Anyone want to help me shop?

glennz · Jul 24, 2014

Ok, so my plan is to propose this coming Christmas/ New Years. I'm looking for a solitaire and round diamond. The setting I'm leaning towards is the tiffany half round on Brian Gavin's website. I know about the 4 C's and that is about the extent of it. I know I'm going to want an ideal or excellent cut and something around a VS2 cut or that is not unaided eye visible. My issue is I'm not really sure about all the measurements, girdle, etc. So if anyone can show me some ideas of what would be the best value for my money I would appreciate it. My budget is around 6k but would flex to 7k if need me. Looking for a stone that is at least 1 ct. up to 1.5 ct. Thanks

optimizedlife · Jul 24, 2014

I'm in the roughly same boat as you...researching for xmas/spring timeframe depending...

Look for HCA < 2.0 at https://www.pricescope.com/tools/hca

AFAIK you won't get anywhere near a good 1.5 for that...I'm in the 1.5-1.8 market and the bottom a 'good' 1.5 goes is about $12k with some stragglers in the $9-10k range if you want to compromise somewhere (eg) J colour

I was VS2 myself, but I'm swaying towards SI1 'eye clean'...and I was G for colour and I'm swaying more towards I now. So AGS000/I/VS2-SI1 would be the thing to aim for, at least that's my conclusion. ACA with Whiteflash are all pretty decent and are where I'm concentrating most of my effort, as well as maybe on the Brian Gavin Blue line if you don't mind fluorescence.

I haven't checked it's stats, but something like this 1.12 might be something to aim for if it's eye clean.
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-3060882.htm