b'The story of any diamond begins deep in the ground,about 100 miles below Earths surface where the temperature and pressure conditions are just right.It can take billions of years for the carbon atoms to bond together, the same way in every direction, to create a diamonds isometric crystal structure. YIts like baking a cake, explains Nathan Renfro, the manager of colored stones at the Gemological Institute of Americas Carlsbad, California, headquarters.You need to have the right conditions and the right ingredients, and you need to follow the recipe exactly.But, much like a cake, its the unexpected ingredients that can take things to a whole new level.When nature strays from the traditional natural diamond recipe and throws other elements into the mix, it can create a rare and highly prized natural colored diamond.A common impurity is nitrogen, Renfro says, which can result in Ayellow and brown diamonds. If boron is added in, a less common im-purity, a blue diamond may form.Pink diamonds, meanwhile, rise as the result of a structural defect, an increase in the pressure conditions that affect the growth of the diamond Wand distort its lattice, he says.If nature deviates too far from the original recipe, the end result is graph-ite, another carbon-only mineral but with a different formation process, crys-tal structure and, obviously, value than a diamond.A Clockwise from left: The It can be difficult to estimate just how many natural colored di-amonds there are in the world, says Renfro, but the rarity factor is overwhelming.Orange, a 14.82-carat pear-shaped fancy vivid orange diamond; The Blue Moon of Josephine, a 12.03-carat fancy vivid blue; and the 18.96-carat fancy vivid pink diamond dubbed The Winston Pink Legacy BY LENORE FEDOW'