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Diamond studs - $1.5k - what's important and what can be compromised?

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fruxo

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
126
Hi.

I've only bought one diamond before (engagement ring) and now I'm looking at diamond earrings. And I feel just as confused again. Budget is flexible, but roughly $AU2000 ($US1500). Although I think I have to pay 15% duties and fees, so maybe slightly under.

My wife's priority is size, but as this is probably the only diamond studs we'll buy for the next 10 years, I don't want to compromise too much on the diamond quality. Her engagement ring is color H for example, and I feel like it's a bit too yellow, but it's like 1.6 carat so probably a lot more visible than on these studs (which will be around 0.75 carat total or thereabouts I guess based on budget).

But yeah, with size being priority, what should I compromise on? Can I maybe even get slightly flatter diamonds to maximise surface area without going higher on carats?

As I'm in Australia, I will have to buy them sight unseen. Looks like easiest way to buy them is from bluenile as they have a large range etc. The pricing is a bit confusing though. Looking at specs, some definitely seems to be "better" despite lower price. But maybe they just are cheaper for no specific reason and not because I missed something.

Any advice is much appreciated, thank you!
 
I should mention that I'm happy to get pre-set studs, but the white gold ones on bluenile seems to have very low specs, and even though the platinum ones seems better, it still seems better value to pick diamonds yourself. They recently had the platinum studs for 40% off, which would have been perfect except it was only the 0.5 carat ones.

Edit: need to buy them within 2 months. So I have a little time left, but not heaps. My budget probably seem a bit low to all diamond fanatics here, but it's a lot of money for us mortals :)
 
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I have purchased two pair of earrings from James Allen. One pair was from their "pre-set" collection and they were very well cut, very pretty & clean. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice they were.
You might want to check them out.
 
Check out IDJ. I had a great experience with them and they have really good prices
 
Nearly identicle situation, bought studs from IDJ last week, should arrive this week. I pretty blindly trusted the guy based on reviews and comments here. Hope it goes well!
 
Definitely give Yekutiel at IDJ a call...ask him for PS quality studs and he will maximize your budget and find you a beautiful pair!
 
I agree with others (call IDJ). At James Allen you are looking at .30 each I/SI1s with settings
totaling about $1460. Make sure you the stones you get from IDJ can be upgraded in the
future when your wife wants to go bigger.
 
I hadn't thought of IDJ. I visited them this winter and they were great.
 
Hi fruxo :)

For earrings, you can compromise on anything BUT size. Earrings aren't like engagement rings; people can't get up close to stare at them...and neither can the person wearing them! You almost never see the two studs next to each other - they're always separated by the wearer's head - so it's important that they match, but not important that they be identical. They're often as not covered by the wearer's hair, and in shadow, as they normally are on the ear, tint is virtually impossible to see. Also, as you suspected, the smaller the stone, the more difficult it is to see any color whatsoever - apart from the fact that smaller diamonds, just in general - look whiter than larger ones. So if your wife has an H colored e-ring, you'll be FINE going with J colored earrings.

I totally agree with going with BN or with IDJ; I've done business with both, but mostly with BN. Will IDJ actually ship to Australia? I suspect so, but am not sure. BN are old hands at shipping to Australia, so perhaps this process would be easier with them.

Alternately, do you know anyone traveling to the US? The easiest thing is to have someone bring them over.

So - your budget is roughly $1500 US. Let's take a look....

I agree with you that the pre-set earrings are nice, but not ideal. Having made all the provisos above, I would still try to stay with ideal cut stones; tint - you won't see; sparkle - you will. So ideal cut is the way to go.

This pair is the one I'd get. They're J color - which will look the same as her e-ring (maybe whiter) - and they're VS2, so nice and clean. Go to www.BlueNile.com, and in the top right corner you'll see a 'search' box. C&P the stock numbers, listed below, into that box one at a time, and it will take you to the diamonds.

