Diamond Earrings

[baltneu]

My daughter (18yrs old) is graduating from High School this year. I am considering diamond earrings, she has pierced ears. What can I say, I am a generous Dad!!!
Looking for single diamond in setting. (one for each ear, of course!)
Need suggestions on size of diamond and quality (color/clarity). thanks.

 

[Mara]

I would stick with something fairly small for an 18 year old. You don't want her to get TOO spoiled for later!

I would think something like .25c in each ear...so .50ctw is more than appropriate for a young girl. Maybe even .30ct each but that would be my mental max.




As for quality, I personally would go something like H&A since the cost difference in terms of building your own online vs a local jeweler is almost nil and the cut quality is so much better; for color I would do something like H or I and clarity definitely an eye-clean SI.




You will be able to get something really beautiful using those parameters, with H&A for something like .50-.60ctw for around $1000 if not slightly under. Good luck!!

 

[Nicrez]

Agreed with Mara, my daddy spoiled me...my poor guy will suffer...




Getting her .25 or even .30 is more than fine. Plus any girl at her age with REAL diamonds, is a lucky gal indeed! How great for her! I adore the idea of jewelry to commemorate special occassions. Maybe you can tell her if she graduated college she can upgrade? hee hee...




What a dad! Want another daughter?

 

[Mara]

Found these really quickly. WF carries alot of the smaller stones. I personally like the first .26 and the 4th one, .27...their diameters are very similar..moreso than the 2nd .26c.




There is also a pair of nice .28 H SI's on here as well. If you want to spend a little more.




White gold settings will be around $150 or so.




Good luck!

 

[pqcollectibles]

I think .5 total carat weight, maybe .6 tcw, will make a nice size. My daughters got .25 tcw as a Christmas gift from grandparents when they were 9 or 10. That size looked nice then. Now that they are 15, my old 54 pointers, tcw, are looking much nicer on them. For an 18 year old, that would be a very nice size.

You can definitely consider H&A's for these. I priced unCerted diamond stud earrings at Christmas wound up spending less going with H&A's and building my own.

 

[Buena Girl]

Just bought a pair of diamond earrings in December - for my little sis for college graduation. I found Pricescope while doing research for the purchase.

Personally, I feel the person's build might affect the size you look for. My sis has a small build and is approximately 5'3''. She has small ears, so we were looking for 0.5 tcw. If she were something like 6'1'' with a larger frame, we probably would have been looking for something bigger, maybe 1 tcw.

Also, I checked out the Pricescope vendors, but ended up buying locally. It was nice to see the loose diamonds next to each other and see that the ones we picked were a good visual match. Neither one overpowered the other, they looked almost identical (although I have very little experience in visually comparing diamonds). One of the stones was certified.

We went with the 3-prong white gold setting and 0.62 tcw. The setting was free. I think they are trying to compete with the better diamond prices from online vendors.

Hope this helped!

 

[sumi]

I agree with everyone else in terms of size. Since she is only 18, I would stick to something between .25-.30 (total of .50-.60) I think that size would look really sweet on a woman her age.

 

[Mara]

One other thing to note is that when you are dealing with well cut stones, as the H&A's listed here are...check the diameters of the stones. Both may be .28c but their diameters may be widely different. If you want the stones to look the same, the diameter is very important. Depth plays a huge part in it. If both stones are well cut, but one is 60.4 depth and one is 61.8 and both have 56% tables...then the 60.4 depth will probably be a larger diameter (depending on angles too) than the 61.8 and you may have different looking stones. So pay attn to both diameter and carat weight while searching amidst well cut stones for that *look*.

 

[fire&ice]

I just bought my niece diamond earrings. She is graduating from college & 21st birthday. I bought two .42 each stones from Linda. They were plenty big for her. That said, I think the .50-.60 total carat weight is more appropriate for high school. Many of the on-line vendors have life time trade up policies. I think Linda does as well.

I went with a simple basket 3 prong white metal low profile setting. They turned out lovely. My neice cried she was so touched. It's truly a lovely thoughtful gift.

For what it's worth, I saw nothing locally that came close to what I bought on line.

 

[baltneu]

Thanks for all the input, I have dealt with Linda in the past and may go back again.

 

[diamondnovice]

I like these matched sets. One set is a bit below 0.50 ctw and the other a bit above. The reason I like thest two sets is that their diameters, tables, girdles and angles all match very well and make excellent matched sets.

Here is the first set, a 0.215 and 0.221 I SI1 ACAs (.43 ctw) for a total of $723 not including setting.

I SI1 0.215 ct
I SI1 0.221 ct

And the second set, a 0.284 and 0.285 G SI1 ACAs (.56 ctw) for a total of $1130 not including setting.

G SI1 0.284 ct
G SI1 0.285 ct

Hope this helps.

 

[diamondnovice]

By the way, the prices I quoted above do not include the pricescope savings.