The Short Answer
Step faceting and brilliant faceting are two ways of cutting light into a stone, and either one can sit inside a hexagonal outline. Step faceting uses broad, flat, parallel facets that behave like mirrors, so the stone throws large, clean flashes and reads open and architectural. Brilliant faceting uses many small facets that split light into many small returns, so the stone reads busier and livelier.
Neither is higher quality. They are two looks, and each carries its own practical consequences. A step cut shows inclusions and body color more readily, so it rewards a cleaner clarity grade and a whiter color grade. A brilliant hides both more effectively and carries further across a room.
One thing to settle before anything else: the outline and the faceting are separate decisions. A hexagon is an outline. What happens inside it is a second choice that the outline does not make for you.
The two faceting families, defined
Almost every diamond you will ever look at belongs to one of two faceting families, or borrows from both. The names describe how the flat surfaces are arranged, nothing more.
Step faceting. Long, broad facets run parallel to the outer edge of the stone in concentric rows, and each row sits slightly lower than the one before it. That is where the name comes from: the rows descend like a flight of steps, above and below the girdle. The emerald cut and the Asscher are the two classic step cuts, and a step-faceted hexagon works the same way, with the rows following the six straight sides.
Brilliant faceting. Many smaller triangular and kite-shaped facets radiate out from the center of the stone. The round brilliant is the reference point, and every elongated brilliant shape (oval, pear, marquise, and brilliant-faceted hexagons) is a variation on the same radial logic. "Crushed ice" is a brilliant sub-style in which the facets are small and irregular enough that the stone reads like shaved ice or broken glass rather than showing distinct large flashes.
Plenty of stones are not purely one or the other. A mixed cut carries one style on the crown, the part above the girdle, and the other below it. When a lab report says "modified brilliant," it is telling you the facet arrangement is brilliant in character but not the textbook pattern, which is extremely common in fancy shapes.
None of this changes the outline. If you want the outline question rather than the faceting question, that is a different piece: see cut versus shape for the distinction, and the hexagon cut guide for the shape itself.
Why they look different: what the light is doing
The whole difference comes down to facet size, and it is worth understanding because it explains every practical consequence further down this page.
Broad facets return light in blocks. A step facet is a large, flat panel, and a large flat panel behaves like a mirror. When it lines up with a light source, it returns a big block of light all at once, and you see a wide, clean flash. Tilt the stone slightly and that panel drops out and another takes over. The result is a small number of large, distinct flashes that switch on and off as the stone moves, which is the effect people describe as a hall of mirrors. Between flashes, the panels are transparent rather than bright, so you are looking straight down into the body of the stone.
Many small facets return it in fragments. A brilliant arrangement splits incoming light repeatedly and sends it back out through dozens of small windows pointed in slightly different directions. From any one viewing angle, some of them are always catching something. Instead of a few big flashes you get a continuous field of small ones, which the eye reads as sparkle rather than as reflection.
Two consequences fall straight out of that, and they are the reason this choice matters when you are actually shopping:
Inclusions. In a step cut you are frequently looking through clear glass into the interior, so an inclusion sits in plain view against an open background. In a brilliant, the same inclusion sits inside a busy field of small returns, and the visual noise breaks up its outline. This is not a difference in what is inside the stone. It is a difference in how easy it is to see.
Body color. Light takes longer, straighter paths through a step cut before it comes back out, and the further light travels through a diamond the more of the stone's body color it picks up. A brilliant chops those paths into many short ones, so any warmth is distributed across many small returns and reads lighter to the eye.
Side by side
| Step faceting | Brilliant faceting | |
| Facet pattern | Broad parallel rows, stepping down | Many small facets radiating out |
| What you see | Few large mirror flashes, on and off | Many small flashes at once, continuous |
| Overall look | Open, clean, architectural | Busy, lively, glittery |
| Inclusions | Show more readily | Hidden more easily |
| Body color | Shows more readily | Reads lighter than it grades |
| Clarity to target | Lean cleaner, and confirm eye-clean | Eye-clean is reachable lower down |
| Best light | Broad, directional light and daylight | Point sources, and holds up in diffuse light |
| From across a room | Quieter, a close-up pleasure | Carries further, reads livelier |
| Watch out for | A flat, see-through center from a shallow cut | A bow-tie across the middle on elongated shapes |
Read that table as two personalities, not as a scorecard. There is no row where one style is objectively winning.
