Blue Diamonds: Cool Ice, Blazing Price
 Natural blue diamonds give us a refreshing and breathtaking beauty, while at the same time scorch us with prices that send flames of pain to the pocketbook. If you are looking for ice with a price, natural blue diamonds are the real thing. A rarity of nature, natural blue diamonds do the diamond family proud with a dazzle that delights everyone.
At 10.0 on the Moh’s scale of hardness, blue diamonds (equal in hardness to all diamonds) surpass other gemstones in the durability department. The gorgeous blue sapphire gemstones are rated 9.0 in comparison, and do not have the fiery dazzle that the blue diamonds exhibit.
Clear, colorless diamonds are the most abundant. Colored diamonds, known as fancy diamonds, are not as common. While it is possible to develop colored diamonds via laboratory methods that incorporate high amounts of heat, radiation, and pressure, natural colored diamonds are very rare. Natural blue diamonds, along with natural red, green, or orange diamonds are extremely hard to find. Natural yellow diamonds and natural pink diamonds are also rare finds, but not quite as scarce as the aforementioned colors.
Blue is a very desirable color for gemstones, as can be seen in the rising popularity of the iolite and tanzanite gemstones and the steadily popular and consistently favorite blue sapphires. In true form, the demand for blue diamonds included in spectacular earrings, pendants, and rings continues to increase as well.
Always important when purchasing diamonds are the four C’s: carat weight, cut, clarity, and color. The grading of fancy diamonds consists of 9 categories: faint, very light, light, fancy light, fancy, fancy intense, fancy vivid, fancy dark, and fancy deep. Natural blue diamonds’ colors are affected by boron content. Darker, deeper colored blue diamonds will fetch higher prices. Lab-created colored diamonds are much cheaper.
Most of the world’s supply of natural blue diamonds is being produced by the Cullinan mine, which is located near Pretoria, South Africa. Prices for natural blue diamonds can be unimaginably high. Some have been sold at over one million (U.S. dollars) per carat. The Cullinan mine produced a fancy vivid blue diamond (Heart of Eternity), which is 27.64 carats and is estimated to be worth about $28 million dollars.
Other famous blue diamonds of note include the Hope Diamond (45.52 carats and located in Washington, D.C.’s Smithsonian Institution), the Tereschenko (42.92 carats and also known as Mouawad Blue, after the Saudi that purchased it at a Christie’s auction in Switzerland, 1984), the Graff Imperial Blue (39.81 carats), the Wittelsbach (35.56 carats), the Sultan of Morocco (35.27 carats), the Blue Heart (30.82 carats), and the Transvaal Blue (25 carats).
 Extreme in price and rarity, natural blue diamonds are sure to provide you with extreme satisfaction. Lab created colored blue diamonds, while not as expensive, will also give you a sense of pride and exhilaration. Blue diamonds are bold, cool, and hot ice.
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