Engagement...Help!!!

      One site to answer all your engagement questions

  sailingbrooklyn.com

Whenever anyone talks about diamonds, there is one topic that always comes up:  the 4 C's.  The short version, the 4 C's tell you everything about the diamond, kind of like window sticker on a brand new car, a description of a house on, or instructions to make some food.  It tells you the diamond's color, clarity, cut, and carat.  Some companies claim there are 6 C's - the same prior 4 plus certification and confidence.  Lets look at each to break down the diamond to it's basic ingredients.

Color

When you buy a diamond, you usually (unless you are looking at a colored diamond) are looking for a crystal clear beauty, in other words a colorless or as close to colorless as you can get.  The way to tell the difference in color is by their grade, like a grade you get in school - the closer to an A (or a D in diamonds), the better it is.  Diamonds are graded D through Z.  We will discuss colored (fancy) diamonds afterwards.  The closer to colorless the diamond is, the more expensive it will be.  You can save money by buying a near colorless diamond - the untrained eye can't tell the difference because they are so close.  Even if you look really, really hard, it is damn near impossible to see the difference unless you have a big rock, and even then you'll have some trouble, so unless you absolutely have to have colorless or want to pay a premium to have colorless, save yourself the money without loosing the look.

Clarity

Clarity basically tells you if the diamond is perfect inside and out or if it has something imperfect about it, such as little specks, a cloudiness, or any other imperfections.  In diamond speak, these imperfections are called inclusions.  There is only one clarity that is perfect, and it is clarified as such - flawless.  All other types of diamonds have inclusions to different degrees, but the closer to flawless a diamond is, the more it's going to cost you.  Clarity classifications are:

Fancy, or colored diamonds, are graded from light fancy (a pale, translucent color) to fancy to fancy intense and finally vivid (deep and rich).  The yellow and brown colored diamonds are most common, while the pink/red/purple, blue/gray, green, black, white (creamy kind of color) diamonds are the most rare. The most rare of the rare, just in case you're wondering, is a pure orange with no trace of yellow or brown. 

While diamonds in themselves are rare, fancy diamonds are even more so, which is why they will cost you more.  All diamonds get their colors from the way that they are created, but almost all engagement rings are created with non-fancy, "regular" diamonds.  The value of fancy diamonds is based on how intense they are.  In other words, the darker and richer the color, the more the fancy diamond costs.

If you want the best of the best, as with everything, you will pay a pretty penny for it.  That is exceptionally true in this case.  A flawless diamond is VERY expensive compared to the majority of other diamonds.  If you want the look of a flawless diamond, but want to save THOUSANDS, look for diamonds in the SI1 to VS1 range.  If you are looking at a single diamond that is approximately 0.4 and smaller, you can look at SI1 without much worry.  The larger the diamond, the easier it is to see inclusions, so you'll want to look closer toward VS1 and possibly higher if you plan on getting a big diamond.

CAUTION: Many jewelers, especially jewelry stores and large chains, can clean a diamond up really well and between the extremely high shine and the lights inside the jewelry store, you may have an EXTREMELY difficult time seeing the inclusions.  However, the moment you step outside the store and the jewel is worn for a few minutes, the inclusions will be apparent.  Jewelers can be very tricky in order to make you think you are buying a better diamond and to rip you off.  To avoid this, you can either:

• Use that little loupe the jewelers use (the tiny thing they stick near their eye is a tiny magnifying glass at x10 magnification) and look hard for imperfections.  Make sure you shift the light by putting the ring under direct light, just the light in the room, and with a little shade.  If the ring doesn't have the same light on it, imperfections are more likely to be seen.
  

• Go to smaller jewelers (not the chain stores you see in the mall or on most commercials) and they will sell stones that aren't certified, but will have their own evaluation of what the stone it.  In this instance you have to trust the person you're purchasing from, ask that the stone be certified, or (I would not suggest this) take a wild guess.  Although, your odds of guessing accurately with an untrained eye are...well, you're more likely to win the lottery.
  

• Buy a stone that is certified that has a certificate to go with it.
  

The Diamond

Information on diamond cuts, carat and diamond settings will be posted soon.