Grading guide

Every Melee House product uses the same color and clarity labels. A label never changes from one listing to another.

Color groups (white melee)

• DEF: colorless. The whitest melee, for platinum and white gold pavé.
• GH: near colorless. Faces up white in most settings; the most popular trade grade.
• HIJ: near colorless with a faint warmth, good for yellow and rose gold.
• IJKL: faint color, for warm metals and budget work.

Clarity groups

• VVS–VS1: very clean, inclusions not visible under 10x for most stones.
• VS1–VS2: minor inclusions under 10x, eye-clean.
• SI1–SI2: inclusions visible under 10x, eye-clean once set.
• SI2–SI3 and SI3–I1: visible inclusions under 10x, some may be visible to the eye.
• I1–I2: commercial grade, visible inclusions.

Black diamonds

• AAA: even jet-black color, polished faces, no chips.
• AA: black with minor surface marks.

Cut

• Full cut: 57/58 facets.
• Single cut: 17 facets. A different product from full cut.

Melee is graded by parcel, not stone by stone. Sizes are within ±0.02 mm. Pieces per carat are approximate.