A Brief Guide to Buying Loose Diamonds

Loose Cushion Cut Diamonds

Loose Blue Diamond Princess Cut

Diamond Purchasing Tips

It can be very difficult for a buyer to consider all the details while trying to find out a good diamond at a reasonable price. Searching for the diamond on your own can be excruciating, as you will be filled with many doubts. Yet with the help of experts, it can be really easy to find a good quality diamond for your purpose. It will be much easier for you to find the best diamond available in your budget, if you follow the steps explained below.

  • Select the Carat weight range
  • Select the shape of diamond
  • Select the Cut quality
  • Select the ideal Color grade
  • Select the Clarity grade

Select the Carat Weight Range

This is one of the most important questions, which you need to ask while looking to buy diamonds, as the carat weight of the diamond will have the maximum effect on the price. Another important thing is that the carat weight determines the size of the diamond that you buy. So you need to take into account the opinion of your fiancée while choosing the carat range of the diamond. If she is expecting a 2 carat diamond, she will obviously be disappointed if you select a 0.5 carat stone. Therefore, it is important for you to do your research before buying an engagement ring diamond.

If you cannot speak to your fiancée about her choice of the diamond, you might speak to her friends or family to know here preferences. In most of the cases, the answer will be “the larger the better.” However, it will be helpful for you to know her minimum expectations.

Select the Shape of Diamond

The second important thing that you need to take into account while selecting diamonds is the shape of the diamond that you need. This will solely depend on the aesthetic sense of you and your girlfriend. Here also, you need to take into account the expectations of your would-be. There are not any calculations that can help you find the diamond shape that your girlfriend wants.

To get the answer to this question, it will be a good idea to consult her friends. She might have mentioned about her likes and preferences to them. If you do not have the answer to this question, and do not want to ask her, then you can go for the round brilliant cut diamonds, as it is the most common shape in diamonds. However, you need to keep in mind that the shape of the diamond will affect its price. For instance, a round brilliant blue diamond will cost more when compared to a loose blue diamond princess cut, even when all the other factors were the same.

Select the Cut Quality

Loose Princess Cut Diamond

Interesting Diamond Facts

The first two points will set stage for the technical decisions about the diamond. Those considerations will let you to know the size of the diamond that you need and its shape. Now is the time to decide on the cut quality. This factor will also have an effect on the price of the diamond.

Deciding on the cut quality can be a tricky one, as the cut grades are not standardized across the various vendors. Some of the vendors will offer a cut grade only on their round diamonds and base the grades on the cut grade offered in the certificate. Some other vendors disregard the cut grade in the certificate and make use of their own cut grade matrices based on the measurements of the diamond.

Select the Ideal Color Grade

The color of the diamond will have a serious effect on the price and appearance of it. It is important for you to keep in mind that the different diamond shapes reflect color at varying intensities. Therefore, the choice of optimal color, after balancing the appearance and price of the diamond, will depend much on the shape that you have chosen.

Select the Clarity Grade

When opposed to color and carat, clarity is not a sliding scale of grades, but is a binary grade. This means that while evaluating the clarity of, say, a loose princess cut diamond, you need to check if it is clean to the naked eye. If the diamond is cleaner than that, you will need to spend more money. It is a wise idea to buy the lowest possible clarity grade that is still clean to the naked eye and use the money to buy a larger diamond or one with a better color.

Other Factors: Selecting the Polish, Fluorescence, and Symmetry

These factors will also affect the value of the diamond, even though much less than the factors mentioned above. You can get these details from a gem expert or from the online store from where you are planning to buy loose diamonds.

Fluorescence is the term used to refer to the response of the diamond when it is subjected to ultraviolet light; UV radiations in the light make white diamonds look whiter. Polish, on the other hand, is the term used to refer to the smoothness of the outside of the diamond, while symmetry refers to how well the facets of the diamonds are aligned.