5 Tips On Buying A Diamond Engagement Ring
With Valentine’s Day coming up right around the corner, people the world over will be trooping to the stores in search of the ultimate symbol of their love. Buying jewelry is an intimidating enough task, but buying diamonds is a whole different ballpark altogether. Here are a few things to keep in mind when you’re out shopping for your loved one.
Diamond Trends
The most popular diamond shapes for engagement rings are still the round brilliant cut, the princess cut, the emerald cut, and the marquee cut. Solitaires remain popular, but for ladies with long fingers, one might want to consider the marquee cut, a long oval shape.
Diamond Color
A colorless diamond will undoubtedly cost more than one with slight coloration. This is because the brilliance or “sparkle” of a diamond is affected by a stone’s color, or lack of it, more precisely. To the naked eye, a D-graded diamond (colorless) isn’t much different from a G-graded one (near colorless), but the price tag should be significantly lower.
Diamond Clarity
The best stones are the ones that are internally flawless, with no inclusions. Inclusions are naturally-occurring flaws within a diamond that also affect its brilliance. Some are invisible to the naked eye, while some aren’t.
Carat Weight
This is one of the biggest factors to consider in terms of your budget. Carat refers to the weight of a diamond: the bigger it is, the higher you’ll have to pay for it. If you absolutely must have a 1-carat stone, you may have to sacrifice one of the other C’s: cut, color, clarity.
Conflict Diamonds
Check the certification of the diamond you’re looking to purchase to ensure that it came from a conflict-free zone. Blood diamonds are mined from war zones and sold to finance insurgencies. Simply put, buying one is unethical. You don’t want your hard-earned money going there, do you?
The most important thing to remember, gentlemen, is that no matter how taken you are with a particular ring, you ALWAYS go for the ring that she wants, and not the ring that you think she wants. You don’t have to ask her directly, but you do need to do some detective work. Start with the women closest to her, probably her mom, sisters or her girl friends. Be swift though, give one of her friends the slightest clue about it and you’re practically lighting the end of a short fuse!
Erica Yu is a sales assistant at Brilliance Online Diamonds. See some of the informative articles she has written on the Brilliance Diamond Education page where you can find helpful resources that can help you choose perfect and reasonably priced loose diamonds for any occasion.
