Fancy canary yellow diamond colour saturation grades start with light yellow and as the colours acquire darker tones and/or saturation, the grades move through fancy yellow, intense yellow and vivid yellow.

The more pure the hue of the diamond, the more exotic it remains. Yellow diamonds were created when nitrogen atoms got trapped in the diamonds atomic structure, which alters the absorption spectrum of the stone. Yellow diamonds are most often found in South Africa, Russia, and most recently in Canada.