Collection: Heart Shape Diamonds

A heart is a modified brilliant — essentially a pear shape with a cleft cut into the rounded end, giving two rounded lobes and a point. It carries full brilliant faceting, and it is one of the more difficult shapes to cut well, since the two halves have to mirror each other exactly.

It is the most underrated of the fancy shapes, and one of the most brilliant. The faceting is closely related to the round and the pear, so a well-cut heart returns light beautifully — it sparkles as hard as anything in the case.

What holds people back is usually the assumption that it is sentimental or novelty, and a good one is neither. It reads as distinctive and confident, and you will almost never see another like it.

Symmetry above everything. The two lobes should be identical in size and height, the cleft between them should be sharp and well-defined rather than shallow or rounded off, and the point at the bottom should sit exactly on the centre line. The wings running down to the point should mirror each other. A heart that is badly cut is immediately obvious, and none of it appears on a certificate.

The cleft is the detail to look at first. A crisp, clearly cut cleft is what makes the shape read as a heart at a glance rather than as a rounded blob.

Because there is no cut grade to fall back on. GIA assigns a formal cut grade only to round brilliants, so on a fancy shape the certificate tells you polish and symmetry and little else about how the stone actually performs. Symmetry becomes the closest thing you have to a proxy.

But there are two kinds, and the certificate only covers one. The graded symmetry measures facet alignment under magnification. What you actually see is outline symmetry — whether the two halves mirror each other. A pear with shoulders of different heights, an oval with one end fuller than the other, a marquise with points that do not line up: none of that necessarily drops the grade, and all of it is obvious once the stone is on your finger.

Asymmetry also affects light. Facets that do not align properly send light out the side instead of back to your eye, which is what causes dead patches and heavy bowties.

So on a fancy shape, look for Very Good or better on the certificate — then look at the stone. The outline either reads as balanced or it does not, and that judgement is one you can make yourself in a few seconds.

Bigger than you might for other shapes. Below about 0.50ct the outline becomes hard to read, particularly once it is set and claws are covering parts of it — the shape stops being obvious. Around 0.75ct and above the heart is clearly defined, and it only gets better from there. This is one shape where going smaller is a false economy.

Around 1.00 — a heart should be as wide as it is long. Some prefer very slightly wider at 0.95 to 0.98, which reads as fuller and more generous. Much narrower than 1.00 and it starts to look like a pear with a notch in it.

The point at the bottom is the vulnerable part, and it wants a V-prong over it, exactly as on a pear. The cleft is usually held by a claw or two as well, which both secures the stone and defines the shape visually. Set properly it wears perfectly well.

More than people expect, and it is part of why the shape is underrated.

Pendants are where a heart is at its best — hanging point-down, the shape is completely visible with nothing covering the lobes, and it needs no explanation.

Earrings as a matched pair, either as studs or drops, with the shape clearly readable at a glance.

Solitaire rings with a V-prong over the point and claws holding the cleft — the simplest and cleanest way to wear one.

Halo frames the outline and adds size, the surround following the curve of the lobes.

Side stones or a pavé set band lift the ring and lead the eye into the centre stone without competing with it.

Three stone with pear shapes either side is the classic arrangement for a heart, and one of the most elegant — the pears flow with the curves rather than interrupting them.

As shoulder stones hearts are striking either side of a coloured gemstone — an emerald, sapphire or ruby centre flanked by two heart shapes is a genuinely beautiful and unusual design.

All made to order in our own workshop, built around your stone.

The brilliant faceting hides them reasonably well, so plenty of SI1 hearts are eye-clean. The point and the cleft are where to check — both are areas where an inclusion is more visible and, at the point, more of a structural concern. We check every stone face-up before recommending it.

Colour concentrates at the point, as it does in any shape with a tip. G or better stays reliably white in white gold or platinum; H is often fine and worth looking at. In yellow or rose gold you have more freedom, because the metal warms the stone regardless.

Roughly 6.5 x 6.5mm, comparable to a round of the same weight. Hearts spread reasonably well and do not lose much face-up size to depth.

Because our images and videos are taken at high magnification — far closer than any human eye gets to a diamond, and far closer than the standard the stone was graded to.

Clarity grading is done under 10x magnification. That is the international standard: a grader with a 10x loupe decides whether an inclusion is there and how it affects the grade. Online photography routinely runs at twenty, thirty times life size or more, so you are seeing the stone at several times the magnification GIA used to grade it. An inclusion that fills your screen may be something the grader needed a loupe to find at all.

Colour matters too. A white or transparent inclusion — a feather, a cloud, a crystal without body colour — is far harder to see than a dark carbon spot of the same size, because there is little contrast against the diamond around it. Two stones can carry the same grade and look entirely different in the hand for that reason alone.

We photograph at high magnification deliberately. We would rather show you everything than shoot a diamond flatteringly and have you surprised later. But an inclusion that looks obvious on screen is very often invisible in the hand, at arm's length, on a moving finger, in ordinary light.

