K round diamond for yellow gold ring

[MC7]

Hi,

It's my first time buying a ring/diamond so I would very much appreciate some advice. I've done some research, narrowed it down via HCA as well, and requested idealscopes for 3 stones from James Allen. They're all ~1.25carat, K-color, VS1 or VVS2, GIA-rated, Excellent Cut, HCA scores around 1.5 and very similarly priced (~2% range).

I tried to compare them to the Idealscope reference chart, but I wasn't sure where to place them - I can see issues with all of them (like where the arrows don't align perfectly), but they don't look terrible to me either.



Thank you in advance for you help.

Thanks,

 

[MC7]

I guess my question is whether any of these is a good one, or whether I should keep looking (and in that case, what are the issues with these ones).

Here are the links to the website as well.

1.26 Carat round diamond

This 1.26 carat round diamond K color vs1 clarity has Excellent proportions and a diamond grading report from GIA

www.jamesallen.com

1.23 Carat round diamond

This 1.23 carat round diamond K color vs1 clarity has Excellent proportions and a diamond grading report from GIA

www.jamesallen.com

1.24 Carat round diamond

This 1.24 carat round diamond K color vvs2 clarity has Excellent proportions and a diamond grading report from GIA

www.jamesallen.com

Thanks

 

[tyty333]

They all look like they would be good performers (from the idealscope). I think my favorite since this is a lower color, would be the 1.23. It looks
to have a larger table they could possibly let a little more light in.

Edit...what is the crown, pavilion, table, and depth on the1.23?

Might as well post it for all of them. PSers want all the info.

 

[MC7]

Hi,

I pasted a table below, I hope the formatting doesn't get messed up. They're in the same order as above.

Carat	Table	Depth	Crown	Pavillon
1.26​	56.0%​	62.4%​	35.5%​	40.6%​
1.23​	60.0%​	59.6%​	33.5%​	40.8%​
1.24​	55.0%​	62.8%​	36.0%​	40.6%​

Thank you

 

[lovedogs]

Hi,

I pasted a table below, I hope the formatting doesn't get messed up. They're in the same order as above.

Carat	Table	Depth	Crown	Pavillon
1.26​	56.0%​	62.4%​	35.5%​	40.6%​
1.23​	60.0%​	59.6%​	33.5%​	40.8%​
1.24​	55.0%​	62.8%​	36.0%​	40.6%​

Thank you

I would personally choose #1 because it has the look I prefer (clear arrows, not "splintery". #3 is deeper than I like and the 36 crown makes the arrows almost look "crowded" to me in the middle--not sure how to describe it. #2 is more of a 60/60 style stone, which isn't my personal preference.

Edit. The one I like (#1) looks the most obviously tinted/brown. So if that will bother you then dont choose that one

 

[MC7]

I would personally choose #1 because it has the look I prefer (clear arrows, not "splintery". #3 is deeper than I like and the 36 crown makes the arrows almost look "crowded" to me in the middle--not sure how to describe it. #2 is more of a 60/60 style stone, which isn't my personal preference.

Edit. The one I like (#1) looks the most obviously tinted/brown. So if that will bother you then dont choose that one

thank you for the comment!

The ring will be yellow gold (solitaire), and I was planning on picking a setting with yellow prongs to compensate for the color a bit, so hopefully it won't be a problem.

From what I've gathered online, K is fine for yellow gold but please let me know if you think otherwise.

Thanks

 

[lovedogs]

thank you for the comment!

The ring will be yellow gold (solitaire), and I was planning on picking a setting with yellow prongs to compensate for the color a bit, so hopefully it won't be a problem.

From what I've gathered online, K is fine for yellow gold but please let me know if you think otherwise.

Thanks

It depends on what you mean by "fine". Will it look tinted? Yes. Even in yellow gold (imho). I say this as someone who prefers tinted/slight brown stones, so I love them. But if your gf is expecting a white diamond then I wouldn't go this route.

 

[AV_]

Good choices...

