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Cut, colour, clarity, carat — and what matters.
Two diamonds sit side by side. Same round cut, same G colour, same VS1 clarity, same 1.50 carats. One costs about $9,600. The other costs about $280. Under a loupe, a jeweller cannot tell them apart. Neither can a gemmologist without specialised equipment. They are both crystalline carbon, both a 10 on the Mohs hardness scale, both refracting light in exactly the same way. The difference is that one formed underground over a billion years and the other formed in a reactor over a few weeks. Whether that difference is worth $9,300 is a real question, and it does not have one right answer. But it does have a shape, and the shape is more interesting than most people expect.
Ask someone about their engagement ring and they will tell you the carat weight. Almost nobody mentions the cut. This is backwards. Of the four Cs, cut is the only one that changes how the diamond actually looks — and it is the one most often given up to reach a number that sounds good.