Diamond 1 - LD05733300 - .45ct, J VS2, GIA triple excellent, 1.3 on the HCA, 4.95 x 4.97mm - $783

Diamond 2 - LD06587499 - .45ct, J VS2, GIA triple excellent, .8 on the HCA, 4.92 x 4.95 - $724

Total = $1507 US

These diamonds should give you lovely light return and be VERY good quality for earrings. They'll be clean, white, well cut and a nice size. If you want to beef them up somewhere down the road, buy a pair of diamond jackets and they'll have substantial presence. Even at this size, they'll look lovely on her ear. .9ctw is a very nice size in Australia for studs; I don't think your wife will be disappointed.

Good luck!
 
HI:

Mrs-B has provided good advice.

cheers--Sharon
 
It's entirely a personal preference, but if you feel that the H is a bit too yellow, I personally, would not go down to J. My e-ring is also a 1.6 ct H and I didn't want the studs any lower in color. Maybe an I, but the warmth in J really bugs me even in the smaller size. Going down in clarity to SI1 and sticking to H/I color would be my preference.
 
I will concur that if you find the H yellow, don't go below H/I. My last pair of studs were from IDJ. They're a GIA I, so that may account for something. On the ear, they're fabulous. Only time I actually see ANY tint is off the ear. On ear they are very bright and look white. (but I'm dark which helps!). to get bigger size, you should be ok with an eye clean SI1/2 if you need to drop down that far.
 
And that's the whole point, Arcadian - "on the ear". As I said above, on the ear vs on the hand are two completely different beasts. The difference between an H and a J on the ear is zero. I have 2 pairs of E colored studs and one pair of K's. On the ear - they're the same. And if they're as well cut as the ones to which I linked, the light return will make it a non-issue anyway; nobody seeing these earrings on his wife's ears is going to be looking for 'profile tint'.

Either way, the OP seems to have disappeared and the stones remain unsold. A shame.
 
Thanks for all the replies.

In regards to IDJ, I'm a little bit on the fence. Googling also showed a thread of another Australian getting a dud from them, despite being promised ps quality. I know it's just one bad experience amongst many good ones though, so I'll consider contacting them.

@mrs-b,
Appreciate the long reply with example diamonds. I'm worried worried about the color though. Her engagement ring is a H pear, and the only thing I'm disappointed in is the color. I was thinking F-G for earrings, but it sounds like I'm wrong. Being round and being smaller should both help with colour I think (not to mention that earrings would not normally be inspected as closely), so maybe I should look at H again. I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with J though.

I also noticed one of your diamonds had faint fluorescence. I assume I don't want that (or at the very least have it on both if any)?

So this is what I gather. I want something triple excellent, color H, vs2 clarity. I then run it through hca tool to double check it gets a good score. I can potentially compromise on color down to I-J and clarity down to SI1-SI2, but no compromise on the triple excellent. Does that sound about right?

Now if I reduce the clarity, how do I know that it's eye clean? What kind of clarity issue is fine and what is a no-go? I'm guessing crystal issues is what I want and I should stay away from cloud issues?

Edit: sorry for being late to reply, but I have been reading replies and I have certainly not disappeared :) it might be a few weeks before I'm brave enough to take the plunge though. It's a difficult process for the uninitiated.
 
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mrs-b, I'm not going to discount your experience. However mine is a little different. I have 3 pairs of studs. One of which is likely J-Kcolor, the others are well below that (which would not be in this discussion...lol). I can tell the difference between those and the I's on and off the ear. They're smaller, sure, but to me noticeably vanilla and not white, and for me they've NEVER looked white. I still like them though.

Of my jackets, they're and F-G. On the ear they look great, most people can't tell the difference. when I wear them with the I's I can see it though its not the worst but I will admit kinda bugs me at times. They're blingy and very pretty but still...