There is nothing much said of how varieties of HCA Ideal play with - color @Garry H (Cut Nut), so just playing it by the year, would pick the 1.23

 

[MC7]

It depends on what you mean by "fine". Will it look tinted? Yes. Even in yellow gold (imho). I say this as someone who prefers tinted/slight brown stones, so I love them. But if your gf is expecting a white diamond then I wouldn't go this route.

Thank you!

There's also this one which sadly doesn't have idealscop available, but looks whiter. What do you think?

Carat	Table	Depth	Crown	Pavillon
1.25	57.0%	62.0%	36.0%	40.6

1.25 Carat round diamond

This 1.25 carat round diamond K color vs2 clarity has Excellent proportions and a diamond grading report from GIA

www.jamesallen.com

 

[lovedogs]

Thank you!

There's also this one which sadly doesn't have idealscop available, but looks whiter. What do you think?

Carat	Table	Depth	Crown	Pavillon
1.25	57.0%	62.0%	36.0%	40.6

1.25 Carat round diamond

This 1.25 carat round diamond K color vs2 clarity has Excellent proportions and a diamond grading report from GIA

www.jamesallen.com

I don't really like how it looks TBH. I think of the choices you gave above with the IS, the 60/60 style one looks like a good performer and much whiter than the one I liked.

 

[lovedogs]

PS. what is your buddget? It's possible you can get a whiter stone if you are willing to drop to VS2 or eye clean SI1.

 

[MC7]

PS. what is your buddget? It's possible you can get a whiter stone if you are willing to drop to VS2 or eye clean SI1.

Budget-wise I was looking up to $4.5k for now (I'm in the UK so after tax/customs + ring itself I assume I'm looking at $6.5k-$7k which seems reasonable.
For the right stone I could look a bit higher, but I probably wouldn't want to go much above $5k for stone alone.

 

[MC7]

I filtered on SI1 and HCA <2.0 and the only one that seemed nice was this one. It had some small flaws, but I just don't know if those are visibly by eye or not.

Carat	Table	Depth	Crown	Pavillon
1.21​	58.0%​	62.0%​	35.5%​	40.6%​

1.21 Carat round diamond

This 1.21 carat round diamond K color si1 clarity has Excellent proportions and a diamond grading report from GIA

www.jamesallen.com

 

[LittleKite]

1.26-K-VS1, I like the cut, the arrow patterns, and angles and table size, but not the body color. It has some grey/green tone.
1.23-K-VS1, it is a 60-60 diamond. I personally do not like big table and low crown height.
1.24-K-VVS2, I like the body color and the small table. The crown angle and depth are too large.
1.25-K-VS2, the arrow patterns do not look symmetric. I will skip this one.
1.21-K-SI1, I like the body color and the arrow patterns. The table size, depth, and angles are fine. Can you check if you can get an idealscope image?
Overall my vote is for the 1.21-K-SI1.

An alternative is this 1.17-J-SI1 true heart, graded by AGS.

1.17 Carat round diamond

This True Hearts TM diamond, 1.17 carat J color si1 clarity has ideal proportions and a diamond grading report from AGS

www.jamesallen.com

 

[Snowdrop13]

For the budget, you could have a superideal cut 6.65mm stone,

Diamond | 1.116 ct K VS2 A CUT ABOVE® Hearts and Arrows Super Ideal Round Cut Loose Diamond AGS Certified | 4187452

This Whiteflash A CUT ABOVE® super ideal cut hearts and arrows 1.116 carat K color VS2 clarity loose diamond is graded by the American Gem Society (AGS) Laboratories. | 4187452

www.whiteflash.com

or a James Allen True Hearts with an AGS cert,

1.23 Carat round diamond

This True Hearts TM diamond, 1.23 carat K color vs2 clarity has ideal proportions and a diamond grading report from AGS

www.jamesallen.com

 

[MC7]

Thank you for your comments.

Here are the data on the two from JA website. The AGS reports also have a more colorful version of the idealscope picture - the K-1.238 seems more symmetricl to my newbie eyes but not sure what to look for really. On the other hand, the 1.173-J-SI2 has better color and seems brighter/more sparkly in the picture.

