VVS Clarity Diamonds: Meaning, Price, and Buying Tips

Summary in a few lines:

VVS in diamonds clarity terminology stands for “Very Very Slightly Included”, which refers to a group of 2 diamond grades (VVS1 & VVS2) as defined by GIA in diamond clarity chart.

It means that inclusions found on diamond are extremely difficult for an experienced grader to locate under 10x magnification.

In short, you don’t need to go that extremely high in clarity grades to guarantee a spectacular diamond, as diamonds in this grade come with a very high price tag.

In diamonds clarity world, getting an eye clean diamond is enough, which can be guaranteed in SI1 & VS2 grades (2-3 grades lower than VVS)

Look at these two diamonds, one is VVS1 and the other is VS2:

Here is the left one with VVS1 clarity, and this is the right one with VS2 so you can view them in 360-degree HD images.

You might be able to tell a “minor” difference between both, but remember that these images are magnified 20x, in real life, it’s impossible to tell a difference with naked eye!

Diamonds are by far the biggest choice of jewelry when searching for the perfect gift for a significant other. Also, it happens to be one of the most expensive stones usually used to make beautiful pieces of jewelry.

Clarity (along with color) might be the most characteristic that any diamond store will try to sell you highest level possible of it! By convincing you that you must get the cleanest clarity so it doesn’t show any inclusions!

This is part of the true story, that any diamond should not be showing inclusions, BUT for naked-eye! And that’s a huge difference! Looking at diamond in naked-eye is not at all similar to inspecting it under 20x or even 40x magnification.

Among a lot of factors in selecting the best diamond for your budget, clarity comes in the most 4 characteristics that you will need to look for, and since there is a lot of confusion and sales people “theories” about clarity, we will be reviewing one of the most common clarity grade in this article, the VVS grades.

A very quick look on diamond clarity in general won’t hurt, right?

What is Diamond Clarity?

Clarity is a measure of how “clean” the diamond is, diamonds are natural minerals and as such will often time have certain imperfections, such as small chips, “feathers”, or “clouds” in them, which may or may not affect the perceived beauty of the diamond.

The clarity of a diamond is one of the most important things to look out for before purchasing a diamond, because it’s usually perceived as a main factor for diamond brilliance (we said usually, because in order of importance, Cut is the key to a great diamond brilliance), which is what all diamonds are about!

When there are so many inclusions in a diamond piece, it takes away from the price. It, also, takes away from the sparkle of the jewelry causing it to cost less.

In the diamonds market, a clear diamond costs far more than a diamond with visible inclusions, also diamonds without any inclusions (visible or non-visible) are extremally rare and expensive.

Thus, your diamond in most cases will have inclusions, and that’s perfectly fine, but we will see later to which level you can go down with inclusions that will not be visibly seen, and won’t have huge effect on diamond brilliance.

What Are Clarity Grades Chart?

To start, every letter in clarity grades stands for a word, and when they say “included”, they refer to the inclusions (types, size, locations) found on the diamond.

So for example, VVS clarity (which stands for Very Very Slightly Included) in its two types (grades) refers to the number & size of the inclusions found on a diamond. VVS is considered one of the highest clarity levels (grades) available, right after IF-FL, as you see in this scale:

Whether you’re looking for engagement rings, wedding rings, necklaces, bracelets, and statement rings, it’s important to know the difference between grades, and what does each grade mean, so you get a diamond with the best clarity for your budget, without paying extra money for something you don’t want or need.

Like every other factor relating to diamonds, there are grades for the clarity of diamonds. Now, the clarity grades are ascertained by the Gemological Institute of America, based on the internal and external flaws present in a diamond:

• Flawless (FL)
• Internally Flawless (IF)
• Very, Very Slightly Included (VVS)
• Very Slightly Included (VS)
• Slightly Included (SI)
• Included (I)

We’ve covered them all in details with real images in our Diamonds Clarity Chart here.

Are All Inclusions Visible/Bad?

To make it clearer how these inclusions appear on a diamond, these two images are for this 1 carat VS2 diamond on James Allen:

The left image shows the diamond without any magnification, and you can barely see anything on it, while under 20x magnification, you have spotted that inclusion in the middle right away.

What about seeing the diamond under 40x magnification? This is one of newest features on James Allen, called SuperZoom, here is how that particular diamond looks like:

What’s the point we want to show here?

Inclusions in most cases are very tiny and can’t be seen by naked eye in most SI1, and all +VS2 grades!

And that’s why you want to see the diamond under at least 20x zoom to see its inclusions, and in terms of imaging technologies, James Allen is the leader!

What Are Very Very Slightly Included (VVS) Diamonds?

The VVS clarity diamonds are the next best type of diamonds after the internally flawless and Flawless diamonds. This clarity of diamonds has minimal inclusions and flaws, which cannot be seen in plain sight.

