Engagement ring help.
Discussion
Hello, I’m looking to buy an engagement ring and to be honest I’m getting a little lost so was after some help.
Looking at a platinum ring with a 0.7 carat princess cut diamond of colour E and clarity of vvs2.
First off would this be a good diamond or not?
Secondly i have found a price of £2400 for this ring is this a good price?
I have done a bit of research but all those that seem cheaper don’t give details of the colour or clarity of the diamond.
The one i am looking at has a GIA certificate if this helps.
Also if anyone sells them on here please feel free to make yourself known.
Thanks for taking the time to read and have a good day.
Looking at a platinum ring with a 0.7 carat princess cut diamond of colour E and clarity of vvs2.
First off would this be a good diamond or not?
Secondly i have found a price of £2400 for this ring is this a good price?
I have done a bit of research but all those that seem cheaper don’t give details of the colour or clarity of the diamond.
The one i am looking at has a GIA certificate if this helps.
Also if anyone sells them on here please feel free to make yourself known.
Thanks for taking the time to read and have a good day.
Overall, personal opinion is you’re spot on with your choices - good work!
Prices seem very good, but I’d like to see more info from that site on the specific stones, once you’ve selected a stone it shows a photo, but not the very which would give type of inclusion/s and location - a feather hidden by a claw is much better than black carbon in the centre etc. You won’t get that info from a photo, so may be worth contacting them directly for this info, using this one as a starting point:
Prices seem very good, but I’d like to see more info from that site on the specific stones, once you’ve selected a stone it shows a photo, but not the very which would give type of inclusion/s and location - a feather hidden by a claw is much better than black carbon in the centre etc. You won’t get that info from a photo, so may be worth contacting them directly for this info, using this one as a starting point:
bristolbaron said:
Overall, personal opinion is you’re spot on with your choices - good work!
Prices seem very good, but I’d like to see more info from that site on the specific stones, once you’ve selected a stone it shows a photo, but not the very which would give type of inclusion/s and location - a feather hidden by a claw is much better than black carbon in the centre etc. You won’t get that info from a photo, so may be worth contacting them directly for this info, using this one as a starting point:
Usually you can get a good idea from the cert if they give you the number.Prices seem very good, but I’d like to see more info from that site on the specific stones, once you’ve selected a stone it shows a photo, but not the very which would give type of inclusion/s and location - a feather hidden by a claw is much better than black carbon in the centre etc. You won’t get that info from a photo, so may be worth contacting them directly for this info, using this one as a starting point:
Right then I have narrowed it down to twodiamonds on this site now but looking at things deeper has given me something new to worry about in girdle thickness!
About £5 difference between the two so which one is the one to go for please?
Or this one
My assumption is that the second one has only one inclusion vs the three of the first one so should be better but could this mean its one big one?
About £5 difference between the two so which one is the one to go for please?
Or this one
My assumption is that the second one has only one inclusion vs the three of the first one so should be better but could this mean its one big one?
I tried to reply yesterday but couldn't log in 
You really need to see the diamonds before you make a decision as reports just give information on the stone, they can't convey whether the stone looks good or not. Just because it looks good on paper, doesn't mean it will in real life.
With girdle thickness, as long as it is not very thick, you are ok.
You really need to see the diamonds before you make a decision as reports just give information on the stone, they can't convey whether the stone looks good or not. Just because it looks good on paper, doesn't mean it will in real life.
With girdle thickness, as long as it is not very thick, you are ok.
I’ve used https://www.comparethediamond.com/ for a couple of items of diamond jewellery. Price and service always been faultless. Also recommended them to 2 friends who’ve also used and been happy with the service.
Just to check, the intended recipient has definitely stated a desire for a Princess cut?
Whatever shape you buy, you need to consider how the diamond is cut - its job is to reflect light, and in an attractive way, so having a smaller but very highly performing stone is infinitely better than having a larger but boring/lifeless stone.
This aspect is not particularly well assessed by GIA in Princess cut diamonds.
You need to understand light return but using something like an ASETscope - not many jewellers (in the UK or anywhere else...) are aware of them, and my suspicion has always been that if one walked into a shop with one to aid assessment of options they lay out in front of you, they'd go 'oh, some smart-arse off the internet, I see...'
Whiteflash is US-based but have AGS-graded 'A Cut Above' Princess cuts.
https://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/search/?...
The 'A Cut Above' designation is an in-house designation of the best performing stones.
AGS is a grading house that uses actual empirical light-return assessment equipment to check and illustrate how well a diamond performs, which means you know for sure whether a stone is going to be 'leaky' or going to perform well.
https://www.pricescope.com/articles/ags-laboratori...
The ASET images at the bottom show how well the diamonds reflect light - this page covers how ASET images show how the stone reflects light:
https://www.pricescope.com/tools/aset-scope
and the graphic in this post explains what the colours mean:
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/aset-...
There are a few options on the WF site above that could be of interest for a c.£2400 budget:
https://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/compare/...
The 0.706ct D VS2 and the 0.708ct H VS1 are probably most suitable for the budget, assuming 20% VAT on import and around $800 for a simple solitaire band in platinum:
https://www.whiteflash.com/engagement-rings/?style...
If you went with the 0.708ct H VS1 and one of the $800-900 bands, that would see you at about $2700, which converts to roughly the same in GBP by the time it's shipped and had 20% VAT and 2.5% Import Tax added (because the diamond is set in jewellery, rather than being loose, which is 0% Import Tax) and then had exchange rate conversion done.
The Pricescope forum is extremely knowledgeable and useful - if you have time before you need to buy, it could be worth starting a thread on there.
