Colored Diamonds Headline Romantic 'Lady Heart Collection' at LA's Natural History Museum

Just in time for Valentine's Day, an exceedingly rare collection of heart-shaped colored diamonds makes its debut tomorrow at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles (NHM). Each of the five diamonds featured in The Lady Heart Diamond Collection is a different breathtaking color: red, pink, orange, yellow and blue.

What makes these diamonds so very special — and romantic — is that they're all heart-shaped, they all boast a color rating of "Fancy Vivid" and each weighs more than 1.7 carats. Each diamond stars in its own piece of custom jewelry that's been designed by Bernard Bachoura especially for this temporary exhibition. Diamond lovers can see this colorful presentation at NHM's Gem and Mineral Hall "Gem Vault" through June 30, 2013.

These are the pieces comprising The Lady Heart Diamond Collection:

Lady Zahira

The Lady Zahira is a 2.26-carat Fancy Vivid Yellow diamond heart uniquely imbedded in a rose gold encasing. Originating from the Zimi mines of South Africa, the color of this diamond is more intense than most vivid yellow diamonds. This perfectly cut heart shape captures the most vivid yellow found in nature.

Lady Orquidea

The Lady Orquidea is a 2-carat Fancy Vivid Orange diamond heart mounted in a heart shaped bezel accented with pavé white diamonds. Pure orange natural diamonds are extremely scarce and can only be classified as such if there is no trace of brown in the stone.

Lady Leilani

The Lady Leilani is a 1.73-carat Fancy Vivid Pink heart-shape diamond set in a modern rhythmic white gold teardrop pendant with pavé white diamond accents. 

Lady Diantha

The Lady Diantha is an internally flawless 2.28-carat Fancy Vivid Blue heart-shape diamond. It is mounted in a heart-shaped bezel accented with pavé white and yellow diamonds. Blue diamonds are given their color by extremely low concentrations of boron within the stone. 

Lady Mandara

Anchoring The Lady Heart Collection is The Lady Mandara, a 1.71-carat Fancy Vivid Red heart-shaped diamond mounted with 5.90 carats of white pavé diamonds. Pure red diamonds are the rarest in the pink diamond family. The Gemological Institute of America asserts that this stone is one of the largest vivid red diamonds in existence.