VVS stands for "very, very slightly included." It's a clarity grade, and it means any tiny marks inside the stone are hard to find even for a trained grader looking through a 10x loupe. For moissanite, VVS is the normal grade. You'll see it on almost every listing in this store, and on plenty of other moissanite sites. So the real question is what those three letters promise, and what they leave out once the stone is one of a few hundred on a chain.
What VVS Means
Clarity describes how clean a stone is inside. Almost every gem grows with something in it: a pinpoint of another mineral, a tiny feather-shaped crack, a cloud of microscopic specks. Graders call these inclusions and call marks on the surface blemishes, and both get judged at 10x magnification, the same standard used for diamond clarity grading. Moissanite grading reports use the same letters.
| Grade | Under a 10x loupe | To the naked eye |
|---|---|---|
| FL / IF | Nothing inside (FL also has no surface marks) | Clean |
| VVS1 / VVS2 | Inclusions are difficult for a trained grader to find | Clean |
| VS1 / VS2 | Minor, from hard to fairly easy to find | Almost always clean |
| SI1 / SI2 | Noticeable | Sometimes visible, more so in big stones |
| I1 / I2 / I3 | Obvious, and they can dull the sparkle | Often visible |
The line between VVS1 and VVS2 is a matter of how hard the grader has to look. In VVS1 the marks are smaller or sit where they are tougher to find. Both read as clean when you hold the stone at arm's length, and from across a room you won't tell them apart.
Put moissanite under a loupe and the first thing you'll probably notice is not an inclusion at all. Moissanite is doubly refractive, so the facet edges on the far side look doubled, a bit like a blurry print. That's just how the material bends light — it is not a flaw, and it does not count against the grade.
Can Moissanite Really Be VVS?
Yes, and easily. Moissanite barely occurs in nature, so the stones in jewelry are all lab-made, grown under controlled heat and pressure. Crystals grown that way tend to come out cleaner than what nature produces, so VVS shows up on most moissanite listings.
Before writing this, I went through the specifications on every live listing in our store, 595 pieces at the end of October 2026. Of those, 560 named VVS somewhere in the description, usually on the Main Stone line, and not one named VS, SI or anything lower. I did not regrade any stones myself, so these are the grades as listed. Even so, in our own catalog clarity was not what separated a $60 pendant from a $600 chain. Size, setting, metal and hours of handwork were.
Keep that in mind before paying extra for the letters. On moissanite, VVS is the starting point, not the upgrade.
Reading a Listing: VVS1, VVS2 and D Color
On most listings the grade comes as a short code, and the color letter is part of it. The color scale runs from D, completely colorless, down through the alphabet as a stone picks up a warm tint, and when I checked, every listing that named a color said D, typically sitting right beside VVS.
| On the listing | What it means |
|---|---|
| VVS | Very, very slightly included. Clean to the eye |
| VVS1 | The cleaner half of VVS |
| D color | No visible tint at all, the top of the color scale |
| E or F color | Still graded colorless. The difference from D is hard to see outside a grading lab |
| D VVS1 | Top color, top half of VVS. A clean, icy white stone |
Color letters only apply to colorless stones. A black or blue moissanite tennis chain is meant to have color, so the D-to-Z scale does not describe it. The clarity grade still applies, though a dark stone tends to hide inclusions on its own.
Where Clarity Shows, and Where It Doesn't
Most clarity guides are written for engagement rings, where one stone sits in the middle of a setting and gets looked at up close. Hip-hop jewelry mostly works the other way. A fully iced Cuban link or a pavé pendant carries hundreds of small stones, each one often only a millimeter or two across, and at that size telling VVS from VS takes a loupe — something few people bring along when they check out a chain.
Pinch a fully iced band like this one between two fingers and the stones are barely bigger than a pinhead. Your eye goes to how evenly they're matched and how tightly they sit. That's about it.
Bigger stones are a different story, and so are cuts that leave a wide open table. In a large round stud, light travels a long way through the stone, and a mark near the center has nowhere to hide.
