Do the diamonds in a pave setting affect how center stone looks?

[dl090909]

Hi everyone --
I have an H-color oval e-ring in a French pave setting that is set with with G/F diamonds, but am worried that the color difference between the stones is visible to the naked eye. The colors are two color grades apart, so it seems reasonable to think that I can see the color difference. I didn't notice the difference myself for a day or two, but once I saw it, I couldn't unsee it. What do you think -- can you see the difference or am I being overly sensitive and this is all in my head?? Here are three photos in natural light. Please let me know what you all think!!

 

[Luce]

Hi DI, the pave will always look whiter than your center stone just because of the way the small stones reflect the light. I would not be concerned. Your stone looks nice and white!

 

[GolfingGreen]

Hi! Yes, I can see it, and it is the most obvious in the last photo.
I had a similar experience. I have a plain solitaire that is a H color. I had intended to wear it with a plain knife edge wedding band, but on a whim, I decided to try on an eternity band. The eternity was F/G diamonds and when I tried it on, the first thing my husband said was "it makes your diamond look yellow". So that ended any thought of adding an eternity later. Unfortunately, that is a side effect of color differences when you put them side by side. I have seen rings though that do not show different colors.

For what it's worth, my H color e-ring is all by itself... just a simple solitaire, no other diamonds to compete with it, and I see still faint yellow in my H so that is just the nature of that color.

Your ring is beautiful and ovals have a special place in my heart as that was the first engagement ring my now husband surprised me with. Your oval is gorgeous and the French pave band is perfect with it. You could change your band to H color diamonds, but I would not do that as now all stones will be an H and I think that will really highlight the yellow even more. So leave it is my suggestion.

I think your ring is gorgeous as it is. Keep it the way it is and enjoy it!

 

[WillyDiamond]

yes

 

[unsettled]

I have a GIA H round diamond. And my wedding band is a 7 stone from WF and it has F/G colored diamonds. I see the difference. It doesn't bother me enough to change either of them at this point. But I do see it. And I NEVER saw any color in my H center stone until I got the wedding band.

I love your ring! Ovals are so classy and elegant!

 

[GolfingGreen]

H! Me again! So I just happened to mention your experience to my husband and showed him the photos. He has a good eye and is color sensitive and he says he can really see it. So.... if you are like him and it really bugs you now, maybe see if they change the pave band. I am sure a jeweler can match the stone to the pave... I see pave stones with large diamonds all the time.

I do know how you feel once you see something, you cannot unsee it.

Good luck to you!

 

[dl090909]

Hi DI, the pave will always look whiter than your center stone just because of the way the small stones reflect the light. I would not be concerned. Your stone looks nice and white!

Interesting! Do you know why the small stones reflect the light differently than the center stone?

 

[dl090909]

H! Me again! So I just happened to mention your experience to my husband and showed him the photos. He has a good eye and is color sensitive and he says he can really see it. So.... if you are like him and it really bugs you now, maybe see if they change the pave band. I am sure a jeweler can match the stone to the pave... I see pave stones with large diamonds all the time.

I do know how you feel once you see something, you cannot unsee it.

Good luck to you!

Thank you -- and your husband! Appreciate you coming back to this with a second response lol!

I love my center stone, and I was thinking it'd be easier to change to a solitaire setting than change the stones on a pave setting (though I am not a jeweler so I may be wrong!). Since there are no stones directly next to the center, the color would be less noticeable, right? Do you think the same? And in your solitaire e-ring setting, do you even notice the yellow since there are no stones right next to it?

 

[Luce]

Interesting! Do you know why the small stones reflect the light differently than the center stone?

I have heard that pave tends to return white light because of how small the flashes are.

 

[KingKuda]

I can only see it on the last photo but you are over thinking things.

The reality is that you could have looked at 99 rings before this and never noticed it, but once it is 'your' ring you pick up absolutely every imperfection.

I looked at your photos without reading your post and my initial reaction after looking at all 3 photos 'was wow, what a beautiful ring, I wish my GF wanted an oval shaped diamond'. Then after reading your post I went back to the photos and analysed each closely and only in the third photo did I notice a difference.

That to me says that 99% of the people that look at the ring will react like I did, which is a nodd of approval rather than anything else.

 

[cflutist]

Your ring is fine, H is still pretty white. I would enjoy it as is. I have a special place in my heart for ovals as well. My 2nd e-ring was an oval.

Just fyi, here are two CBI diamonds taken in natural light to show body color,
2.21 F-SI1 (Vatche Serenity) and 2.79 F-VS1 (HPD Symphonie) with F/G VS melee.

 

[GolfingGreen]

Thank you -- and your husband! Appreciate you coming back to this with a second response lol!