As a matter of fact, it takes a trained eye the use of a 10x loupe to notice these flaws, and it would be also difficult for them to detect them!

For example, this 1.5 VVS2 diamond on Blue Nile has some minimal inclusions as you can see in this GIA report for this diamond (and that’s one of the main reasons we always recommend getting a GIA-reported diamond):

Are you able to see these inclusions under the magnification? We doubt

VVS Diamonds Types: VVS1 & VVS2 

VVS is a group not a grade as we saw above, and it consists of 2 main types/grades:

VVS1 & VVS2

The similarities between VVS1 and VVS2 diamonds are well-known, because there isn’t a lot of difference between them. However, there must be a reason why they belong to different types right?

Well, the difference between the VVS1 and VVS2 is how fast their inclusions can be detected. Bear in mind that both diamond clarity grades are almost flawless and a lot of people (we mean, vast majority) can’t tell the difference.

Here are two diamonds, left one is VVS1, and the other is VVS2, if you look from a clarity perspective, you can never tell any difference:

If you want to compare in 360 view, here is a link to a VVS1 diamond, and then take a look at this similar diamond but with a VVS2 clarity 

As a matter of fact, some trained eyes opt for binoculars set to 20X-30X magnification before they are able to spot the inclusions. So, you can imagine how flawless they are.

However, based on the position of the inclusions, you may tell which is VVS1 and VVS2. The VVS1 diamond’s inclusions are usually noticed from the bottom under when viewed under a magnification lens.

While diamonds under the VVS2 category has their inclusions noticed from the face view and usually in the top half of the diamond.

Asides from this, both categories are considered perfect to a layman, plus they are the most expensive diamonds available right now (after IF-FL of course, if found).

VVS Diamonds Prices

The short answer?

Insanely expensive!

We’re talking about the grade that comes right after flawless, and flawless makes less than 3% of diamonds, do some estimations to have an idea how rare this grade is.

This is a pre-set search for Flawless & Internally Flawless diamonds on James Allen, it clearly shows you that you’re only looking at 15000 out of 548000 diamonds, around 2.5%!

To get some idea about prices for VVS2 diamonds, it’s important to mention that besides the main 4Cs (which clarity is one of them), a lot of factors sum up the diamond price.

Shape, Polish, Symmetry, Depth & Table percentages, Fluorescence, Certification lab, and so on.

So if we want to give a price for VVS diamonds, we have to narrow down all other factors to make a reasonable price range for a VVS diamond.

To have an estimation for the price of 1 carat of VVS diamond, we will stick to:

1 Carat weight

H Color

Ideal Cut

Running this search on James Allen with the above criteria will give us (at the time of writing this) 600 round shape diamond, which ranges from $5700 to $8600 for a carat of VVS1 or VVS2 diamond.

Doing the same search on Blue Nile gives a little lower options (400 round diamond), that ranges from $5900 to $8400 for 1 carat diamonds as well.

From our diamond pricing guide, we know that 1 carat diamond price (with recommended 4Cs in general) ranges between $4500 to $7000, so we’re taking about around $1500 extra for the sake of getting an extremely high clarity grade.

VVS Grades vs. VS Grades Prices Comparison

Too much V & S letters for a title!

In more than 10 years of experience in this industry, we can’t recall that we have advised someone to get a VVS diamond, because if you want the best bang for your buck, you should not get to that grade, never. Why?

We’ve ran the previous search (same characteristics) to see how much you will save if you go to VS grades.

Running it on Blue Nile offered us 700 diamonds, priced between $5400 to $7900, while on James Allen, we had 850 diamonds, ranging between $5100 to $7800.

Read: Full & Detailed Comparison between James Allen & Blue Nile

So, averagely, we’re talking about $500 saving for 1 Carat if you go from VVS to VS grade! You better spend this money on higher Cut instead.

Summary: Is VVS Clarity Good Choice?

So, you’ve reached this point, and want to know our opinion whether to get a VVS diamond or it’s overrated?

We’ve mentioned that all what you want from a diamond clarity is a clean diamond, eye-clean, and no bad inclusions that might affect sparkle & brilliance.

All this can be accomplished without getting to VVS grade, and don’t be surprised if we tell you that you don’t even need to get a VS grade in most cases! Why?

Because you can get an eye-clean diamond, and without bad inclusions in most SI1 grade diamonds! That’s not what your local jeweler wants you to know by the way.

If money is not an issue for you, get a diamond with VVS clarity, if it is, take our advice and go to the least eye-clean grade, you may not believe it, but SI (Slightly Included) is considered in most cases an eye-clean grade.

What about brilliance that’s affected by clarity? The answer is simple, if you have more money to go above SI or VS2, spend it on what matters more, the CUT, why?

This article will give you the answer.