Carat	Table	Depth	Crown	Pavillon	Color	Clarity
1.173​	57.9%​	61.8%​	35.2%​	40.7%​	J	SI1
1.238​	57.4%​	60.2%​	34.2%​	40.8%​	K	VS2

1.173-J-SI1


1.238-K-VS2


Regarding the 1.21-K-SI1 that LittleKite recommended - I was told they have an Idealscope image so I'm currently waiting for it (they said it could take up to 24 hours...).

Ring-wise - my girlfriend likes simple designs so I was thinking something like this, but I'm not sure if the bezel has a good/bad impact on "sparkliness" (that seems to be the main consideration for my girlfriend )

18K Yellow Gold Classic Split Shank Solitaire Diamond Engagement Ring

This solitaire ring gracefully accentuates the center stone with a delicate split shank. A minimalistic design that will not go unnoticed

www.jamesallen.com

Thank you

 

[lydial]

I love that ring. it will be beautiful. Look at the ACA suggested above. The stone on my avatar is a 2.7ct K by CBI. Cut makes the diamond.

 

[MC7]

I love that ring. it will be beautiful. Look at the ACA suggested above. The stone on my avatar is a 2.7ct K by CBI. Cut makes the diamond.

apologies for a silly question but what is ACA?

 

[LittleKite]

apologies for a silly question but what is ACA?

ACA stands for A cut above. The top-cut picked by white flash.

 

[LittleKite]

Thank you for your comments.

Here are the data on the two from JA website. The AGS reports also have a more colorful version of the idealscope picture - the K-1.238 seems more symmetricl to my newbie eyes but not sure what to look for really. On the other hand, the 1.173-J-SI2 has better color and seems brighter/more sparkly in the picture.

Carat	Table	Depth	Crown	Pavillon	Color	Clarity
1.173​	57.9%​	61.8%​	35.2%​	40.7%​	J	SI1
1.238​	57.4%​	60.2%​	34.2%​	40.8%​	K	VS2

1.173-J-SI1


1.238-K-VS2


Regarding the 1.21-K-SI1 that LittleKite recommended - I was told they have an Idealscope image so I'm currently waiting for it (they said it could take up to 24 hours...).

Ring-wise - my girlfriend likes simple designs so I was thinking something like this, but I'm not sure if the bezel has a good/bad impact on "sparkliness" (that seems to be the main consideration for my girlfriend )

18K Yellow Gold Classic Split Shank Solitaire Diamond Engagement Ring

This solitaire ring gracefully accentuates the center stone with a delicate split shank. A minimalistic design that will not go unnoticed

www.jamesallen.com

Thank you

The ASET scope images given by AGS are computer simulated images.
From the two images, I like 1.173 J better.

 

[Siamese Kitty]

It depends on what you mean by "fine". Will it look tinted? Yes. Even in yellow gold (imho). I say this as someone who prefers tinted/slight brown stones, so I love them. But if your gf is expecting a white diamond then I wouldn't go this route.

This is an important consideration. Has she seen a K? I think Ks can be beautiful. (I have Is in my avatar.) It's a bit taste specific, though. I think I'd adjust color up and clarity down a hair if you aren't sure but want to stick with that carat size.

 

[AV_]

I wouldn't mind this - 1.13 G/SI WWW HCA 1.8 'Fiery Ideal Cut' - which quality is quite obvious in the video, at least to me. None of the clarity characteristics is visible - they are small and scattered.


_

rant

If you are to meet expectations for a classical white diamond, I would say that a bright K set in a yellow gold - bezel, would not show 'color' to me, especially a stone with a lower crown [still, would want a good HCA score, preferably low - up to 1] because color shows in profile where brilliance plays less [& more about the cut too].


Caveats: this is my kind of ring www , & I admire what these people do to diamonds www [you can call the stone in to see what K means etc.]

 

[MC7]

This is an important consideration. Has she seen a K? I think Ks can be beautiful. (I have Is in my avatar.) It's a bit taste specific, though. I think I'd adjust color up and clarity down a hair if you aren't sure but want to stick with that carat size.