I love my center stone, and I was thinking it'd be easier to change to a solitaire setting than change the stones on a pave setting (though I am not a jeweler so I may be wrong!). Since there are no stones directly next to the center, the color would be less noticeable, right? Do you think the same? And in your solitaire e-ring setting, do you even notice the yellow since there are no stones right next to it?

Hi! I am so glad you suggested this because I almost brought this up but did not want to upset you.

You could make it a solitare. I killed the idea of an eternity for that exact reason. Like you, I love my diamond and I want it to be the star.

My ring has faint faint yellow in certain lighting but 90% of the time, it looks white white. I saw @unsettled had a similar experience so if you are not tied to the pavé, I would swap it out.
Your ring is really gorgeous! But it’s up to you what your tolerance is.

 

[Luce]

I hope LaylaR doesn't mind me quoting her from another post, she explained it much better than I can:

It's not a function of the colors of the melee stones compared to the color of the center stone. It's a function of the light performance of the different sized facets. A full cut round pave stone has 57 facets (excluding the culet). That's 57 tiny facets. Those tiny facets are going to reflect very little color from the environment and they strongly favor white, not colored, light. The body color of the melee has very little to do with it-- especially of full cut melee that are small enough to qualify as pave. So the melee are going to stay white in most environments.

Now, even if you have a center stone of the same color as the melee, in an ideal cut round brilliant (best light return) and you are talking about the same number of facets-- the relative facet size will still result in a percieved color difference in some light and environments. The larger facets of the center stone will reflect the variety of colors from the environment and will give off colored light as well as white-- and that will result in some contrast to the pave because the small pave facets aren't going to pick and reflect much of that. So the pave will remain white while the center is reacting to what's around it picking up and throwing off color.

Body color of the center stone can play a factor as well but again, not as much as performance does.

 

[dl090909]

Hi! I am so glad you suggested this because I almost brought this up but did not want to upset you.

You could make it a solitare. I killed the idea of an eternity for that exact reason. Like you, I love my diamond and I want it to be the star.

My ring has faint faint yellow in certain lighting but 90% of the time, it looks white white. I saw @unsettled had a similar experience so if you are not tied to the pavé, I would swap it out.
Your ring is really gorgeous! But it’s up to you what your tolerance is.

Thanks for the advice! And to clarify, did you husband see the color difference in all three pics or just the last one?

 

[dl090909]

I hope LaylaR doesn't mind me quoting her from another post, she explained it much better than I can:

It's not a function of the colors of the melee stones compared to the color of the center stone. It's a function of the light performance of the different sized facets. A full cut round pave stone has 57 facets (excluding the culet). That's 57 tiny facets. Those tiny facets are going to reflect very little color from the environment and they strongly favor white, not colored, light. The body color of the melee has very little to do with it-- especially of full cut melee that are small enough to qualify as pave. So the melee are going to stay white in most environments.

Now, even if you have a center stone of the same color as the melee, in an ideal cut round brilliant (best light return) and you are talking about the same number of facets-- the relative facet size will still result in a percieved color difference in some light and environments. The larger facets of the center stone will reflect the variety of colors from the environment and will give off colored light as well as white-- and that will result in some contrast to the pave because the small pave facets aren't going to pick and reflect much of that. So the pave will remain white while the center is reacting to what's around it picking up and throwing off color.

Body color of the center stone can play a factor as well but again, not as much as performance does.

thanks!

 

[dl090909]

Your ring is fine, H is still pretty white. I would enjoy it as is. I have a special place in my heart for ovals as well. My 2nd e-ring was an oval.

Just fyi, here are two CBI diamonds taken in natural light to show body color,
2.21 F-SI1 (Vatche Serenity) and 2.79 F-VS1 (HPD Symphonie) with F/G VS melee.

Thanks. And your rings are gorgeous!

 

[dl090909]

I can only see it on the last photo but you are over thinking things.

The reality is that you could have looked at 99 rings before this and never noticed it, but once it is 'your' ring you pick up absolutely every imperfection.

I looked at your photos without reading your post and my initial reaction after looking at all 3 photos 'was wow, what a beautiful ring, I wish my GF wanted an oval shaped diamond'. Then after reading your post I went back to the photos and analysed each closely and only in the third photo did I notice a difference.

That to me says that 99% of the people that look at the ring will react like I did, which is a nodd of approval rather than anything else.

Thanks! Yes, have been picking up on minor, MINOR things like this color difference but can't tell if it's indeed because I am overthinking or because they are real issues!

