Home / Fancy colour diamonds / Fancy Vivid Diamonds

Fancy Vivid Diamonds

A Fancy Vivid diamond is a natural fancy colour diamond that GIA has graded at the strongest saturation on its scale, with a tone light enough to keep the colour bright. It is the grade buyers ask for by name and the one most seldom written, reached by a small fraction of stones in every hue. Byrex Gems offers Fancy Vivid diamonds to the trade from Toronto, each with a GIA report and filmed unedited, with prices shown to approved buyers and viewings by appointment.

Where to buy fancy vivid diamonds in Toronto

Byrex Gems lists 55 fancy vivid diamonds online today. 53 of them come with a report from laboratories including GIA, HRD and AIG. Viewings are at our Toronto office, 27 Queen Street East, Suite 407, steps from Queen subway station, by appointment. We have supplied coloured gemstones and natural fancy colour diamonds to jewellers and designers since 1988, and welcome private clients by appointment. Prices are shown to approved trade accounts; private clients can ask us on WhatsApp, where we reply within 12 hours, or by email within 24 hours. Every stone ships insured, worldwide.

What does Fancy Vivid mean on a GIA report?

Fancy Vivid is the top of GIA's fancy colour grade scale, which runs Faint, Very Light, Light, Fancy Light, Fancy, Fancy Intense, Fancy Vivid, Fancy Deep and Fancy Dark. The grades describe a combination of two things: tone, how light or dark the colour is, and saturation, how strong or weak it is. Fancy Vivid is given to a stone whose saturation is at the strongest level for its hue and whose tone sits in the range that keeps the colour bright rather than shadowed. It is not simply the darkest stone; a darker stone of the same saturation is graded Fancy Deep.

A report reads Fancy Vivid Yellow, Fancy Vivid Pink, Fancy Vivid Blue or Fancy Vivid Purplish Pink, and the modifier, where present, follows the same rule as in every grade: the last hue named is dominant.

The grade is reached only by natural colour. A treated diamond may show a strong colour, and GIA grades treated stones with the same vocabulary, but the colour origin line will say treated, and any treatment must be disclosed. When this site says Fancy Vivid, it means a natural stone with natural colour origin.

How GIA reaches a Fancy Vivid grade

GIA grades fancy colour by comparison. The diamond is placed in a neutral viewing environment under standard daylight-equivalent light, viewed from the top as it will be seen in a setting, and compared against reference stones of known hue, tone and saturation. The graders locate the colour in GIA's colour space, which is mapped as hue around the circle, tone from light to dark and saturation from weak to strong, and the grade falls out of where the stone sits. Fancy Vivid occupies the region of highest saturation and light to medium tone.

Two points follow from this. First, the boundaries are fixed for each hue but differ between hues, because each hue reaches a different maximum saturation in diamond; the Vivid region for yellow covers much stronger absolute colour than the Vivid region for pink. Second, the grade is a range, not a point, so two Fancy Vivid stones of the same hue can differ in tone and in how bright they look. A Vivid near the Intense boundary can look close to a strong Intense.

Byrex films every Fancy Vivid stone unedited so tone and modifier can be compared with the report wording.

Why Vivid yellow and Vivid pink look different

The same grade name describes a different amount of colour in each hue. Yellow in diamond can reach very high saturation, so a Fancy Vivid yellow is a strong, dense colour that reads as saturated from across a room. Pink reaches far lower absolute saturation in nature, so a Fancy Vivid pink is a clear, bright pink rather than a magenta, and a buyer seeing one for the first time beside a Vivid yellow may be surprised by how much lighter it looks. Blue sits lower still: a Fancy Vivid blue is a pure, medium blue, and no natural blue diamond approaches the saturation of a sapphire.

GIA's scale accounts for this by setting the Vivid boundary at the strongest colour that the hue actually reaches, so Vivid always means the best saturation available in that colour. It does not mean the hues are equal in strength.

For a jeweller the practical consequence is that comparisons should stay within a hue. A Fancy Vivid grade is a reason to pay a premium over Fancy Intense in the same hue; it is not a measure that carries across colours.

Fancy Vivid versus Fancy Intense and Fancy Deep

Fancy Intense sits one step below Fancy Vivid in saturation. The two grades meet at a boundary, and stones on either side of it can look close; the difference is usually a matter of how dense the colour is at its strongest point. In yellow the step from Intense to Vivid is the largest single jump in value in the hue.

Fancy Deep is a different direction. A Fancy Deep stone has strong saturation but a darker tone than Vivid, so the colour is rich and shadowed rather than bright. Fancy Dark describes a darker tone with lower saturation. Neither is a lesser Vivid; they are different positions in colour space, and some buyers prefer Deep.

