What is a Bruise on a Diamond?
When it comes to diamond inclusions, a ‘bruise’ is a fairly easy one to understand. Simply put a bruise is a teeny tiny area of impact on the stone. These bruises can happen if diamond rings are mishandled while being stored together, such as inside your jewelry box at home.
The result of this diamond bashing (not to be confused with peeps who talk smack about diamonds) can look very similar to a windshield that’s had an impact from a rock. See how the point of impact stretches out with these fractures or splinters of cracks? That’s what a bruise looks like on a diamond. I admit that this looks sort of extreme, BUT FEAR NOT! The vast majority of them are absolutely tiny.
Bruises are not the most common of inclusions, but you do want to have a good look at that grading certificate in order to ascertain if there are any on your potential forever stone.
Diamond bruise as represented by GIA
If the clarity grade is VS1 or above, but the grading report states that the diamond has a bruise, you need not worry about it - it will be impossible to spot and won’t have any major impact on the integrity of the stone either.
If the diamond in question is on the lower end of the clarity grade spectrum then be sure to ask if it can be hidden by the ring setting or if it is likely to turn into a bigger fracture in the future.