What it changes about clarity and color
This is where the faceting choice stops being aesthetic and starts costing or saving you money, so it is worth being specific.
Clarity. Our standing advice is to buy to eye-clean and stop, because a grade you cannot see without a loupe is money spent on something invisible. That advice does not change with faceting. What changes is where eye-clean lands. On a brilliant-faceted stone, plenty of SI1 material is genuinely eye-clean, because the scintillation does the hiding for you. On a step-faceted stone the same inclusion can be visible, so eye-clean tends to sit higher up the scale, often VS2 or better. The step cut does not require a better stone in some abstract sense. It requires a stone whose inclusions are not in the open.
Where the inclusion sits matters more than the grade letter on a step cut. The table, the large flat facet on top, is essentially a window into the middle of the stone. Something small and pale near the girdle can be invisible while something in the center under the table is the first thing you notice. Ask to see the plotting diagram on the report, and look at the stone face up in a real photograph rather than a magnified one.
Color. Near-colorless grades (G and H) look white on a hand in most brilliant shapes, which is why we so often tell people to stop there. On a step cut, warmth shows more readily, so if a bright white face is the goal, moving up a grade or two buys something you can actually see. That is the rare case where paying for a higher grade is not wasted. It is also worth knowing that on any elongated shape, color tends to concentrate toward the narrow ends, so check the tips rather than the middle.
One more thing that applies to both: most fancy shapes carry no overall cut grade from the labs, so cut quality varies from stone to stone and no single letter will answer it for you. Read the proportions and the measurements yourself, and if you want a walkthrough, here is how to read a grading report line by line.
How each behaves in real light
Disappointment after buying a diamond is often a lighting story, not a stone story. The two faceting families respond to rooms very differently, and knowing which one you are looking at tells you where to go to judge it.
A step cut mirrors its environment. Because the panels are large and reflective, they show you whatever is in front of them. In daylight, near a window, or under broad overhead light, a step cut looks crisp and luminous, with long clean flashes and visible internal architecture. In a dim restaurant it can go quiet and dark, because there is nothing bright for the mirrors to pick up. That is not a fault in the stone. It is how mirrors work.
A brilliant needs points of light to fire hardest, but it keeps some life almost anywhere. Direct sun, spotlights, and candles bring out the most fire, since a small bright source is what a small facet needs to flash. Under flat, diffuse light a brilliant loses some of its drama but stays busy, because with so many facets, some of them are always catching something.
Two practical takeaways. First, judge any stone in more than one light before you commit, and include ordinary daylight, because a photo shot under a jeweler's lamp tells you almost nothing about how a ring looks over dinner. Second, keep it clean. A film of hand lotion or oil dulls any diamond, and it dulls a step cut fastest, because those broad flat panels depend on an unobstructed surface to work as mirrors. Warm water, a drop of dish soap, and a soft brush restore it in a minute.
Is a Dutch Marquise a step cut?
People search this exact question, so here is the straight answer: the outline is what makes a stone a Dutch Marquise, and the faceting inside that outline is a separate decision. Step-faceted Dutch Marquise stones exist. So do brilliant-faceted ones. The name tells you the shape, not the sparkle.
The outline is specific and easy to check. A Dutch Marquise has six straight sides, is longer than it is wide, and its long sides angle in to meet at a corner at the widest point of the stone, then taper to a point at each end. It is not curved like a true marquise, and the ends are not cropped flat. If you want that comparison in detail, we wrote it up in Dutch Marquise vs elongated hexagon.
What we will not do is declare a single house faceting style for the term. There is no industry standard behind it, different makers genuinely cut it differently, and inventing a rule where none exists would be marketing dressed as gemology. The honest answer is more useful anyway: two stones can both be correctly described as Dutch Marquise and sparkle noticeably differently, so judge the specific stone in front of you rather than the category.
Practically, that means two questions. Ask what the faceting is on the stone you are considering, which is a normal question that anyone who owns their stones can answer in a sentence. Then read the report, because that is where the geometry is described in a lab's own words rather than a seller's. On one real IGI report for a Dutch Marquise we sell, the shape line read "Hexagonal Modified Brilliant" (IGI report, 2026). That line describes that stone. A differently faceted stone under the same name will read differently, which is precisely the point.
Worth knowing while you are checking: IGI and GCAL still issue full 4C-style reports for Lab Grown Diamonds, while GIA now grades Lab Grown Diamonds on Premium and Standard descriptive tiers rather than the full 4Cs. (Source: GIA, 2025-10-01.) If you want detailed grades to compare against, that is an argument for an IGI report. And if you are still working out whether the term itself is legitimate, we answered that too: is the Dutch Marquise a real diamond cut.
