Tips For Choosing A Diamond

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Whether you’re looking for the perfect diamond engagement ring or a special diamond for that special someone in your life, the hardest part is choosing the stone. You can always check out diamond shops for perfect opportunities to create your own piece of jewellery and count on the aid of their precious stone experts. Part of the entire process is choosing the right diamond.

Here are our best tips for choosing the right diamond for your budget and purpose.

The Budget

First, pick a budget. This is important as it ensures you stay within a price range you can afford. It’s easy to go overboard, so a budget helps you stay on track.

The Shape

The next step is to decide on a diamond shape. Shape is different to cut. The cut is the facets and angles of the stone and is a way of evaluating a diamond. Popular diamond shapes include cushion, princess and round cuts, but there are plenty of different shapes available.

The Carat

Carat weight will depend mainly on your budget and what you plan on using the diamond for.

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Start Searching

Next, start looking for your perfect diamond. Start off with the highest quality stone, which is a colour grade D and clarity internally flawless (IF) or flawless (FL). As for cut, start with the highest option available on the grade. Different wholesalers may use different terms for the cut, such as Signature or Super Ideal. If you have a high budget, you’ll have plenty of options. But if you’re on a tight budget, you’ll need to make some adjustments to your search. There are diamonds in Sydney like Australian Diamond Importers pieces that should fit the quality you want.  

Here’s how to get the best results:

·       Adjust clarity first so you can find a diamond you can afford. Lower the clarity grade before any other factors. A clarity grade as low as VS2 is still clean to the naked eye which means you won’t easily spot any imperfections.

·       Next, lower the colour quality. You can slowly decrease colour quality from D down to G all the way down to H before adjusting other factors. Keep in mind that you should set colourless diamonds on platinum or white gold. It’s hard to spot the colour difference between D and H grades when a diamond is mounted. You can even limit the colour grade to E-F, and it will still look stunning.

·       Cut is a diamond’s most important factor. It determines the stone’s brilliance, so it should be the last thing you adjust.

·       If you’re still struggling to find something, decrease the carat weight by around 10%. So, if you wanted a 1 carat diamond, start looking at 0.90 carats, it can make a big difference to the price range.

If you use the above tips and still don’t find the diamond you want, it’s time to make more adjustments.

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More Tips

·       For diamonds between 1-2 carats, drop the clarity grade SI1. Imperfections are still hard to spot with the naked eye. If a diamond is less than a carat, clarity isn’t particularly important, so you can drop to SI2.

·       You can even go as low as I-J in colour for diamonds less than 1 carat. The diamond will look colourless when it’s mounted on white gold or platinum. If you want to set the diamond on yellow gold, you can safely drop down to a colour grade K.

·       Princess and round cuts are the most brilliant because they have a high number of facets. They’re also amazing at reflecting light and hiding yellow hues.

·       If the weight of the carat is your main concern you could buy a shape that creates the illusion of being bigger than it is, such as a marquise cut.

Use these tips to find the perfect diamond!