What makes a well-cut sapphire?

A personalized cut is crucial to bringing out the unique personality of a sapphire. Unlike diamonds, there are no standard "ideal" cuts for sapphires, as each individual sapphire crystal must be custom cut to help the finished gem display the best color and brilliance. Since sapphires come in such a broad variety of colors, each with its own unique properties, there are no specific proportion requirements. Because of this lack of standardization, sapphire cuts are generally not graded by gem laboratories. Instead, jewelers set their own standards for cut and focus on the color of a sapphire to determine quality.

A well-cut sapphire will display the color of the gemstone to its best ability while still enhancing luster and brilliance. Often, gemstones exhibiting a lighter tone of color will be cut deeper to add dimension and intensity to the color. A sapphire of a very dark color will likely be cut shallower to allow more light to reflect within the gemstone, softening and brightening the color. Both methods will enhance a sapphire's unique beauty. No matter the shape of the sapphire, the edges should be symmetrical and even. The facets on the top of the gem, the "crown", should be even in size, shape, and location. The largest facet on the top of the crown, known as the table, will be symmetrical in shape and well-centered. When the sapphire is rocked and tilted, it should produce bright color flashes as it moves, with no dull spots present.

Brilliant Earth hand-selects all of our sapphires to provide only premium cut sapphires which are symmetrical, smoothly polished, and even in color and light reflection.