How to choose, and what to ask
Decide the look first, then let the look set the grades. Working in that order keeps you from paying for clarity you will never see, or from buying a stone whose personality is not the one you wanted.
Choose step faceting if you want calm, clean lines and the mirror-flash look, you like being able to see into a stone, and you are comfortable spending a little more of the budget on clarity and color to get there.
Choose brilliant faceting if you want maximum liveliness, you want the ring to read from a distance, or you would rather put the budget into size and let the scintillation cover a lower clarity grade.
On a pointed hexagon, look at the ends. Elongated brilliants can show a bow-tie, a dark band across the middle, if the pavilion is cut badly. Step cuts more often show a flat or lifeless zone where the rows run out near the tips. Either one is a cutting issue, and you spot both by looking at a face-up photograph of the actual stone.
Protect the points either way. Any tapered shape concentrates stress at the tips, so a setting that shelters them is worth choosing, particularly for someone hard on their hands.
One question does most of the work when you are shopping: is this specific stone step faceted or brilliant faceted? Listings use shape names loosely, and a photograph answers it faster than a description does. We hand-set and finish our stones in New York City and we inspect every one before it goes into a ring, so we can tell you what a given stone actually is rather than what its category is supposed to be.
There is no wrong answer here, only the look you prefer. A diamond is a love piece, and faceting is not a test you can fail. If you want to see how the two styles read inside our signature outline, the Dutch Marquise stones and the elongated hexagon stones are the place to start, and any of them can be set into one of our Engagement Rings. If you are still narrowing down the shape itself, the broader diamond shapes guide covers the whole field.
See the Dutch MarquiseAbout the Author
Tasha Adison
Tasha Adison crafts engaging content that highlights the beauty of jewelry design. Her writing connects readers with the stories behind each creation.
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FAQ's
Step faceting uses broad, flat facets arranged in parallel rows that step down toward the bottom of the stone, and those large panels act like mirrors, returning a few big, clean flashes. Brilliant faceting uses many small facets radiating from the center, which split light into many small returns and read as continuous sparkle. Both can be cut into a hexagonal outline.
Neither is higher quality. They are two different looks with different practical consequences. A step cut reads open and architectural and rewards a cleaner clarity grade, while a brilliant reads busier, hides inclusions and body color better, and carries further across a room. Choose the look you prefer, then match the grades to it.
It varies by maker. The outline is what makes a stone a Dutch Marquise, and the faceting inside that outline is a separate decision. Step-faceted and brilliant-faceted Dutch Marquise stones both exist, and there is no industry standard for the term, so two stones correctly sold under the name can sparkle quite differently. Ask what the faceting is on the specific stone and read its report.
Buy to eye-clean and stop, the same as with any diamond. What changes is where eye-clean lands. Because step faceting leaves the interior of the stone open to view, eye-clean tends to sit higher up the scale, often VS2 or better, while a brilliant can be eye-clean at SI1. Position matters as much as the grade: an inclusion in the center under the table shows far more than one near the girdle.
Yes. Light travels longer, straighter paths through a step cut before it exits, and the further light travels through a diamond the more body color it picks up. A brilliant breaks those paths into many short ones, so warmth is spread across many small returns and reads lighter. If a bright white face is the goal on a step cut, moving up a grade or two buys something you can actually see.
It sparkles differently rather than less. A step cut gives a small number of large, clean flashes that switch on and off as the stone moves, instead of the continuous glitter of a brilliant. It shows that effect best in broad, directional light such as daylight, and it can go quiet in a dim room, because large flat facets reflect whatever is in front of them.
Usually yes, in the lab's own terms. Marketing names do not appear on reports, but the shape line describes the geometry the lab measured. On one real IGI report for a Dutch Marquise we sell, the shape line read "Hexagonal Modified Brilliant" (IGI report, 2026). That line describes that one stone, not a house standard. Labs certify measurable geometry rather than the words a seller uses, which is why the report is the place to settle the question.
A bow-tie, the dark band across the middle of an elongated stone, is a brilliant-faceting problem, so a step cut rarely shows one. Step cuts have their own tell instead: a flat, see-through center or a lifeless zone near the narrow ends when the pavilion is cut too shallow. Both are cutting issues, and you can spot either in a face-up photograph of the actual stone.