Hi All - After lurking and reading for the past few weeks I'm finally throwing in the towel on self-research and putting this post out there since you all seem to have such great insight.
My significant other and I have begun looking at diamonds and I have been given a lot of leeway on picking things out for a surprise after getting some guidance. She wants a round stone and I know she wants a platinum pave setting that's on the thinner side (she's very fair skinned and a size 4). We locally looked at Lazare stones and had an okay but not great experience. While trying things on she seemed pleased with anything bigger than 1.25 but seemed to really light up a bit more when we got closer to/over 1.5, while she insists she'd be happy with anything, seeing her light up a bit more kinda set the 1.5 goal in my mind a bit.
After starting to research some and finding this website and venturing out on my own with my rough marching orders I'm having a bit of detail overload as I go deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole. This website is full of great information but I'm having trouble running all the information through a filter and prioritizing.
Feeling pretty set on getting a SuperIdeal and have settled on Whiteflash I think as the place to look but have no idea where to draw the threshold on clarity and color - She seemed to maybe be a little color sensitive and I know neither of us want to be able to see inclusions leaving me torn about G vs H (or higher?) and VS vs Si1.
I'd ideally like to be in the $13K or less range for the stone but have a little flexibility if I need to. It seems like I can find G's that are Si1 or H's that are VS2 around the 1.5 range or G VS2 in the 1.4 range in that window but really have no idea if I'm making a mountain out of mole hills on these differences in one color or clarity level and .1 carats/.1mm or if these are things that I (and more importantly she) will notice? Any insight or thoughts would be so greatly appreciated!
My significant other and I have begun looking at diamonds and I have been given a lot of leeway on picking things out for a surprise after getting some guidance. She wants a round stone and I know she wants a platinum pave setting that's on the thinner side (she's very fair skinned and a size 4). We locally looked at Lazare stones and had an okay but not great experience. While trying things on she seemed pleased with anything bigger than 1.25 but seemed to really light up a bit more when we got closer to/over 1.5, while she insists she'd be happy with anything, seeing her light up a bit more kinda set the 1.5 goal in my mind a bit.
After starting to research some and finding this website and venturing out on my own with my rough marching orders I'm having a bit of detail overload as I go deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole. This website is full of great information but I'm having trouble running all the information through a filter and prioritizing.
Feeling pretty set on getting a SuperIdeal and have settled on Whiteflash I think as the place to look but have no idea where to draw the threshold on clarity and color - She seemed to maybe be a little color sensitive and I know neither of us want to be able to see inclusions leaving me torn about G vs H (or higher?) and VS vs Si1.
I'd ideally like to be in the $13K or less range for the stone but have a little flexibility if I need to. It seems like I can find G's that are Si1 or H's that are VS2 around the 1.5 range or G VS2 in the 1.4 range in that window but really have no idea if I'm making a mountain out of mole hills on these differences in one color or clarity level and .1 carats/.1mm or if these are things that I (and more importantly she) will notice? Any insight or thoughts would be so greatly appreciated!