. The pattern should be evident when the diamond is in motion. A Crushed Ice Diamond should not cause a dull or watery effect. Compare crushed ice against crushed ice.
Separate Color and Clarity from Cut
A crushed-ice appearance in a diamond refers to a style of cutting, not color or clarity. Therefore, a diamond’s color and clarity should be evaluated independently from a crushed-ice appearance.
Review the Grading Report
A grading report for Certified Diamonds will provide measurements and color and clarity descriptions. The report should be used to supplement the diamond evaluation.
View Diamond Under Controlled Lighting Conditions
Diamonds should be compared using the same light source in order to accurately assess differences in the sparkle pattern.
Common Myths About a Crushed Ice Diamond
Cushion cut diamonds are often mistakenly associated with a crushed-ice appearance. Crushed Ice is a reflection pattern and cushion is a shape.
An involvement in the diamond trade often dispels simple myths. Poor cutting is often associated with a crushed-ice appearance. A crushed-ice appearance can often depict a diamond is of good quality.
Often, internal reflections and faceting are misconstrued as inclusions. In fact, faceting is often the main factor in producing the crushed-ice appearance.
Radiant cut diamonds are often mistakenly associated with crushed-ice appearance. Like cushions, reflections can be fragmented.
Crushed-ice is primarily a jeweler term. Therefore, evaluation of a stone’s face-up appearance is often necessary to determine crushed-ice appearance of a stone.
Crushed Ice Diamond In Natural Colored Diamonds
Fancy Color Diamonds can also possess a crushed ice appearance. In these cases, the color and the arrangement of the facets play an important role in the final outcome.
Of course, for colored stones, the faceting pattern is determined by several factors including the overall balance of the stone, and the intensity and distribution of color.
B2B Purchasing
When dealing with colored stones, the specific faceting pattern plays an important role, and can impact the final appearance of the stone.
For the commercial buyer, when sourcing a Crushed Ice Diamond, the stones would need to be precisely color coordinated. Two cushion-shaped diamonds, of the same color and clarity, would appear to be poorly matched if one had a bold color flash and the other had a crushed ice appearance.
Lepdo Diamonds, a manufacturer and B2B supplier of lab grown diamonds, located in Surat, India, inspects facets and evaluates stones for a repeat customer order. For a given order, Lepdo would evaluate and inspect stones according to other standard parameters including dimension, ratio, and color.
Consistent faceting can help achieve visual uniformity for a given order. This is particularly important for retail designs where customers can compare stones next to each other.
Frequently Asked Questions About Crushed Ice Diamond
1. What is a Crushed Ice Diamond?
When light enters a diamond, it scatters in various directions and creates a myriad of reflections that combine to make the appearance of the faceted stone. Sometimes, especially when modifying a typical brilliant facet arrangement, the reflections can be broken into many small components and appear fragmented. Diamonds that have such a facet structure, and therefore such an appearance, are called Crushed Ice Diamonds. Crushed Ice is a term used to describe the appearance of a diamond, and is usually seen in cushions and radiants.
2. Are crushed ice cushion diamonds nice?
Crushed ice diamonds can be very pretty. It all depends on whether the fragments of reflections appear balanced. Some people prefer crushed ice diamonds because they give off a nice shimmer, while others may prefer a more traditional cushion shape.
3. What is a crushed ice radiant diamond?
Generally, when facets of the pavilion of a radiant diamond are altered to resemble a brilliant facet structure, the reflections can also be fragmented. As a result, such radiant diamonds are also referred to as crushed ice radiant diamonds.
4. What is the difference between crushed ice and a brilliant cushion?
Crushed ice and brilliants differ mostly in the size and organization of the reflections. Crushed ice diamonds have many small scattered reflections, and in contrast, brilliants have fewer, larger reflections, and also stronger contrast between the highs and lows.
5. Is crushed ice less sparkly?
Not always. Generally, crushed ice produces a larger number of smaller flashes of light. Diamonds with a larger virtual facet may produce broader flashes. The overall brightness of a diamond is determined by the quality of the stone and the light that is reflected.
6. Can crushed ice only be found in natural diamonds?
No, crushed ice can be found in both natural and lab grown diamonds. The shape of the facets determines if a diamond appears to be crushed ice or not. Both lab grown cushion and radiant cuts can be crushed ice.
7. What is the difference between crushed ice and brilliant cuts?
Both cuts can be equally beautiful. It is recommended that buyers view the diamonds in person. Buyers should look at the diamonds and evaluate personal preference based on the flashes and the general appearance of the stone. Those looking for a more ‘fluffy’ diamond should look into a Crushed Ice Diamond.
What Buyers Should Know
The visuals are the main element of a Crushed Ice Diamond definition. Very tiny reflections create the cracked, flashing, “cushion” look of Crushed Ice Cushion Diamonds and Crushed Ice Radiant Diamonds.
There are no inclusions or damage to the surface of a diamond to create this effect, so a diamond can be evaluated based on how well the facets reflect light. Many small reflections create the “crushed ice” look.
When compared to other shapes, a person evaluating crushed ice vs brilliant cushion Diamonds, can determine which crushed ice pattern they prefer, based on how many reflections they want the diamond to display.
Just as a diamond seller must match the visual texture of a Crushed Ice Diamond, faceting and light behavior must also be evaluated when matching parcels or pairs in a B2B transaction.
Unique Cut Diamonds, for example, have a visual identity based on a name in shape, and can also help support this theory.
For in-depth market reports, trade sourcing guides, interactive Q&As, and expert gemological perspectives, explore the official Lepdo Group Medium platform and join the discussion on Lepdo Diamonds on Quora.