I might be a little color sensitive...lol

At any rate, some people are just color sensitive and reject certain colors as being too...whatever. What may not bug us (general us) might bug them and vice versa. If an H bother's some one I personally won't tell them to shoot for a J color, even on the ear. People vary. Smaller size, and maybe dropping from VS to SI1/2 would be the way to go IMO.
 
Hi fruxo -

For what this is worth....

I recently bought a pair of H SI1 stones, .43ct each, from BN for an Australian friend of mine. She is head teacher at a large TAFE and she gets comments OFTEN from both teachers, students, and friends alike regarding them being a substantial size. The ones to which I linked you were just under 5mm. This is a nice size for a stud in Australia, where diamonds across the board tend to be smaller (I'm Australian, so I have a few clues on this).

F-G for earrings would be (pls excuse the bluntness here - I mean no disrespect!) - NUTS - especially if your wife's main criteria is size. You need to grasp that diamonds on the ear aren't waving around in mid air where they can be seen from all angles. They can ONLY be seen face on. So light return is everything. And - given that it's everything - so long as you go top-shelf for cut, you simply will not see slight degrees of color.

Buying from an overseas vendor has issues associated with it. I suspect you would see no blemishes on the ear if the stones were SI1/SI2 - but this can't be guaranteed. Your biggest defense here - against both color AND obvious inclusions is the size of the stones; you're talking about stones only slightly more than a quarter the size of your wife's engagement ring - on her ears, against skin (which ISN'T white, so there's tint there anyway, if you want to get super-detailed about it), under hair, in shadow, from a distance (I mean, if anyone is getting within a few inches of your wife's earlobes, you have bigger problems than the color of her diamonds!)

I'm including a few photos to give a sense of the difference perspective makes. My diamond and ruby ring has J colored stones. The 7 stone Tiffany ring next to it has F colored stones. Even right next to each other, the color difference is impossible to see at that size in real life settings. I'm also throwing in a photo of my K colored studs in yellow gold because they're VERY bright in real life. Light return is everything....

Could you see color difference between a 1.6ct H colored stone and a .45ct J colored stone? I think it's highly unlikely. But even if you did - would you see a difference on the ear? Definitely not. But will you see a SIZE difference between a .3ct stone and a .45ct stone? Yes. You will. Lastly, I'm also including a photo of my H colored 2.15ct engagement ring. It was VERY white (I no longer have it and went down to a 3.61ct I colored stone - also very white). I'm kind of wondering now if your H was on the low end of the scale for that grade. Is your engagement ring stone certified by the GIA? That might answer some questions.

ETA Sorry - just to add for interest's sake - the J colored stones in my 5 stone ruby and diamond ring are... .45ct each! :)

IMG_2356.JPG

IMG_2355 copy.JPG

IMG_2531.JPG

H SI1.JPG
 
Hi Arcadian -

Just a quick response here, since I don't want to turn this into a thread-jack.

You say your studs are 'likely J-K'. Does that mean they aren't certified? If that's the case, then I wouldn't use them as a comparison base-point because it's impossible to tell. Also, since colors are graded on a sliding scale, there's more difference between J and K than there is between I and J. I and J are both in the 'near colorless' category, while K's aren't.

As you mentioned - you see the color in your I stones when you wear them with your F jackets. For myself, I'd steer away from more than a 1 grade color difference in that situation; 3 grades is a lot, and I'd expect to see a difference. If the OP's wife isn't wearing jackets of a markedly different color, though, this shouldn't be an issue which he has to address.

I'd consider myself to be very color sensitive, and I HATE profile tint, so set stones specifically to minimize it if I'm in the color area where it's visible. But well cut, GIA/AGS graded J's on ear lobes aren't a problem. And were he to bezel set...end of any sideways tint possibility anyway.

OP - if you see this - it might be worth your time to look through the earring thread so you can see studs of all colors. Here's the link:

https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/show-me-your-diamond-studs.51981/

Good luck! :wavey:
 
fruxo said:
Thanks for all the replies.

