Determining brilliance of Princess Cut

[Parachute07]

Hello all,

First of all, thank you all for the wealth of information here. This is an invaluable resource and a great community. I've been reading for a while, but this is my first post.

I've been trying my darnedest to read as much information as possible and wrap my mind around all of these numbers I'm looking at online. I've been to a couple of jewelers, although I live in a very rural area and I have very few opportunities to get to one when my better half isn't around. In addition to that, I'm a hardcore Internet shopper who hates to pay more than I should - especially if I end up paying more for something when I could have paid less and gotten something better. With that in mind, I've been trying to figure out how to get the best bang for my buck on a rock.

On that note, I am fairly certain that my girlfriend wants a Princess Cut. I say fairly certain because we've only looked together once and that happened to be what seemed to catch her eye the most - I honestly think she's the type who will be happy with anything (we've been together for 7 years and we live together and work from home together......so I feel like I have a pretty good handle on that). But what I know would matter more than anything to her is sparkle. She likes to see a diamond sparkle -- so I want to get her the darn sparkliest diamond I can afford. That said, I feel like I'm somewhat in luck as Princess cut brings the price down a bit -- meaning that I can hopefully afford to get something a little bit larger or with a little more sparkle than if she had her heart set on a round cut stone.

But that's where I'm running into some difficulty -- trying to determine which stones will offer the most sparkle and brilliance in my price range and size desire. I'd *like* to find a stone somewhere between 1.15-1.25 carats (not that I'd be opposed to a little bigger...and I'll drop if it means a super-wow in the fire/sparkle department) that will have the kind of fire and sparkle that will knock her socks off....while not completely draining my bank account. I know that table and depth have something to do with how and how much light is reflected -- and I've looked at the pictures and charts, but I'm struggling a bit to determine which would be best. I'm not particularly good at visualizing things I'm reading about in general. I've seen some charts that suggest that a table somewhere between 62-70% and a depth somewhere between 64-75% would yield the best-looking diamond (and I saw that the table of the diamond should not be a higher percentage than depth). Am I understanding that right? Can anyone give me an idea as to what kind of proportions they should be in order to create the most sparkle and fire? For example, I think I saw one with 66% table and a 76% depth.....if I'm pushing one edge or the other, which edge do I want to be pushing on the ranges and in what kind of proportions? I want something with maximum brilliance -- but I also don't want to pay for 1.20 carats and get something that ends up looking the same size as a 1 carat diamond due to its cut. If I pay for the 1.20 carats, I'd like it to appear bigger than a 1 carat diamond or else I'll drop back down to a carat. Am I making any sense? I appreciate any guidance that anyone can provide in this department.

My budget is hopefully something under $4700 for the stone. Remember that I hate to pay more when I could pay less -- so I wouldn't complain about spending a thousand bucks less.....but I'm also the kind of person who hates to spend $100 on something OK if I could have spent $125 on something fantastic.....so I could go as much as another thousand bucks or so beyond the budget if it's going to yield me a huge difference in appearance. It seems that my options in this range all seem to be graded by EGL -- which I've certainly read less than favorable things about. That said, I'm less concerned with the piece of paper than with the actual look of the stone (and I am positive that my GF will feel the same way). With that in mind, I do want something as close to colorless as possible (I was thinking down to G?) and that will not have any inclusions visible to the naked eye. We won't be walking around with a loope, so I'm much less concerned with what it looks like under magnification than I am with how it looks when it's on her hand. I understand that many SI1's are "eye clean", so I'm willing to go down to there if it's going to still look good.

Is my budget reasonable? Should I be changing any of my parameters? Should I be looking at a smaller stone with my price range in mind? Should I avoid any EGL graded diamond and just drop down to 1 carat and GIA or AGS in order to assure quality? I figure that with a 30-day return policy from most places, I'm not risking a lot with an EGL-graded diamond -- but am I wrong?

At the end of the day, getting married is more important than anything else. But I've been lucky enough to find the perfect person to spend my life with who has given me the life that I want. I want to give her a diamond that she can feel good about and be proud to show to her friends. Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[JulieN]

When you start talking size, brilliance, and sparkle, I think you should go for a round. A 1.2 ct princess of about 5.7 mm is the same surface area as 6.4 mm 1 ct round. Plus you're probably going to be looking at H/I/J color for that size in your budget, and I'm comfortable with a J round, but less comfortable with a J princess.

http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/10453/
Needs an ASET, lowest price on this stone from PS vendors is through B2C: http://www.b2cjewels.com/dd-3557114-1.12-carat-Princess-diamond-I-color-VS1-Clarity.aspx?sku=3557114&utm_source=pricescope.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pricescope.com

You might give IDJewelry an email and see what they can get for you.

 

[JulieN]

If you can go another 1000, yes, that would make a big difference. A G 1.2 for 4700? No way.

