Another 1st Timer.....Loose Diamond Question (S)

[KUMA1]

First of all I want to say it say great finding this site. I have gone from knowing nothing about diamonds to having a general idea on what all of the gradings mean. But that is where it ends. There is a difference between understanding what I read and truely seeing it up close and seeing the differences.
I have been trying to find a loose diamond for my GF and once I get that she said that she will find a setting for the stone. Me being me I always want the best but it is ovious that no matter how much I try and learn about diamonds I will never know enough. I was looking to spend upwards of 6K and my GF only criteria is #1 she wants glitter/shine/sparkle & #2 Size. And women say size doesn''t matter...
If she wants the size I understand that I can''t go with the best in all categories. So my question is, how much can I truely sacrifice and still have a beautiful diamond to present to my GF? Looking around I set my goals at VS1,VS2/ E or D & 1-1.25ct. Weel that category put me out of my price range of 6K. I read that an SI/G is still a great stone but then when you look into the cert info the cut isn''t as great which affects the brilliance. Table/Girdle/Depth that is where I start to get lost.

Any pointers would be a great help for a lost and confused soul.

 

[Maisie]

I am like you and find the technical stuff hard to understand! This is how I see things -

Cut is the most important thing!!! No compromising!
For me to get a bigger stone I had to sacrifice colour, so I am getting a ''J''.
Next compromise I made was clarity, as long as its eye clean its fine with me. I don''t think many people are going to come at me with a loupe to have a look at it!!

Obviously this is just my opinion. Everyone has their own idea of what they want.

Good luck in finding your perfect diamond!

Maisie

 

[enbcfsobe]

I agree with maisie as to the order of importance she listed. If you want to understand more about how to look for a great cut, check out the "advanced tutorial" under the "knowledge" tab. I had to read it about 3 times and also look at a bunch of stones in person and online before I started to grasp what I should look for, but it was worth the extra time to learn how to get more out of reading the reports and using the HCA.
Browse/search through the rockytalky disussions where people have asked for opinions on stones they are looking at -- thats a great way to see where people are compromising on color/clarity and also get an idea of what good cut looks like by comparing idealscope images of similar size and color stones. If size is important to your gal, definitely look at the discussions on "face up" size -- figuring out that concept is key to undertsanding how not to end up paying for carats she won''t see.
If you are looking in B&Ms, buy an idealscope!! You will be amazed at how much of a difference it makes to walk into a store knowing that you have a way of evaluating the diamond that is beyond what is on paper and how sparkly they all look under store lighting. Once you get an idea of all this, be sure to try the various search options to get an idea of what stones in your criteria range are going for.
One of the last things to do -- and I am not at that point yet -- is to ask for comments on your top two or three choices by giving all the specs. People here are super helpful, and while there are occasional differences of opinion, they all seem to be honest opinions.
I''m sure those with more expertise can give you greater detail on the how-tos, but I hope this summary gets you off and running!

 

[hikerchick]

You''d likely have to come down in color atleast to H color diamonds and consider eye-clean SI1 clarity . . . as others have already mentioned.
We chose to take the discount that comes with strong blue fluor and are very happy we did. That is quite a personal choice but WF has some listed right now with strong blue fluor that falls within your budget and size needs. If you haven''t seen a strong blue fluor you might want to take a look . . . they are not for everyone, but some including myself have fallen in love with their unique beauty. Just one more thing to consider.