Yellow Diamond Earrings Buying Guide

From canary studs to yellow drops - Designs, Prices and Savings Tips on Yellow Earrings

There are probably a dozen reasons that explain why the demand for yellow diamond earrings is growing past few years. From being fashionable, to their fairly comfortable price tags and to the endless unique designs you can make with them.

But the problem lays elsewhere. Yellow diamonds, or canary diamonds as some call them, require more knowledge and specialty and unfortunately there is a lot of misleading and disinformation out there.

In this guide, I will share with you everything that I believe you need to know in order to buy yellow diamond earrings, pay the right and appropriate amount - no to mention save quite a bit on your purchase and lastly, where you can find yellow diamonds for sale…



Canary Diamond Earrings VS Yellow Diamond Earrings

While it is not a registered or official name, pure yellow diamonds of strong yellow hue are also referred to canary diamonds. You can read more about it in our canary yellow diamonds wiki, but I’ll explain the two main elements of this sentence in shortage here:

Fancy colored diamonds are often with a secondary tone, so when saying pure yellows it means that the diamond does not show an additional tone. Specifically in yellow diamonds, the additional tones are usually brown, green or orange. For proportions, a brown yellow diamond may cost even half the price of a yellow diamond.

As for the second part of the sentence, when fancy diamonds are graded for color they are also graded for it’s intensity. Below you can see a chart showing the intensity scale of yellow diamonds:

Yellow Diamond Color Scale Yellow Diamond Color Scale

The problem is that strong is a relative word. So when asked for a canary diamond, one seller may say fancy yellow and above while the other may say fancy intense and above. That’s a big problem. There is no right or wrong but when you, the buyer of canary diamond earrings, want to compare sets and prices - make sure you know what you want and compare apples to apples.

Most Popular Styles for Yellow Diamond Earrings

In general, there are three leading styles in the diamond earrings industry, same goes with yellow diamonds. Here they are:

Yellow Diamond Stud Earrings

Stud earrings are all-time classics. But when the center diamonds are yellow… that’s a nice way to add a fashionable statement, a modern twist to the “plain old”. And the results are mesmerizing.

Radiant Cut Yellow Diamond Studs Radiant Cut Yellow Diamond Studs
Oval Yellow Diamond Studs Oval Yellow Diamond Studs


As for styling, yellow diamond studs would look great both in white gold to show the contrast and in yellow to complement and enhance the yellow color of the diamond.

There are two main stud settings:

  • Prong studs -
    Whether three prongs, four prongs, double prongs, etc.
  • Bezel studs -
    Whether regular or milgrain style.

And, you can use any diamond cuts and shapes easily to add another twist to them.

Yellow Diamond Hoops

Hoops are great. If you think one diamond shines, consider what happens when you put a bunch of them together? And when the diamonds are of strong yellow tone (remember canaries?)… - the sparkle is truly mesmerizing:

Canary Yellow Diamonds for Hoop Earrings Canary Yellow Diamonds for Hoop Earrings

And you’d be surprised in how many different designs you can mount diamond hoops…
Depending on your style you can mount them in white gold or yellow. You can use small 1mm diamonds or go bigger with 1.5mm or bolder with 2mm or larger. You can opt for one row of diamonds or maybe two or three…

The sky is the limit.

Yellow Diamond Drop Earrings

Yellow drop earrings are in a level of their own when it comes to making an impression.

The most common design is a center stone, which in the case of canary yellow diamonds is usually a pear shaped diamond or elongated cushion cut, and surround it with a delicate white halo.

The halo brings the added touch, by adding the sparkle and the contrast.

The gold itself can be either yellow or white, either would work beautifully.




Cushion Cut Yellow Diamond Drop Earrings in White Gold
Pear Shaped Canary Yellow Diamond Drop Earrings in Yellow Gold

Prices of Yellow Diamond Earrings

The sum of the parts is greater than the whole.

When it comes to stud earrings, the studs themselves usually cost anywhere from $150-$500. So the main price comes from the center diamonds.

In hoops, the cost is usually per carat plus a premium for the setting and its design – so you need to check exactly how many carats there are - what’s often called tw diamonds (total weight of diamonds).

Drop earrings are somewhat more complicated because it really depends on the design. But the base remain the same... the main cost would be the diamonds.

Yellow Diamond stands out compared to colorless diamonds Yellow diamond stands out compared to colorless diamonds

At their core, yellow diamonds are priced and valued based on the same logic that is used to price colorless diamonds. And the prices of yellow diamonds is quite similar to colorless ones. However, when it comes to yellow diamond earrings, these often cost more.

The reason is that it is super hard to find a matching pair. So, with rarity comes a small price premium.

But with that said, yellow diamonds, while rarer than white ones, are considered to be fairly common in the niche of fancy color diamonds.

Also, I personally think that when compared to regular diamonds the price entry point can be even more comfortable even though they are often more expensive…

The reason is that while a pair of half carat yellow diamonds may cost more than a pair of half a carat colorless ones, you can get away with smaller yellow diamonds and still get earrings that are more noticeable simply due to their color.

To get even better understanding about the prices of yellow diamonds, you can either browse our gallery of loose yellow diamonds or better yet, spare five minutes to check out our yellow diamonds buying guide (video inside).

Fake Yellow Diamond Earrings

The definition of fake diamonds is a bit problematic. There are the ones that are literally fakes – Zirconia or other types - not diamonds. To watch from these it is quite easy, if you wish you can check our guide of how to tell if a diamond is real or fake.

But there are others… There are various diamond types out there. Lab grown diamonds and treated diamonds. These are harder to notice and are the ones you need to watch for.

The best way is not to buy from every place that has yellow diamonds for sale on display but rather from reputable dealers and preferably ones that specialize in fancy color diamonds.

Once that is established, I personally recommend buying fancy color diamond only with a GIA certificate. A certificate that not only states the 4 C’s but also states the origin of the diamond (treated or natural).