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[mastercutter]

Carol Woolton looks at the rosy gems bringing smiles to brides-to-be.

When, last year, Moet Hennessy commissioned rock-star jeweller Stephen Webster to design a jewellery range using pink diamonds to celebrate the launch of the Dom Perignon 1993 vintage rose, they had no idea how red hot the gems would become.

Kate Moss chose a baby pink diamond ring to mark the birth of her daughter; Diane Lane wore a fabulous five-carat, salmon pink diamond by De Beers to the Oscars; legendary song stylist Nancy Wilson will be the "chosen one" to unveil André Action Jackson's pink diamond collection; and Jennifer Lopez has been showing off her Harry Winston pink diamond engagement ring ever since Ben Affleck popped the question.

"I think when it comes to diamonds," says Webster, "you could say that pink is the new canary yellow."

Award-winning Scots designer Eric Smith says: "We know the effect that David Beckham had on our diamond sales last year. Now, the Lopez effect is sparking a great revival of interest in pink diamonds, as well as in other coloured stones".

Webster has set a stunning 11.19 carat pink diamond, called the Magnum Rose, into a diamond necklace for Dom Perignon, and each piece of the collection reflects an aspect of the 1993 vintage. He has also fashioned dusty pink morganites into effervescent "bubble cuts", and set intense pink tourmalines into rings to look like corks bursting out of their diamond settings.

Pop star Christina Aguilera was first in the queue to buy a piece from the collection, and proudly showed off her pink tourmaline and diamond vintage-style ring at Alexander McQueen's recent London store launch party.

The largest source of pink diamonds in the world is the Argyle mine in Australia. "They may recover 25 million carats of brown diamonds in a year," says Andy Coxon of De Beers, "but only 10,000 carats of pink, of which under 1,000 will be larger than a quarter of a carat in the rough."

The scarcity of pink diamonds makes them extremely covetable and exclusive - a stone of just one carat is worth about £65,000.

Webster laughs when I ask him for the prices of pieces from his new collection. "There's quite a range," he says, "from very little up to about £7.5 million." Determined to keep the range accessible, he is also working with pink mother of pearl, set in silver with diamonds, to enable clients to achieve a big pink look for well under £1,000.

Nigel Milne in Jermyn Street has pieces that feature less expensive pink stones, such as tourmaline, sapphire and topaz.

The glass cabinets of Notting Hill's trendy new diamond depot Wint & Kidd shimmer with a rosy glow from all the tiny pink diamonds they contain. Some are as little as 10 pointers (a carat is 100 points), putting them well within the budget of the average girl's pay cheque. Fashion designer Matthew Williamson's first piece of fine jewellery design for Wint & Kidd is a wide gold ring decorated with a chequerboard effect of white and pink diamonds.

The boutique's diamanteur Luke Marriott is convinced that the limited supply of pink diamonds makes them a very good investment.

"Their value has appreciated considerably more than white diamonds over the past 30 years," he says. "Buy what you like because there are no rights and wrongs as to whether the strong or pastel shades are better."

Pink diamonds caused quite a stir at the Oscars. As a salute to this year's 75th diamond anniversary ceremony, the Asprey store at the Beverly Hills Hotel was dripping with pink and purple diamond rings.

Elizabeth Taylor, whose jewel box already contains a diamond or two, screamed with delight when, during Oscar week, she was presented with a three-carat pink and white diamond heart by Kwiat at a dinner to celebrate her Amfar charity work. And Calista Flockhart arrived at the awards ceremony, on the arm of Harrison Ford, wearing Harry Winston pink diamond briolette earrings to match her baby pink frock.

Boucheron has produced a pear-shaped pink diamond ring, studded with black diamonds, by Solange Azagury Partridge. De Beers has a Wild Flower collection in pink diamonds and yellow gold, French-born diamond innovator André Action Jackson, who possesses the world’s largest private collection of pinks displayed many of his extraordinary creations, and king of the mega-rock Laurence Graff is displaying a rare, 75 carat pink diamond on a chain of white diamonds.

"I've always preferred coloured diamonds," says Jade Jagger, creative director of Garrards, who took her pink jewels to the Oscars for the first time this year. "They say more about a person's personality."