Color vs Clarity ( I have 48 hours to decide...)

[nodeulee]

Just did a super quick search on JA and they have about 128 diamonds in the 1.9-1.99 carat range. If you get a 1.9 or 1.95 carat, you can still tell everyone it is a 2 carat. I can’t wait to see what you pick. And, there are no right answers, pick one that you love.

that is 127 too many! ahaha I just posted another thread so maybe I'll have some recommendations, if not tonight with be another late night... lol

 

[Snowdrop13]

Just get this: super duper top ideal cut, maximum sparkle, guaranteed eye clean, fantastic upgrade policy etc etc.

https://www.hpdiamonds.com/en-us/diamonddetail/HPD10812

Whatever else I would hope your boyfriend wants you to be happy - he sounds like he’s being rather inflexible insisting on James Allen (who give out the least amount of information by withholding their certificates which makes it impossible to compare large numbers of stones). Would he spend $14000 on a car without doing a major amount of research and test driving several models? This comes down to the same principle, and you’ll be looking at this stone every day forever......

 

[Cerulean]

Just get this: super duper top ideal cut, maximum sparkle, guaranteed eye clean, fantastic upgrade policy etc etc.

https://www.hpdiamonds.com/en-us/diamonddetail/HPD10812

Whatever else I would hope your boyfriend wants you to be happy - he sounds like he’s being rather inflexible insisting on James Allen (who give out the least amount of information by withholding their certificates which makes it impossible to compare large numbers of stones). Would he spend $14000 on a car without doing a major amount of research and test driving several models? This comes down to the same principle, and you’ll be looking at this stone every day forever......

Hah I almost shared the exact same diamond! It is super close to a WF I found too - which i think is a tiny bit larger face up, but by a hair: https://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-4018635.htm?#

 

[Titan7]

My 2 cents:
cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut. Compromise everywhere but here.

 

[chamois]

Hah I almost shared the exact same diamond! It is super close to a WF I found too - which i think is a tiny bit larger face up, but by a hair: https://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-4018635.htm?#

Great diamond. Love the tiny table!!!

 

[nodeulee]

@Snowdrop13 & @annagene12 thank you both for your input Bf by no means wants to get me any ole diamond (i am sure i made him sound like he is not flexible and is a punk). He has seen me stress about looking for the "perfect" stone and wants me to be happy. I will be taking another look tonight and crossing my fingers

 

[LLJsmom]

your post gave me chills!!! You are right ultimately its my choice and I have to love it. It is just so hard being so indecisive and there are so many options out there. I started with a D ,IF , True heart lower carat but then I realized I wanted a little bigger stone and so went down to a G/H to a VS and everything under the sun till the two options above. I am sure my BF wont hate me if i "looked" some more but i dont know if my dainty heart can take any more researches lol

Don't rush it. Take the time you need. YOU'RE the one wearing it. And if he's willing to spend up to $20K, give yourself the financial room to spend more to find a stone that ticks all the boxes. Don't start off already compromising unnecessarily... Just 2c from an old married woman who is now also in the middle of the similar dilemma.

 

[Mlh]

Great diamond. Love the tiny table!!!

Says inquire next to eye clean. Need to ask them.

 

[LLJsmom]

@Snowdrop13 & @annagene12 thank you both for your input Bf by no means wants to get me any ole diamond (i am sure i made him sound like he is not flexible and is a punk). He has seen me stress about looking for the "perfect" stone and wants me to be happy. I will be taking another look tonight and crossing my fingers

Tell him the stress is HAPPY stress, and necessary to long term HAPPINESS with the stone. Tell him he does not want to bear the burden of being the one to pressure you into making the wrong decision ABOUT YOUR ENGAGEMENT RING.

 

[AdaBeta27]

Clarity: The I stone has lots of twinning wisps and is only an SI1. People on here have gotten eye clean SI2s in larger sizes with twinning wisp inclusions. You can searc hold threads on twinning wisps. But the general consensus is that they can be eye clean in Si1 or Si2, and all's good IF the wisps don't adversely affect brilliance (white light.) Ask James Allen if the I stone is eye clean or not.
The larger the diamond, the larger the inclusions that it can have and still be called SI1, or Si2, or whatever. It gets harder to find an eye clean SI1 or SI2 in big diamonds.

Color: The "I" color range is where the jewelers agree most people can start to see tint in a diamond. And keep in mind that the larger the diamond, the more it concentrates the tint. You can learn to see tint later that you didn't notice at all when buying the diamond. I have an I Vs1 OEC with strong or perhaps a very strong medium, blue fluorescence. It looked perfectly white to me when I bought it, and it still looks white to me in most lights. The appraisal I got on it never mentioned fluor. I found that myself after hanging around Pricescope a couple of months. Now that I know what to look for, I can see a distinct pale ivory tint in my I OEC, from the side, always. From the top, sometimes, if there is no UV light present. But the stone is pale ivory to me now, not white. And after I learned how to see tints, I can't unsee them. I like ivory, and I also love the definite pale yellow of L and M diamonds. I have consistently picked the I color diamonds in jewelry stores, from 2-3 feet, in well cut branded diamonds Hearts of Fire's rounds and Dream diamonds. But that's not a problem provided you like the tint you're seeing. I don't think I'd ever want a D or E diamond.

 

[stonehunter20]

seriously... all the questions i ask myself about the diamond, you have in quotes. LOL!

totally with you there. it's a big purchase. so we have to be careful, right.

 

[stonehunter20]

Just did a super quick search on JA and they have about 128 diamonds in the 1.9-1.99 carat range. If you get a 1.9 or 1.95 carat, you can still tell everyone it is a 2 carat. I can’t wait to see what you pick. And, there are no right answers, pick one that you love.

exactly. i was about to say that the two you picked are slightly above 2 carat mark, for which you pay a big markup compared to the ones slightly shy of 2 carat. if it's not so psychologically important to you to hit 2 carat mark, i would totally go for 1.99 ones. you will get the biggest bang of your buck!

 

[Polyhex]

This is a deeply personal choice.

I am color-sensitive and color-loving. Personally I would go down further in color to get an even larger eye-clean stone where I could admire the internal geometry.

It's super unlikely anyone anywhere can ever see an inclusion at SI1. However, you may be able to see the whiff of color at J. Does that bother you? Asking for your preference, I am not implying it should -- my own ring is much below a J.

 

[The Judge]

I wish I could tell you I've read all these replies, but, alas.. I have not. I can only respond that, as a professional, and, as a Dad, I would tell my client's and my children to go with the SI-1/I color stone. I have always said that color is the more important feature because it's what you see first, along with cut. But, when held side by side, a lay person, and, in most cases, even a professional, cannot tell the two apart due to clarity. You'd really have to go into an I-1 or lower clarity for you to see a difference.

 

[SimoneDi]

@nodeulee not sure if you have made a decision already, but I would absolutely recommend the J in this case. The I will have compromised clarity, I didn’t even have to look at the report to see that it has surface graining. The I while lower in color grade, appears to have about the same body color in the video as the I. This advice comes from someone who has had multiple I and J stones and also lower clarity ones with twinning wisps.

 

[Cerulean]

I think OP has already picked the I!

 

[diamondseeker2006]

That's really sad if she had to choose between those two.

 

[Cerulean]

people decide on things for different reasons and as long as OP is happy that’s what matters!