In regards to IDJ, I'm a little bit on the fence. Googling also showed a thread of another Australian getting a dud from them, despite being promised ps quality. I know it's just one bad experience amongst many good ones though, so I'll consider contacting them.

@mrs-b,
Appreciate the long reply with example diamonds. I'm worried worried about the color though. Her engagement ring is a H pear, and the only thing I'm disappointed in is the color. I was thinking F-G for earrings, but it sounds like I'm wrong. Being round and being smaller should both help with colour I think (not to mention that earrings would not normally be inspected as closely), so maybe I should look at H again. I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with J though.

I also noticed one of your diamonds had faint fluorescence. I assume I don't want that (or at the very least have it on both if any)?

So this is what I gather. I want something triple excellent, color H, vs2 clarity. I then run it through hca tool to double check it gets a good score. I can potentially compromise on color down to I-J and clarity down to SI1-SI2, but no compromise on the triple excellent. Does that sound about right?

Now if I reduce the clarity, how do I know that it's eye clean? What kind of clarity issue is fine and what is a no-go? I'm guessing crystal issues is what I want and I should stay away from cloud issues?

Edit: sorry for being late to reply, but I have been reading replies and I have certainly not disappeared :) it might be a few weeks before I'm brave enough to take the plunge though. It's a difficult process for the uninitiated.
Click to expand...

My studs came in from IDJ and they are beautiful. Pricing felt very fair for what I got. Worth giving him a call.
 
Fruxo...you can not compare the color of an H pear against round stones. Pears do not return light
like well cut rounds do. Pears have a pointed end that contain what we call "mush". The mush
does not return light well so you basically see a lot of the color in it. Depending how well your
pear is cut you may even see color in the rounded end. (My Ering is a pear).

Just a reminder that color is graded face down. Well cut rounds will return light better and will look brighter and whiter than your pear. I personally think you can go to an H/I in a well cut round. My
only concerns is that you are an Aussie and will have a hard time returning them if the color is not
acceptable. I guess we dont need to mention that your budget is a bit tight for decent size stones in a
higher (DEFGH) color? Something has to give in these cases...
 
Ahhhhh - tyty333 - thank you! I completely missed that it was a pear and wondered if fruxo had an EGL graded round, or something similar. Got it now. And yes, an H colored 1.6ct pear will show plenty of warmth in one end and possibly both. Fruxo, if you see my profile photo, you'll see 4 pears in it that I bought for earrings; they're all F's for that very reason.

Btw, the faint fluorescence is of no consequence. I use faint/negligible as my search parameters, because I'm not a fan of fluorescence. Many here are - it's personal taste. But faint is closer to "I dont like fluorescence and I'd rather avoid it".

Again, take a look at the diamond studs link and see what you think. And - again - I think IDJ would do a fine job, but I know BN have more experience in shipping to Australia, and I think that's the issue here.
 
On the diamond stud thread, on the very last page, a member called peonyinlove has a lovely pair of J SI1 .49ct stones. You can get a sense of size and color, though they would, of course, be far prettier in real life where you can see the twinkle. Your studs - either from BN or IDJ would look very like this, if you went with a .9 ctw pair. I also like the bezel setting, though this, again, is personal taste, and up to your wife.

Arcadian - I also saw your studs and your jackets on that thread and they look lovely. :)
 
I bought mine froM BGD during one of their Black Friday sales, but have had good experience with the customer service from IDJ. I am ridiculously colour sensitive and bought K studs (AGS certs). I can certainly see the tint in my hand, though it doesn't bother me on the ears as it's all sparkle when I look in the mirror.

IDJ will ship to Australia if you are going with them. Although you can get more bang for your buck with uncerted stones, you can request certed stones if the uncertainty bothers you and they are still competitively priced.

Also remember that you can request they send things to you under the AUSFTA (I think this still exists for now?) so you only have to pay GST.
 
Hi again.