 

[dl090909]

I have a GIA H round diamond. And my wedding band is a 7 stone from WF and it has F/G colored diamonds. I see the difference. It doesn't bother me enough to change either of them at this point. But I do see it. And I NEVER saw any color in my H center stone until I got the wedding band.

I love your ring! Ovals are so classy and elegant!

Thanks! Is your e-ring a solitaire or pave, or something else?

 

[lagirlie]

I’m worried about this happening. My stone is a J... should I tell the jeweler to try to match it? (DK)?? Or should I even try a rose gold or something? Would that help?

 

[Lykame]

Hi!

Your ring is gorgeous!

I too can see the colour difference in all the pictures, but it's nearly negligible in the first two and only obvious in the last one - what lighting was it taken in compared to the others?

If this is something you have only just noticed, give it a few more days before making any big decisions. You might discover that your feelings change about it, or that actually you only notice in only very specific scenarios (terrible yellow office lighting or something) and that you feel that compared to the beauty of the ring as it is, that is something you can tolerate. What does the profile of the ring look like?

There are a number of rings on here with H/I/J central stones and higher coloured melee... Yes you can see the difference, but they're all beautiful rings... Maybe it'll become something you embrace rather than find annoying... But equally, if it's going to drive you batty, give it a bit more time and then think about either changing the melee colour or going solitaire!

Best of luck and congratulations on your beautiful ring!

 

[GolfingGreen]

Thanks for the advice! And to clarify, did you husband see the color difference in all three pics or just the last one?

Hi! Yes, he said it when he saw the first photo. I think it's really up to you if it would bug you. You can keep it and it's beautiful, truly. Or, if you can change it to a solitaire. And then last option, you could get lower colored pave stones, but that would really be a lot of effort.

I have seen rings with pave that perfectly match and I have seen rings where the pave makes the diamond look yellow, so it's really up to you and how much you can tolerate. I also see this the worst in eternity rings (there is a thread on lower colored diamonds somewhere here on PS where there is a lot of that happening... people matching lower colored e-rings with eternities). So it's really preference.

I would say this... your oval is too gorgeous to let a small pave ruin it mentally for you, so if you cannot unsee it, I would change the setting. You will be staring at this ring for a long time so you really need to love it. It doesn't matter what people see, it's what you see and what your heart says every time you look at it.

Good luck!

 

[Austina]

I can only see the colour in the last photo, the other 2 photos, they look the same to me.

I have an H marquise with f/g pave and I can’t say the pave looks significantly different to the H centre stone.

 

[eapj]

I can’t see any difference but I’ve also learned that I’m not particularly color sensitive (which I didn’t know was a term until PS!). I don’t think people you encounter is tour daily life would notice but if it bothers you, that’s another story.

 

[yssie]

I’m worried about this happening. My stone is a J... should I tell the jeweler to try to match it? (DK)?? Or should I even try a rose gold or something? Would that help?

Lower-coloured full-cut melee won’t help: the explanation posted earlier in this thread holds regardless of melee body colour (until you’re in strongly-coloured territory).

You can mitigate this issue with low-coloured single-cut melee. This is an option if
1. Your jeweller can source low-coloured high-quality single-cut melee,
2. You like the look of singe-cut melee, and
3. You don’t mind paying a significant premium over full-cut melee.

 

[unsettled]

Thanks! Is your e-ring a solitaire or pave, or something else?

I have sidestones on my e-ring. I just had it reset it into this setting. I don't notice the color difference in the setting pave. But I notice the color difference from my wedding band. I don't think you can really see it in these pictures. But I can see it in real life. It doesn't bother me enough to change either of them. If the color difference bothers you, I think changing it to a solitaire would be the easiest fix. I bet you wouldn't see the color in your oval at all!

 

[unsettled]

I was able to get a picture that shows the color difference. I don’t think anyone else would ever notice. I do see it. But it doesn’t bother me.

 

[Blingalingaling]

I only see the difference in the third photo and even then, it's really only most pronounced on one half of the oval, which makes me think that maybe your stone was reflecting its surroundings or the light it was photographed in for that one. Which way do you mostly see it? Most of the time, does it look like the first two photos or the third?
I think your setting is lovely and I adore the melee with the center stone! If you changed it to a solitaire, do you think you'd miss the "blinginess" of your current setting? Doing that might eliminate the issue of the slight color difference but then create a new hurdle for you to get over. Personally, I would stay with the setting you have.
My avatar pear shaped center diamond is a D and the melee is F color (two colors lower, but still colorless) and yet at times I would say that the melee is even brighter and whiter to the eye than the pear! I'm sure that's because of the phenomenon described above. The whole thing works together, though, and I wouldn't change it.
I think your ring is truly gorgeous just the way it is!

 

[dl090909]

thank you all!