That's a fair point. Might make use of the lockdown rules loosening and venture out to a store to check out the color. Might do that on Saturday. It seems that the price jumps up significantly at J (and especially) I, so fingers crossed that she likes K color.

I looked at other ACAs, and they seem to have very nice ones, but the price tag is a bit higher.

Is there a general consensus on which one is more reputable (James Allen vs Whiteflash) or is it just a case of slightly different target audience (Whiteflash seems to have more expensive / nicer stones in general)?

 

[Siamese Kitty]

That's a fair point. Might make use of the lockdown rules loosening and venture out to a store to check out the color. Might do that on Saturday. It seems that the price jumps up significantly at J (and especially) I, so fingers crossed that she likes K color.

I looked at other ACAs, and they seem to have very nice ones, but the price tag is a bit higher.

Is there a general consensus on which one is more reputable (James Allen vs Whiteflash) or is it just a case of slightly different target audience (Whiteflash seems to have more expensive / nicer stones in general)?

J is the last step in "near colorless," so that may be playing it safer. If you think she may want to change anything in the future via upgrade, Whiteflash cannot be beat. I am biased toward them since almost all my diamond jewelry is from them. It's a consistently great product at a fair price with lots of information on hand about the stones. Any issue I have ever had with them back to 2005/6 has been resolved seamlessly and I've been made happy. Same for people whom I've referred. (I sound like an infomercial, sorry.)

However. many on these boards have had great experiences with JA, and there is a good possibility of finding an excellent stone that is maybe not super ideal, but more budget friendly than a WF stone. I wouldn't hesitate to order from them and probably will at some point. The caveat is availability at the moment-do not know what your timeline is? Some people have been mentioning that shipping has been delayed because of Covid since James Allen does not hold inventory the way Whiteflash would and there have been governmental closures.

All of this to say, both companies probably beg consideration and have pros and cons.

Good luck and let us know what you think if you venture out!

ETA: You may have trouble finding Ks or even Js in some stores. I'd call ahead. And please make sure they are showing you well cut GIA/AGS certified stones. We stopped into a Jared to look around and the guy was super knowledgeable, but had some negative things to say about Js. I was surprised. And I will tell you that my sister in law's J looks whiter than some of the Hs they showed me. Again, cut. If you can find an AGS 0, that would be great.

 

[MC7]

J is the last step in "near colorless," so that may be playing it safer. If you think she may want to change anything in the future via upgrade, Whiteflash cannot be beat. I am biased toward them since almost all my diamond jewelry is from them. It's a consistently great product at a fair price with lots of information on hand about the stones. Any issue I have ever had with them back to 2005/6 has been resolved seamlessly and I've been made happy. Same for people whom I've referred. (I sound like an infomercial, sorry.)

However. many on these boards have had great experiences with JA, and there is a good possibility of finding an excellent stone that is maybe not super ideal, but more budget friendly than a WF stone. I wouldn't hesitate to order from them and probably will at some point. The caveat is availability at the moment-do not know what your timeline is? Some people have been mentioning that shipping has been delayed because of Covid since James Allen does not hold inventory the way Whiteflash would and there have been governmental closures.

All of this to say, both companies probably beg consideration and have pros and cons.

Good luck and let us know what you think if you venture out!

ETA: You may have trouble finding Ks or even Js in some stores. I'd call ahead. And please make sure they are showing you well cut GIA/AGS certified stones. We stopped into a Jared to look around and the guy was super knowledgeable, but had some negative things to say about Js. I was surprised. And I will tell you that my sister in law's J looks whiter than some of the Hs they showed me. Again, cut. If you can find an AGS 0, that would be great.

Thanks, that was a very good advice. I looked and asked around and I haven't yet found an open store that has K-color stones. But looking at this video appeased me a bit, it does seem only slightly noticeable on the white ring, so I imagine it'll be even less so on yelow gold. -

It's a bit more than I was looking to spend, but this ACA just looks really nice and so I can't get it out of my head now. Whiteflash has a 1.5% bigger discount for wire payments so that will go a small way to equalizing it... On that note - anyone living outside of US and used Transferwise to pay for a ring/stone (ideally on whiteflash website)? That would save me even more if it's possible.

