About to go engagement ring shopping? Read up before you pay up…

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, and a hopeful proposer’s most important ally. Here at Visions Event Studio, we realize that shopping for an engagement ring can be, well, overwhelming. You’re probably feeling a lot of pressure to find the perfect ring, and hoping you can do so without emptying your bank account.

Today we’re going to break down the C’s to diamonds, and hopefully help make this process a little bit less stressful.  First things first, Martha from State Street Jewelers in Geneva had some wonderful words of wisdom about shopping for the ring.

To have the perfect ring the buyer should try to really do some homework on the style that she likes. Most ladies have many styles on their Pinterest board, and of course most of them drop huge hints, or tell their friends. Finding out the style first is helpful also when setting your budget.

 

(Infographic created by: Visions Event Studio)

A diamonds worth is evaluated on its C’s – clarity, color, and cut – and we’re going to talk about what those mean today.

Cut- Although all of the C’s are important, you should probably place the highest priority on Cut. What is Cut? Cut refers to the quality of a diamond’s proportions and symmetry. To put it simply, Cut is what makes a diamond sparkle. A better cut equals a brighter diamond. And a good quality cut will look clear, and may even make the gem appear larger than stones of similar carat weight.

Color- Diamond color is more about preference than quality. The color of diamonds are varied, but the most common are yellows, pinks, and “colorless”. A diamond is more valuable if it has less color. However, most diamonds have a hint of yellow, brown or grey body color. If you’re really worried about the color, opt for a yellow gold setting – this will neutralize the tones and make them less visible.

Clarity- Not to bust Clarity’s bubble, but this really has the least impact of the C’s, this is due to the fact that most of a diamond’s imperfections can’t be seen by the naked eye. The natural contaminants (imperfections) are what makes a diamond unique. The size, number, position, nature and color of these will determine a stone’s clarity grade. Basically, Clarity equals clearness, and natural diamonds are almost never perfectly clear.

These C’s were created by The Gemological Institute of America, and are important because they a. allow diamond quality to be communicated in a universal language, and b. allow customers to now know exactly what they’re purchasing. To an untrained eye, all diamonds will look the same initially – but reading up on these C’s will ensure that you don’t throw your money at one just because its nice and sparkly.