Whatever shape you buy, you need to consider how the diamond is cut - its job is to reflect light, and in an attractive way, so having a smaller but very highly performing stone is infinitely better than having a larger but boring/lifeless stone.
This aspect is not particularly well assessed by GIA in Princess cut diamonds.
You need to understand light return but using something like an ASETscope - not many jewellers (in the UK or anywhere else...) are aware of them, and my suspicion has always been that if one walked into a shop with one to aid assessment of options they lay out in front of you, they'd go 'oh, some smart-arse off the internet, I see...'
Whiteflash is US-based but have AGS-graded 'A Cut Above' Princess cuts.
https://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/search/?...
The 'A Cut Above' designation is an in-house designation of the best performing stones.
AGS is a grading house that uses actual empirical light-return assessment equipment to check and illustrate how well a diamond performs, which means you know for sure whether a stone is going to be 'leaky' or going to perform well.
https://www.pricescope.com/articles/ags-laboratori...
The ASET images at the bottom show how well the diamonds reflect light - this page covers how ASET images show how the stone reflects light:
https://www.pricescope.com/tools/aset-scope
and the graphic in this post explains what the colours mean:
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/aset-...
There are a few options on the WF site above that could be of interest for a c.£2400 budget:
https://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/compare/...
The 0.706ct D VS2 and the 0.708ct H VS1 are probably most suitable for the budget, assuming 20% VAT on import and around $800 for a simple solitaire band in platinum:
https://www.whiteflash.com/engagement-rings/?style...
If you went with the 0.708ct H VS1 and one of the $800-900 bands, that would see you at about $2700, which converts to roughly the same in GBP by the time it's shipped and had 20% VAT and 2.5% Import Tax added (because the diamond is set in jewellery, rather than being loose, which is 0% Import Tax) and then had exchange rate conversion done.
The Pricescope forum is extremely knowledgeable and useful - if you have time before you need to buy, it could be worth starting a thread on there.
The comment above is interesting but I would highly recommend dealing with a UK based company, especially one where you can go and see the stone before you purchase it and I can't stress that enough.
When you have the stones in front of you, there may be one that just attracts your attention. It may not be the best on paper but in the real world it can look amazing.
Btw I am a qualified gemmologist and have looked at hundreds of diamonds and some that you would dismiss by reading the report but look amazing. For example, I have seen I colour, SI2 stones that have more of a wow factor than an E colour, VS1, with similar cut quality.
When you have the stones in front of you, there may be one that just attracts your attention. It may not be the best on paper but in the real world it can look amazing.
Btw I am a qualified gemmologist and have looked at hundreds of diamonds and some that you would dismiss by reading the report but look amazing. For example, I have seen I colour, SI2 stones that have more of a wow factor than an E colour, VS1, with similar cut quality.
I used James Allen in the US, at the time they were a lot cheaper, certified GIA diamonds and you could get someone to talk you through each diamond with a video of the said diamond on / in a lot environment so anything listed on the cert’ could be seen.
My now wife has had loads of comments over the years as it looks like it cost four times what it actually did
My now wife has had loads of comments over the years as it looks like it cost four times what it actually did
ctrph said:
The comment above is interesting but I would highly recommend dealing with a UK based company, especially one where you can go and see the stone before you purchase it and I can't stress that enough.
When you have the stones in front of you, there may be one that just attracts your attention. It may not be the best on paper but in the real world it can look amazing.
Btw I am a qualified gemmologist and have looked at hundreds of diamonds and some that you would dismiss by reading the report but look amazing. For example, I have seen I colour, SI2 stones that have more of a wow factor than an E colour, VS1, with similar cut quality.
I agree that sometimes that 'X factor' is present - it must be due to the cutting, as colour is just personal taste and clarity is largely irrelevant as long as its not cloudy or suffering massive dark inclusions!When you have the stones in front of you, there may be one that just attracts your attention. It may not be the best on paper but in the real world it can look amazing.
Btw I am a qualified gemmologist and have looked at hundreds of diamonds and some that you would dismiss by reading the report but look amazing. For example, I have seen I colour, SI2 stones that have more of a wow factor than an E colour, VS1, with similar cut quality.
When you say 'cut quality', do you mean GIA grading? As GIA XXX is really very wide, something like 60% of MRBs seem to hit GIA XXX! AGS 000 is much tighter and, I would argue, more likely to produce a high performing stone because actual ray-tracing is undertaken (IIRC) or at least the facets are scanned and ray-tracing calculated.
GIA XXX includes a lot of steep/deep stones, which suffer light leakage under the table. For example, the second stone from the left on here is GIA XXX (as per the table info) but clearly shows a ring of leakage under the table in both 'real life' and ASETscope imaging:
https://cutwise.com/catalog/lgd-colorless?f%5Ba%5D...
As does this GIA XXX:
http://legacy.octonus.com/oct/mss/diam5.phtml
The use of empirical grading (a la AGS) and ASETscope imaging just helps pull out stones that are more likely to perform well, which is what one really needs when 'virtual shopping'
If looking in person, one needs to consider the grading reports but also assess stones in a range of lighting environments - the magic lights in the shops make everything look good... lol
Edited by RSTurboPaul on Saturday 17th October 16:06
Ok so I apologise for this but I didn’t see any of the last responses as I had to change my aol email settings on my iphone did it wrong and no emails came through to show posts.
Upshot of it is, is thank you so very much for all the advice. I have bought one now from the above site they have a returns policy so if it doesn’t look good in hand i will return to the store and get something different from them.
Sorry again but it was an honest mistake.
Upshot of it is, is thank you so very much for all the advice. I have bought one now from the above site they have a returns policy so if it doesn’t look good in hand i will return to the store and get something different from them.
Sorry again but it was an honest mistake.
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