Diamond | 1.214 ct K VS1 A CUT ABOVE® Hearts and Arrows Super Ideal Round Cut Loose Diamond AGS Certified | 4187436

This Whiteflash A CUT ABOVE® super ideal cut hearts and arrows 1.214 carat K color VS1 clarity loose diamond is graded by the American Gem Society (AGS) Laboratories. | 4187436

www.whiteflash.com

Is it worth going for that one given that neither me nor my gf are experts in diamonds, so we might not be able to appreciate the difference? I guess what I'm asking is whether there would a visible difference between True Hearts (e.g. the 1.23-K-VS2 above) and this 1.21-K-VS1 ACA to justify it?

 

[LittleKite]

I do not have any experience about comparing them side by side, but I like the 1.21-K ACA much more than the 1.23-K True Hearts.

 

[MC7]

I do not have any experience about comparing them side by side, but I like the 1.21-K ACA much more than the 1.23-K True Hearts.

Thanks.

Is it just me or does the 1.21-K ACA seem less "yellow" than this 1.11-K ACA? Or is just different lighting/reflection?

Diamond | 1.116 ct K VS2 A CUT ABOVE® Hearts and Arrows Super Ideal Round Cut Loose Diamond AGS Certified | 4187452

This Whiteflash A CUT ABOVE® super ideal cut hearts and arrows 1.116 carat K color VS2 clarity loose diamond is graded by the American Gem Society (AGS) Laboratories. | 4187452

www.whiteflash.com

 

[LittleKite]

Thanks.

Is it just me or does the 1.21-K ACA seem less "yellow" than this 1.11-K ACA? Or is just different lighting/reflection?

Diamond | 1.116 ct K VS2 A CUT ABOVE® Hearts and Arrows Super Ideal Round Cut Loose Diamond AGS Certified | 4187452

This Whiteflash A CUT ABOVE® super ideal cut hearts and arrows 1.116 carat K color VS2 clarity loose diamond is graded by the American Gem Society (AGS) Laboratories. | 4187452

www.whiteflash.com

Color "K" is a range. There are K's close to J, and there are K's close to L.
When you check body color, you look at the profile view. I checked the profile view of "Brilliance" video. It looks to me that 1.11-K is a bit darker.

 

[MC7]

Color "K" is a range. There are K's close to J, and there are K's close to L.
When you check body color, you look at the profile view. I checked the profile view of "Brilliance" video. It looks to me that 1.11-K is a bit darker.

Thanks. I did that and compared with a J for reference, it does seem closer to the third one than to the first one. If only it was a couple hundred cheaper, that would make it an easier decision (I assume there's no ability to negotiate with online retailers?).

1.11-K
1.21-K
1.13-J

 

[MC7]

1.26-K-VS1, I like the cut, the arrow patterns, and angles and table size, but not the body color. It has some grey/green tone.
1.23-K-VS1, it is a 60-60 diamond. I personally do not like big table and low crown height.
1.24-K-VVS2, I like the body color and the small table. The crown angle and depth are too large.
1.25-K-VS2, the arrow patterns do not look symmetric. I will skip this one.
1.21-K-SI1, I like the body color and the arrow patterns. The table size, depth, and angles are fine. Can you check if you can get an idealscope image?
Overall my vote is for the 1.21-K-SI1.

An alternative is this 1.17-J-SI1 true heart, graded by AGS.

1.17 Carat round diamond

This True Hearts TM diamond, 1.17 carat J color si1 clarity has ideal proportions and a diamond grading report from AGS

www.jamesallen.com

Here's the idealscope for 1.21-K-SI1. What do you think? To me it looks pretty good, but

Carat	Table	Depth	Crown	Pavillon
1.21	58.0%	62.0%	35.5%	40.6%

1.21 Carat round diamond

This 1.21 carat round diamond K color si1 clarity has Excellent proportions and a diamond grading report from GIA

www.jamesallen.com