 

[sha4000]

If she likes the princess, stay with the princess. Everyone loves the rounds around here for the most part but you have lots of ppl that love the princess cuts also like my FI and I. I see a couple of stones in your price range but you would need to go down to a J and SI1 but also remember that since there is no cut grade for GIA graded princess cut stones and unless your going to pay the markup for an AGS graded princess cut, you have to rely on the vendors cut grade. Make sure to ask them for ASET and Ideal Scope images for the stone and also a real picture. Maybe they have it maybe they dont. I just had a very good experience dealing would B2C and they were very honest and I felt I could trust what they were telling me about the stone which I ended up purchasing and the FI loves it. She tells me About 10 times a day. Heres the link http://www.b2cjewels.com/dd-3580222-1.00-carat-Princess-diamond-J-color-SI1-Clarity.aspx?sku=3580222&utm_source=pricescope.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pricescope.com Trust me it was the best stone I could get for my budget and it actually saved me 1k. It's off by .15mm x .16mm from hitting the proper dimensions for a 1ct stone which is 5.5mm x 5.5mm but it's not that big of a deal to my FI and I.

 

[jstarfireb]

The best way to ensure brilliance and sparkle is to go with a branded super-ideal cut like Infinity, WF A Cut Above, GOG Signature, Solasfera, BG Signature, etc. But you'll pay a premium for those. The next best bet would be a non-branded stone graded as ideal for light performance by AGS. There's also a slight premium over GIA for that. If you go with a non-AGS graded stone, you'll need detailed images. The more info, the better. Table and depth mean very little when it comes to princess-cut diamonds. What you need is an ASET image, which gives you a color map of light reflection. This is why I highly recommend just a few vendors for buying a princess online (Whiteflash, GOG, Wink Jones, Brian Gavin, etc.). You can find cheaper stones at Blue Nile but won't be able to see pictures (which IMO is an absolute necessity for non-round stones). You can see pics at James Allen and they'll give you up to 3 ASETs, so I'd start there for cheaper stones - but keep in mind you'll have to weed through a lot of lower quality stones to find just a few good ones.

You could also consider square stones with a facet pattern more similar to rounds (H&A-style squares), but I preferred the splintery sparkle and sharp corners of the true princess, and you might also. Again, H&A squares are specialty cuts and tend to cost more.

I'm not sure you can find what you want in your budget. For example, this 1ct G/VS2 is over $7k:
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut-loose-diamond-2928617.htm
If you want the sparkle, you will almost certainly have to relax your standards to 1ct (both cheaper and easier to find then 1.2ish), H-I color, SI1, and even then most ideals will be out of budget.

Personally I wouldn't take a chance on an EGL stone because the color grading in particular can be off. 30 days may not be enough to get an independent appraisal and make the decision whether or not to send it back.

 

[distracts]

You should not look at any EGL stones - only GIA or AGS. EGL grading is not consistent, so you have no idea when you buy an EGL stone if you are getting what you paid for. The only time I would recommend an EGL stone is if you are fine overpaying for a product that is inferior to what you think you are getting... which I think most people are never fine with.

Personally I'd get this princess of hearts, which has a square shape but the sparkle of an ideal-cut round:
http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/9988/
http://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond/9982/ (a slightly larger/more expensive one - you can see the price by clicking "reserve" which does nothing but put it in your shopping cart)

And if you are really stuck on 1.2/G/VS2, I'd double your budget. :-/

 

[Parachute07]

Sorry to bring back the dead, but I realized I never thanked you all for your help or updated you on the outcome.

First of all, thank you very much. All of your information was greatly appreciated and considered.

I ended up with a 1.19ct Princess Cut with 66 table and 74 depth -- a little deeper than ideal, but the small table sure made for the brilliance I was looking for. It was GIA certified G in color, VVS1 clarity. It is an absolutely gorgeous stone....and I paid $5050 for it. I upped the budget a few hundred bucks, but got what felt like an absolute steal. I bought it through a Pricescope vendor (with the Pricescope wire discount), though it was a vendor not often discussed here. I don't think my experience or price were typical as I've looked over the past year and change since buying and haven't seen a diamond with similar characteristics near the price. And yes, I brought it to a gemologist -- two, in fact in the end. The first just to put it under the microscope and verify the GIA laser engraving and characteristics and the second for a full blown appraisal. Both actually guessed at an E-F in color. The first actually seemed pretty surprised when I told her it was a G -- she put it back under the scope and compared directly with her master stones and said it definitely looked whiter than her master G, but that's a problem I wasn't unhappy to have.

At any rate, without the knowledge I picked up here, I wouldn't have known exactly what to look for -- and I wouldn't have known as well that this was the right stone to jump on. And it was -- a year later and my fiancee still gets compliments from random people who notice it. Thanks for your help.