Oval & Pear 1.5-2.5 Help!

[shoghianthony]

Long time board surfer, first time poster!

Any help will be greatly appreciated! I am in the market for 1.5-2.0 carat pear or halo loose diamond for my girlfriend. She only really likes those 2 shapes and is very keen on the size being around 1.5-2.0. Like many, she is oblivious to cuts, clarity, and color. However, I have done plenty of research and just need a little advice from those of you have been around diamonds much longer than the few months I have.

Essentially, we'd want something eye clean, like a VS2 and above.. Color wise, what works best for a diamond of these sizes and shapes? Cut wise I'd want nothing less than a very good, and a GIA certified stone.

I found this: http://www.adiamor.com/Diamonds/Results/D17985363

I was sent a picture by Adiamor and it looks fine (not milky).. obviously the fluorescence I would not be able to decipher unless I had it physically. Is the price too good to be true? G Color and Internally Flawless?

 

[Gypsy]

Please share the picture you were sent.

Some basic knowledge for you:

The entire purpose of faceting a diamond is to reflect light.
How well or how poorly a diamond does this determines how beautiful it is.
How well a diamond performs is determined by the angles and cutting. This is why we say cut is king. With fancies though (anything other than a round brilliant), that is a little complicated. But no other factor: not color, not clarity has as much of an impact on the appearance of a diamond as its cut.

There really is no other way to determine if you have a good oval cut is to see images of the stones, and then you need is a way to check actual light performance of your actual stone.

That's what an ASET image does. http://www.highperformancediamonds.com/index.php?page=education-performance Please read.
And ASET shows you how and wear your diamond is reflecting light, how well it is going at it, and where you are losing light return That is why you won't see us recommending vendors like Blue Nile, as they do not provide images or ASET images for their diamonds. James Allen and Good Old Gold do this. So do Brian Gavin, B2C and Whiteflash and High Performance Diamonds. ERD does too, for stones they source for you.


Keep in mind that ovals are especially hard to shop for because so many have bowties. So finding a bright, well cut bowtie is a herculean task at times if the stock at vendors is poor.

If you don't know what a bowtie is let us know.

Finally: you buy ovals by spread (dimensions) not carat weight. Any spread difference greater than .2 is eye visible anything less, really isn't. Two ovals at the same carat weight can have very different dimensions.

 

[shoghianthony]

Gypsy, thank you so much for your insight! I will most definitely play with those numbers. In addition, do my due diligence on those recommended online vendors! Here is an image of the diamond Adiamor sent:



Thank you!

 

[drk14]

What's your budget? And do you have preferences with regards to L/W ratio?

Here's a pretty nice one from JA, for $9500:
http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/oval-cut/1.40-carat-f-color-vs2-clarity-sku-320071

It's only 1.40ct, but its spread is about 7% larger (in projected area) than the Adiamor diamond you are looking at. Is it very important for your gf to hit that 1.50ct mark?

 

[drk14]

Possible pears:
http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/pear-shaped/1.75-carat-h-color-si2-clarity-sku-356932 ($8410)
http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/pear-shaped/1.40-carat-f-color-si2-clarity-sku-230546 ($7060)

 

[Gypsy]

Do they have an ASET image? Because that picture don't tell me enough to say more than "there's some potential there."

 

[JulieN]

Not bad based on that pic.