The market for rough white diamonds continues to rise this month and with the Cullinan Heritage Stone recently fetching the highest price for any rough white diamond in history, it's not expected to slow down.

When you want to surprise her with a gift, jewelry is a classic choice. Cherished for a lifetime, the right adornment will become infused with deeper meaning every time she wears it. So before you buy the first thing you see, learn how to make sure your gift isn't going to be lost at the bottom of the jewelry box. Here are a few simple steps to choosing jewelry she'll love to wear.

Whether you're browsing jewelry counters on the web or on the street, when it comes to diamonds, it pays to be educated. Learn how to recognize true value, spot the flim flam men and safely take advantage of glittering deals in the information age.

A rare 5.16 carat blue diamond will be among the champagne, fine art and jewels up for auction at Sotheby's Hong Kong Spring sale on April 7. The fancy vivid blue gem is expected to collect $5.8 million US.

As fashion divas around the world clamour for fancy coloured diamonds, the demand continues to inspire designers to dazzling new heights. The latest style craze, from Lugano Jewelers, is a new line of diamond-studded sunglasses. Designs include a racy leopard print created from natural fancy colored black and yellow diamonds and pictured above, solid gold frames adorned with 2.85 carats of fancy pink diamonds. You won't leave these 27K shades on the beach.

The true value of a diamond may be in its beauty, but when you can sell that pretty rock for more than you paid for it, a diamond becomes a beautiful investment as well. The global economic downturn of 2009 has pushed many investors to look for the kind of investments they can see and touch and diamonds, especially fancy colored diamonds, are becoming an increasingly popular choice. A diamond has virtually no competition when it comes to tangible, portable wealth.

Like high art, when it comes to the finest quality diamond jewelry, the elements that separate flash-in-the-pan fashion from the realm of the classic are something every buyer should know.

Due to a recent escalation in demand, De Beers and the Diamond Trading Company (DTC) have raised the price of rough white diamonds by nearly 10% since the start of 2010. The resulting hike in retail prices for polished white diamonds has got many buyers seeking out a mine-to-market alternative.

A diamond, and especially a colored diamond, has an ability to capture the imagination that transcends its chemical make-up. Here we have an object, literally forged in the earth under a very specific and rare set of circumstances. The result is a true marvel of nature worthy of all the poetry and myth-making it has sparked throughout history. A true diamond simply can’t be made in a lab.

When the sparkle of fancy colored diamonds has caught your eye, it’s only a matter of time before you encounter the world of pricing for these rare gems. But many diamond enthusiasts, accustomed to the colorless diamond market, are baffled when they encounter massive price differences among natural fancy colored diamonds. A typical search can reveal two brilliant blue diamonds, for example, both of the same carat weight, both with a GIA grade of fancy intense blue but with a price difference of $50k or more. Why would two seemingly similar quality stones have such a huge variation in price?