The grade tells you what is there. The magnification tells you where. Neither tells you whether you would ever notice it — that is a judgement we make face-up, under proper light, on every stone we hold.

Considerably, and it is worth knowing before you compare stones in different places.

Jewellery displays are lit to sell. Rows of halogen or bright LED spots directly above the case flood the stone with intense, concentrated light from every angle. That produces maximum sparkle and, at the same time, washes out inclusions — the scintillation is so busy that small imperfections simply disappear into it. A diamond in a well-lit display case is showing you close to the best it will ever look.

Daylight is the opposite. Soft, diffuse, coming from one direction. Sparkle is quieter, and anything inside the stone has nowhere to hide. Diamond grading uses controlled, colour-balanced daylight-equivalent lighting for exactly that reason — it is neutral, and it is reproducible.

Neither light is dishonest. But if you look at a stone under spotlights and then take it outside, you will see a different diamond, and most of a ring's life is spent in ordinary light.

When you view diamonds with us, you see them under professional diamond grading lights — the same neutral, colour-balanced lighting the laboratories use — and in natural daylight. No spotlit display case. If a stone looks right under those conditions, it will look right anywhere.

Always, and we would insist on it.

A single diamond on its own looks excellent. There is nothing to measure it against, so your eye accepts it. Put a second stone beside it and differences appear immediately that you would never have seen alone — one reads slightly warmer, one has more life, one throws broader flashes while the other glitters more finely.

This is how the trade buys, and it is the only reliable way to judge colour in particular. Colour grading is comparative by definition: graders work against a set of masterstones, not from memory. Your eye works the same way. Two stones a grade apart are obvious side by side and almost impossible to separate one at a time.

So we will put several in front of you. Sometimes that means you choose a lower grade than you came in for because you genuinely prefer how it looks, and sometimes it means you spend a little more because you can finally see the difference. Either way you will know why, which is the point.

No. Every diamond we sell is a natural diamond, and we've never dealt in lab-grown, simulants or treated stones.

A lab-grown stone is a manufactured product. It's grown in a reactor over a few weeks, then mass produced in unlimited quantities in any size or grade. That's the fundamental difference: a natural diamond took billions of years to form and exists in finite supply, while a laboratory-grown one is a commodity with no ceiling on production. It shows in the pricing — as capacity has scaled, lab-grown prices have fallen steeply and continue to fall, and there is no established secondary market for them.

What you're buying with a natural diamond is scarcity and origin. Rare, and natural. It's why we've never sold anything else. Read our full comparison of natural and lab-grown diamonds.

Our diamonds are independently certified, most commonly by GIA, with others graded by DCLA or HRD. The certificate is issued by the laboratory, not by us, and it accompanies the stone when it ships.

Yes. We are in Sydney's CBD and we see clients by appointment, so you can view stones side by side and compare them in person before deciding.

Just ask us. Finding a particular stone is a large part of what we do, and there's no obligation when you enquire. We'll do our best to source the finest quality natural diamond for you.

Our list is smaller than you'll see on some sites, and that's deliberate. Every diamond here is one we've looked at properly before listing it. Many diamond websites show tens or hundreds of thousands of stones drawn from shared trade lists — diamonds held elsewhere that the seller hasn't seen and won't see unless you order one. It looks like more choice, but nobody has assessed the individual stone, and two diamonds with the same details on paper can look quite different.

So if what you want isn't here, tell us what you're after and what you'd like to spend. We'll look for it, check anything we find ourselves, and only show you stones we'd be happy to recommend. If we can't find the right thing at your budget, we'll say so and talk through the options — sometimes a small change in colour, clarity or size makes all the difference.

Either way, you'll only ever be offered a diamond that we have complete confidence in recommending to you, and it will not just be based on the cheapest price.

Yes. Most clients select the diamond first and then the setting — either one of our existing designs or a fully custom piece made to your description or an image. Everything is handmade by our own jewellers.

Yes. We have many loyal customers all over Australia, and we're able to consult by phone and share photos and videos whenever possible.

Distance is not the obstacle people expect. We'll guide you through the options and select the finest quality diamonds and gemstones for you, so you can make an informed decision from wherever you are. The same applies to custom made engagement rings and jewellery — we'll talk you through it and keep you across it as it's made.

We deliver fully insured anywhere in Australia — every capital city, and regional and rural addresses just the same.

If you are able to come in, we'd always rather show you the stones in person — and if you're travelling to Sydney, appointments can be arranged on weekends.

Tell us the number you have in mind and we will show you the best stones we hold at that level. On a heart we would say prioritise symmetry and size over colour and clarity — a well-shaped, clearly defined heart at H colour beats a badly cut F every time. We are a diamond merchant, not a retail jeweller — we do not charge retail prices, and we source natural certified diamonds to suit your budget. Diamond Imports is a foundation member of the Diamond Dealers Club of Australia, and you will deal directly with Daniel throughout.