With all the engagement ring talk, I thought I should clarify. It's 1.6carat, pear shaped, H color, GIA certified. It also has a halo. Although the first thing I noticed was the color, she really likes the size and I would make that same compromise again, despite knowing now that it's not as white as I first thought.

That said, I'm sure you are right. I need to compromise on colour and I'm considering J (but hoping to find something slightly above). But as also mentioned, I can't really return them if I'm unhappy. And even though there are many factors which makes these things less important while wearing them on ear, I'd like them to be able to hold up to some scrutiny off ear as well. I'm also not getting a bezel, just plain diamond studs.

I appreciate all photos, but it's very hard to see these these things on photos. I did stop by our biggest diamond store and compared a "cheap" 0.7 ish pair against a more expensive pair, and I could definitely tell the difference. When I asked, she said they were not certified, so I didn't take too much notice of what colour it was marked at though.

@Crystal_Dreams,
Thanks for reminding me of the AUSFTA. That would mean a 10% charge instead of 15%. Bluenile lists it as 15% though. Do you know if they are happy to supply the AUSFTA forms?

@everyone,
I'll also post this again as I think it got lost in the color discussion:
I want something triple excellent, color H, vs2 clarity. I then run it through hca tool to double check it gets a good score. I can potentially compromise on color down to I-J and clarity down to SI1-SI2, but no compromise on the triple excellent. Does that sound about right?
 
You dont have to have triple Excellent. Excellent+ on the cut (always) but the symmetry and polish
can be Very Good/Excellent.

There is a video on round colors you can check out that GOG produced. It is the second video on this
page. They cover a range of diamond colors and show how upside down you can see a tint but
face up it is much more difficult (when they are well cut and returning light well).
https://www.goodoldgold.com/diamond-color
 
tyty333 said:
You dont have to have triple Excellent. Excellent+ on the cut (always) but the symmetry and polish
can be Very Good/Excellent.
Click to expand...

Great, thanks.
 
I'm not sure about blue nile as I've not made any significant purchases through them... only really cheap studs YEARS ago (not great quality) that came in under $1000.

The AUSFTA would mean you pay 10% + import fees (which is whatever processing fees they charge through customs) but no duty which is the 5% extra.

I would highly recommend IDJ though... if you find certed stones (I can see you're looking for triple excellent stones so I assume you want certed) on blue nile for example, I would approach IDJ and see if they can get you either those same stones or better for a lower price. They usually can.
 
Crystal_Dreams said:
I'm not sure about blue nile as I've not made any significant purchases through them... only really cheap studs YEARS ago (not great quality) that came in under $1000.

The AUSFTA would mean you pay 10% + import fees (which is whatever processing fees they charge through customs) but no duty which is the 5% extra.

I would highly recommend IDJ though... if you find certed stones (I can see you're looking for triple excellent stones so I assume you want certed) on blue nile for example, I would approach IDJ and see if they can get you either those same stones or better for a lower price. They usually can.
Click to expand...

Bought studs and a ring from BGD in the last 6 months and yes, the GST gets whacked on import (I'm Aussie too). The fees charged by FedEx and other import fees do add up (around an extra 5% from memory). Having said that, the quality of stones you can get online far exceeds the quality of stones I've seen in shops (chain and independent family owned boutiques) here in Brisbane and it still works out cheaper (for me, others may have different experiences).
 
I agree I have bought two pairs of .80 studs "price scope quality" from IDJ within your budget they are F color si1 and ideal cut. My daughters are thrilled with them you can't go wrong with ID jewelry.
 
I emailed IDJ for recommendations.

I explained my situation and that I'd much prefer to step up to H or at least I if possible and that I'd be ok with SI if eye clean. Fingers crossed they come back with some good suggestions.
 
Hi Fruxo,
While I haven't read all the replies, I want to suggest that you go to some jewelers in Australia, and look at the GIA stones for color to see what would be acceptable to you. That way you won't feel blind going forward. At least you will know what color you like.

Annette
 
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