This Rolls Royce is painted with real diamond dust

By Peter Valdes-Dapena

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Keep the shopping carts at a distance, please.

You really don't want to scratch the paint on this particular Rolls-Royce Ghost, which is finished with a paint that contains diamond dust.

The paint contains the dust of 1,000 ground up diamonds -- "ethically sourced" diamonds, the company notes -- which gives the car a unique sparkle.

Rolls-Royce won't say how much the paint job cost, beyond the fact that it's the most expensive they've ever done, because it was commissioned by a private buyer. This isn't an option you'll hear about at your local Rolls dealership.

The car, named "Elegance," was unveiled at this week's Geneva Motor Show. The top part of the two-tone car is painted in a dark gray while the lower parts are a lighter gray

In shadow, they look like simply dark and light gray car paint. But when light hits the car it shimmers with tiny sparkles, even more so than you would see with a metallic paint.

Rolls-Royce's Technical Laboratories spent two months working on the diamond paint, according to the British ultra-luxury automaker. Technicians carefully examined the unique light-transmission and reflection properties of diamonds.

They also had to figure out how to put the ultra-hard diamond dust into paint that while still keeping the surface smooth to the touch.

Next, hand-painted red and black racing stripes were applied along the sides of the car by Mark Court, Rolls-Royce's only in-house pinstriper.

After the paint was applied to the car, an extra layer of lacquer was laid on during a hand-polishing process. No special care is required to maintain the sparkle, according to Rolls-Royce, although garaging this car probably isn't a bad idea.

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