Help Selecting a stone

[DjScibbity]

Hi all, Ive been looking more and more lately for a round brilliant (stone only) for an upcoming marriage proposal.

I recently had a brief conversation with Yekutial at ID Jewelry and he sent me his recommendation for this stone:

http://www.bluenile.com/diamond-search?track=head#diamonds_pid=LD02524112

He swears it is eye clean and a beautiful stone, but the SI2 and high fluorescense kind of scares me. Im most concerned with cut (as I should be). Should I be concerned with fluorescense? He said it didnt effect the look of the stone (didnt make it look cloudy).

Ive found a few EGL certed stones that were just over one carat with excellent cuts (and HCA #s seemed to be good), but Yekutiel told me to "stay away from EGL" He said that they rate 2 scores higher (if youre lucky) or more than AGS or GIA for the same given stone

This is one I found on his site for comparison purposes:
http://idjewelryonline.com/diamond_more1.php?id=31877001&osCsid=8f3pmpdi10gud8p1979eq0cef4

Should I really avoid EGL at all costs?

My budget is $4000-$4500 (prefer to stay closer to $4k, but if its an awesome stone, I have a bit of flexibility) for just the stone.

Again, Id like an awesome cut, as close to 1 carat as I can get (with proper proportions, and excellent symmetry and polish). As for color, I was hoping for an H or I. Clarity - as long as it is "Eye-Clean" that the most important. Would like a VS2, but as long as it is eye clean, can go down to SI2

Any stone recommendations, comments, or advice is welcome

Thanks everyone!

 

[marymm]

I *love* that BN stone that Yekutiel recommended to you - it scores AGA 1A and 1.6 HCA - the listed inclusion is "twinning wisp" which very often is colorless and basically invisible to the naked eye (though always need to confirm this) - as Yekutiel has said it is eyeclean and that the fluor has no adverse effect, if it were me and I could afford this stone I would jump on it - if anything the strong fluor will seem to make the stone look whiter and brighter. (And I would not recommend EGL stones - you can do a PS "search" to find lots and lots of threads on EGL graded stones.)

 

[Christina...]

Yuketiel is correct about EGL grading being soft. The point is a diamond is worth whats it's worth, EGL is not selling a stone for thousands of dollars less than GIA or EGL to offer up consumers a deal, they are selling inferiorly graded diamonds to make you feel as though you are getting a deal.