At 11MM to 14MM, each of these is many times wider than a pavé stone. Here, VVS earns its keep.
| Piece | Does VVS show? | Worth checking instead |
|---|---|---|
| Large solitaire studs and rings (one big stone) | Yes, it's the main thing you see | The grade, plus cut and polish |
| Tennis chains and bracelets (small to mid stones) | Somewhat, stone by stone | Whether the stones match down the row |
| Iced Cuban links, pavé pendants (hundreds of tiny stones) | Barely | Even setting, no gaps, the metal underneath |
| Grillz and watch bezels (tiny, tightly packed) | Barely | Fit, setting style, how the stones catch light together |
Some pieces mix both. On an infinity bracelet like this, the round stones sitting in their own metal rims are big enough for clarity to count, while the pavé covering the loops isn't.
Shopping for moissanite earrings for men is the clearest case. Big solitaire studs get seen face to face, at conversation distance, so clarity counts for more there than anywhere else in a hip-hop wardrobe.
What a VVS Grade Won't Tell You
Clarity grades cover what's inside a stone. Whether a piece looks expensive on you mostly comes down to things the report never mentions. Put two VVS pieces side by side at very different prices, and the gap comes down to a handful of things:
- How well the stones are cut and polished. Cut a stone badly and it leaks light out the bottom; no grade fixes that.
- Whether the stones match. In a row or a cluster, one stone that's a little warmer or smaller than its neighbors sticks out right away.
- How they're set. Every stone should sit level and at the same height, with no gaps and no bent prongs.
- What they're set in. Most of our moissanite pieces are gold-plated sterling and some are solid gold, and that one choice can move the price a long way.
- The paperwork. If a piece ships with a grading report, make sure the shape and size on it match the stones in your hand.
Three-row hoops make a good test. The rows should line up and the stones should read as one smooth sheet of ice. Get that right and the build is probably solid.
Nor will a diamond tester tell you anything about clarity, since it only reads heat or electrical conductivity. Our guide on whether VVS moissanite passes a diamond tester covers what it can tell you. And a stone that looks hazy after a few months of wear hasn't dropped a grade. Usually it's just skin oil, and here's why a clean stone can still look dull.
VVS Moissanite vs VVS Lab Grown Diamond
Lab grown diamonds are graded on the same clarity scale, so a VVS lab grown diamond and a VVS moissanite have the same letters on paper. They are still different stones. Moissanite is silicon carbide, and its dispersion (0.104, versus 0.044 for diamond) throws a lot more colored fire. A lab grown diamond is crystallized carbon, chemically the same as one dug out of a mine, and it reads whiter and calmer. The full breakdown, with prices on matching designs, is in our post on how moissanite and lab grown diamond actually differ.
Cut changes how much clarity matters with either stone. Step cuts like this emerald pair have long, flat facets and a wide table — basically a window straight into the stone. A round brilliant scatters light across dozens of facets and hides small marks much better. When choosing step-cut lab grown diamond earrings, read the clarity grade more closely than you would on round stones.
Finding the Grade on Our Listings
On most of our product pages, the stone type and grade appear in the specification list toward the end of the description. Pieces that come with a grading report generally say so on the listing. If the grade isn't written out, message us before you order.
Common Questions About VVS Moissanite
Is VVS moissanite real?
It's real moissanite, a gemstone in its own right, and VVS is a real clarity grade. It is not a diamond. See how moissanite compares with diamond for hardness, fire and price side by side.
Does VVS moissanite pass a diamond tester?
Most standard heat testers read it as diamond, and the clarity grade has nothing to do with that result. Testers that also check electrical conductivity can tell the two apart.
Can a clarity grade change over time?
No. Clarity is about what's inside the stone, and wearing it does not add inclusions. A hard knock can chip any gem, but day-to-day dullness comes from film on the surface, and it washes off.
Is VVS moissanite worth it for grillz?
Grill stones are small and packed tight, so you're really paying for fit and setting. VVS is nice to have. It just isn't the part anyone sees when you smile. For what drives the price, see what grillz cost by teeth count and metal.
Where to Start
If clarity's what you care about most, start with big stones where you can see it, like solitaire studs and rings. For the most ice per dollar, look at iced-out moissanite chains and iced-out moissanite pendants, and judge them on setting and finish. Building something from scratch? Our custom design studio can walk you through stone options.
About the author
Iris looks after the moissanite content at CustomHipHop and has handled dozens of the store's pieces in person. For this guide she checked the listed grade on all 595 live pieces, then sorted through a few hundred studio shots for close-ups that show stone size honestly. Listing figures are as of October 31, 2026, and get updated when the catalog changes.
