The Shape & The Quality of Workmanship

Remember: the make of the diamond determines over 90% of the beauty of a diamond

Choose two shapes to add on your checklist.
For example, Round Brilliant shape & Princess Cut shape

• Choose Ideal cut
  if you want perfection (regardless of cost)
• Choose Very Good to Excellent
  if you want both beauty & quality
• Choose a Good make
  if you want a larger stone for your money
• I do not recommend choosing any grade lesser for diamond engagement rings because of a noticeable lack of brilliance and fire (even when clarity and colour are very high)
  

• Choose D
  if you want perfection (regardless of cost)
• Choose E or F
  if you want both excellent beauty and quality
  (still colourless to the untrained eye)
• Choose G, H or I
  if you want a larger stone for your money without
  sacrificing appearance. G is a popular colour since
  it is at the top of the near colourless range.
• Choose J,K, L or M
  if you like very faint yellow tints.

• Choose Flawless or Internally Flawless
  if you want perfection and value rarity
  (regardless of cost as they are expensive but
  possibly the only grade you’ll be very proud to own)
• Choose VVS1 or VVS2
  if you want it to look flawless under the loupe
  without paying the premiums for Flawless (still
  flawless to an untrained eye under the loupe)
• Choose VS1 or VS2
  if you want to see very little under the loupe, even
  when you try very hard (certainly flawless to the
  naked eye, even a diamond grader)
• Choose SI1 or SI2
  if you just want it flawless to the naked eye. Keep
  in mind that most women really only want this degree
  of flawlessness.
• Choose I1
  if you are ok with small inclusions that might be
  visitble to the naked eye and want a larger stone
  that still sparkles.
• Choose I2 or I3
  if you are interested in the lowest clarity grade.
  I highly do not recommend this for engagement
  rings as they not only lack brilliance but can crack
  or chip more easily die to large structural flaw.

Most people budget between 1 to 3 months’ salary for a diamond engagement ring. It all depends on what will make her happy while still keeping your bank account open. Only you can make the final decision on the right amount to spend.

The most popular sizes are 0.50ct., 1.00ct., 1.50ct., and 2.0ct. diamonds.

Invest some time to understand the many rules unique to a gemstone market. For example, the price of a 1.00ct. diamond increases tremendously in price compared to a 0.50ct. You should also find out what she prefers for the size, if you could, ask her best friend.

At this point you should check live prices at large online databases with about 500,000 diamond listing. Do your price research based on what you’ve chosen above and get a quotation from your jeweller from step one. Before you can compare, there is just one more thing to do.

While the internet offers you a wealth of information, it takes experience and expertise to cleverly interpret everything to make an important quality decision. It would be very difficult and time consuming fo a layperson to learn enough of a diamond quality and pricing. Build a relationship with your seller and make sure they are qualified enough to educate you beyond the 4Cs. Have fun!