In 2002, Ben Affleck made headlines when he gave Jennifer Lopez a 6.1-carat pink diamond engagement ring worth a reported US$1.2 million. Now, US$1.2 million isn’t a small amount of money, but it practically sounds like Monopoly money when you hear what some coloured diamonds are fetching at auction these days. Jen Zoratti of the Winnipeg Free Press has the scoop!

It seems like the phrase “a diamond is forever” has been around…well, forever. These popular stones used to be rare until the late 1800s, so they were super valuable back in the day. Nowadays, they’re a lot more common that many people assume, considering their cost.

In the 1953 classic Hollywood film, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Marilyn Monroe, gave a legendary performance. Clad in a bright pink ball gown and dazzling diamonds, she epitomised the significance of diamonds with her upbeat and seductive song: Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend.

In nature it takes billions of years to produce a diamond, or a laboratory can grow one in days and to the untrained eye, it looks the same. For De Beers, telling the difference is fundamental to protecting its reputation as the world's leading diamond firm by value and holder of a roughly 30 percent share of the market for genuine rough diamonds.

Natural-colored diamonds are created in the same fashion as the traditional white diamonds with one unique difference. When foreign particles are trapped during the crystallization process, it affects and alters the chemical process, therefore creating the unique colors.