It’s a simple question with a surprisingly intricate answer: which diamond cut sparkles the most?
If you’ve ever watched a diamond catch the light and thought, “Why does that one seem to glow more?” you’re already noticing what gemologists call light performance — how well a diamond takes in light, bends it, and sends it back to your eye as brilliance, fire, and sparkle.
At Creekside Jewelers in Golden, Colorado, we’ve spent generations helping people understand that sparkle isn’t an accident. It’s the result of thoughtful cutting, precise angles, and the right shape for your style.
Let’s look deeper into how light interacts with a diamond, why some cuts outshine others, and how to choose the cut that makes your heart light up every time you look down.
How Light Interacts With a Diamond
Before we talk shapes, it helps to understand what you’re seeing when a diamond sparkles.
When light enters a diamond, three key things happen:
Brilliance: Bright White Light
- Light enters through the top (the crown), reflects inside the diamond, and returns to your eye as bright white flashes.
- The more efficiently the light is reflected back, the more brilliant the diamond appears.
Fire: Rainbow Flashes
- Diamonds act like tiny prisms, breaking white light into spectral colors.
- Those small bursts of red, blue, green, and gold you see as the stone moves are called fire.
Scintillation: The Dance of Light and Dark
- As you move the diamond, you see a pattern of bright and dark areas that seems to “dance.”
- That pattern, called scintillation, is what makes a diamond look lively instead of flat.
How the facets are arranged — their size, shape, and angles — determines how well a cut balances all three.
Why Some Diamond Cuts Sparkle More Than Others
Two big ideas explain why one cut may outshine another:
Facet Style
Brilliant cuts (round, oval, princess, radiant, cushion) use many triangular and kite-shaped facets to bounce light rapidly.
Step cuts (emerald, Asscher) use long, parallel facets that create broad flashes rather than glitter.
Proportions and Angles
If the diamond is too shallow, light leaks out the bottom — it looks “watery” or dull.
If it’s too deep, light escapes from the sides — the center can look dark.
When angles are just right, light reflects internally and returns to your eye in a focused, beautiful way.
Design Insight: Think of a well-cut diamond as a carefully angled room of mirrors. When those mirrors are aligned, every bit of light has somewhere purposeful to go.
How Different Cuts Handle Light
Here’s a simple comparison you can turn into a chart or graphic:
Round Brilliant: The Sparkle Benchmark
If you’re looking for the cut that sparkles the most, the answer is clear: the round brilliant.
- Developed and refined over decades, the round brilliant is designed with:
- 57–58 facets arranged in a precise pattern
- Carefully calculated angles in the crown and pavilion
- Excellent symmetry and proportion for light return
Because it sends the most light back to your eye, it has the most balanced combination of brilliance, fire, and scintillation. This is why round brilliants are the standard for comparing all other cuts.
Oval Diamonds: Soft, Radiant, and Bright
Oval diamonds use the same brilliant facet style as round cuts, but stretched into an elongated shape. That gives you:
- Strong brilliance
- Gentle, flowing sparkle
- A flattering, lengthening effect on the finger
You may occasionally hear about the “bow-tie effect” — a soft, darker shape across the center in some ovals. When the cut is well proportioned, that bow-tie is minimized and the stone appears bright and fluid.
Ovals are ideal if you love sparkle but want something a little more distinctive than round.
Princess Cuts: Modern Angles, Dynamic Sparkle
Princess cuts are square (or slightly rectangular) diamonds with brilliant-style facets. Their sparkle feels:
- Sharp and geometric
- Bright from corner to corner
- Very lively under overhead lighting
Because of their clean shape, princess cuts work especially well in modern engagement ring designs and channel settings.
Radiant Cuts: Bold Brilliance With an Edge
Radiant cuts combine traits from both brilliant and step cuts. They have:
- Cropped corners like an emerald cut
- Brilliant-style facets across the crown and pavilion
The result is bold, energetic sparkle that feels modern and a bit edgy. Radiant cuts are also fantastic for fancy-colored diamonds, because their facet structure amplifies color and light together.
Cushion Cuts: Vintage-Inspired Fire
Cushion cuts can be old mine–style (with larger, “chunkier” facets) or modern modified (with more, smaller facets). Either way, their sparkle is:
- Softer and more romantic
- Strong in fire (colorful flashes)
- Nostalgic, with a vintage mood
If you love the idea of a ring that looks like it could have a story — something with warmth rather than pure intensity — cushion cuts are a beautiful choice.
Emerald Cuts: Glow Over Glitter
Emerald cuts are step-cut diamonds, which means their facets are arranged in long, horizontal steps rather than triangles. Instead of glitter, you see:
- Broad, broadside flashes of light
- A “hall of mirrors” effect
- An elegant, calm glow rather than rapid sparkle
Because the facets are so open, emerald cuts show inclusions and color more easily. When chosen well, though, they’re unmatched in sophistication.
Why Cut Quality Matters More Than Shape
No matter which cut you love, cut quality will make or break its sparkle.
A well-cut oval will outshine a poorly cut round. A thoughtfully cut cushion will look more alive than an over-deep princess. This is why working with an experienced Colorado jewelry store like Creekside Jewelers matters: we help you look beyond just shape and carat weight to how the diamond actually performs in light.
Expert Tip: When you’re viewing diamonds, tilt them gently, look at them under different lighting, and compare them side by side. Your eyes will tell you quickly which stones are truly alive.
See the Sparkle for Yourself at Creekside Jewelers
You can read about brilliance and facet structure all day, but the moment that matters is when you see a diamond light up in front of you.
At Creekside Jewelers — the oldest continuously run watch and jewelry location in Colorado, serving Golden since 1902 — we’re here to:
- Walk you through different diamond cuts in person
- Show you how light behaves in each one
- Explain the trade-offs between shape, size, and sparkle
- Help you choose a diamond and setting that feel right for your life and your style
Visit us at:
Creekside Jewelers
1206 Washington Ave
Golden, CO 80401
303-279-4246
hello@creeksidejewelers.com