Value, then, is driven first by the grade within a hue, with Vivid leading in every colour that reaches it, and then by purity, since a Vivid with no modifier is worth more than a Vivid with a brownish or greyish one, while purplish in pink and orangy in yellow are welcomed. Size multiplies rarity in steps, and clarity and cut refine the price. Byrex shows full trade prices to approved accounts and does not publish prices.

Famous Fancy Vivid stones across the hues

The Pink Star is the largest Fancy Vivid pink graded by GIA, sold at auction in Hong Kong in 2017. The Oppenheimer Blue, a Fancy Vivid blue in an emerald cut, was sold at auction in Geneva in 2016. The Orange, a Fancy Vivid orange with no modifier, was sold in Geneva in 2013. The Aurora Green, a Fancy Vivid green, was sold in Hong Kong in 2016. In yellow, the Allnatt is a cushion-cut Fancy Vivid yellow.

The list shows the pattern. Fancy Vivid is the grade behind nearly every record in fancy colour diamonds, and almost every record stone carries a single hue with no modifier. The grade is a laboratory finding first and a marketing word second.

Supply of Vivid stones follows the supply of each hue. Argyle's closure in November 2020 removed the main source of Vivid pink and red; Vivid blue depends on Cullinan; Vivid yellow continues from Sierra Leone, South Africa and elsewhere and is the one Vivid colour a jeweller can expect to find in stock. Byrex keeps Vivid yellows in a range of sizes and other Vivid hues as available.

Buying Fancy Vivid diamonds from Byrex Gems

A Toronto house for the jewellery trade since 1988, Byrex Gems counts more than seven thousand jewellers, designers and dealers among its customers. Many of our Fancy Vivid diamonds are accompanied by reports from GIA and other leading laboratories, and each is filmed in our office so that you can judge it before it travels.

Prices are shown to approved trade buyers. For anything else, WhatsApp +1 (437) 450-3786 reaches us within hours, and info@byrex.com is answered the same day, seven days a week. What is listed is a part of what we hold: more Fancy Vivid stones are kept in the vault, and what we do not hold ourselves we can source through our offices worldwide. Viewings are by appointment in Toronto, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Dubai.

Fancy Vivid Diamonds: questions buyers ask

What does Fancy Vivid mean?

It is the strongest saturation grade on GIA's fancy colour scale, given to a stone whose colour is at the highest strength for its hue with a tone that keeps it bright. The grade applies within a hue, such as Fancy Vivid Yellow or Fancy Vivid Pink.

Is Fancy Vivid better than Fancy Intense?

It is stronger. Fancy Vivid sits one step above Fancy Intense in saturation, with the same range of tones, and commands a premium in every hue. The two grades meet at a boundary, so a strong Intense and a weak Vivid can look close.

What is the difference between Fancy Vivid and Fancy Deep?

Tone. Both have strong saturation, but a Fancy Deep stone is darker, so its colour is rich and shadowed rather than bright. Fancy Deep is not a lesser Vivid; it is a different position in colour space that some buyers prefer.

Why does a Fancy Vivid pink look lighter than a Fancy Vivid yellow?

Because each hue reaches a different maximum saturation in diamond. GIA sets the Vivid boundary at the strongest colour the hue actually reaches, so Vivid means the best available in that colour, not an equal amount of colour across hues.

Can a treated diamond be graded Fancy Vivid?

GIA uses the same vocabulary for treated stones, but the colour origin line states that the colour is treated, and treatment must be disclosed at every sale. Byrex uses Fancy Vivid only for natural stones with natural colour origin.

Do Byrex Fancy Vivid diamonds have GIA reports?

Yes. Every stone Byrex describes as Fancy Vivid carries a GIA report with that grade, and the report wording, including the hue and any modifier, is quoted on the stone page. The grade is never inferred from appearance.

Does Byrex sell Fancy Vivid diamonds to private clients?

Yes. Byrex sells first to jewellers and designers, but private clients are welcome by appointment at 27 Queen Street East in Toronto, where a Vivid stone can be compared with Intense stones of the same hue and reserved for a jeweller to set.

Can I see Fancy Vivid and Fancy Intense side by side in Toronto?

Yes. Viewings are by appointment at 27 Queen Street East, Suite 407, Toronto. Comparing the two grades in the same hue under daylight-equivalent light is the clearest way to understand the step, and Byrex keeps reference stones for it.

Browse by stone

Coloured gemstones

Fancy colour diamonds