Tonks
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2017
- Messages
- 1,504
A few weeks ago, my wonderful husband surprised me by telling me he wanted to upgrade my studs for Christmas. We had talked about it in the past, but the timing was honestly a surprise. My old studs are 1.2 ctw, 5.3 mm each, F-G, SI2. I do not have huge earlobes. So I knew that with limited lobe real estate, this upgrade needed fireworks.
I immediately emailed Wink.
We are lucky enough to live very close to a CBI retailer, and after seeing people rave about CBIs on PS, I had dropped by that retailer sometime in the last couple of years to take a peek. I remember being absolutely blown away by the diamonds and thinking they were like looking in a kaleidoscope. It made a huge impression and I was determined that some day I would love to own one.
Wink, for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of dealing with him, is a truly fabulous gentleman. This is my second purchase through HPD (the first was beautiful studs for my daughter from HP Lux melee), and I genuinely enjoy working with @Wink and Melissa @Winks_Elf . They are caring and kind and funny, and go out of their way to make things easy for the client. My email came in to Wink at the peak of HPD’s busy season, and he still took time to call me. We talked for a very long time and looked through HPD’s inventory. I thought I was looking for around 2 ctw, based on my past try-ons at local stores. We combed through, looking for the best pair around 1 carat each.
And then I looked a bit farther up and I saw this pair. It was actually cheaper than the smaller pairs we had been considering. But SI2s? Could I be ok with SI2s?
“Wink,” I said. “What do you think of those 1.11 G SI2s?”
He started to chuckle. “Oh....that Paul Slegers,” he said. “Wow.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Wink explained that the clarity grade allowed the price to be significantly cheaper than other stones this size, and than many smaller stones. He didn’t have the stones in house—they were in Antwerp. But he looked at the AGS reports, and said he felt good about the inclusions. One had a grade setting crystal. He said those were usually white, and very hard to see. The other had twinning wisps. He said those were actually his favorite kind of inclusion.
So we selected the 1.11 G SI2s. I was super excited. This allowed me to go up in size to 6.7 mm! Now we had to wait a week or so for the stones to get in from Antwerp.
When they arrived, the plan was for Wink to send a video of the stones before they were set. However, before a video made it to me, HPD updated their website with the GCAL videos and images of the stones.
EEEEEEEK.
All my confidence came to a screeching halt as saw every inclusion magnified in high definition on my screen.
I immediately sent an email to Wink, telling him I was having second thoughts about these stones. I pored over HPD’s inventory once again. At this point I was set on the larger size, and thinking we needed to go up in clarity. That would mean a sizeable bump in budget. My husband was willing to do it. But then Wink called.
“To me, they are eyeclean,” he said. “If I had 150 CBI diamonds in a tray, I wouldn’t be able to differentiate these from the rest. They are simply beautiful. But to put your anxiety to rest, you need to see them in person,” he said. “Either you will think they are beautiful (you will), or you will see the inclusions and want to switch to a more expensive pair. But this way you will know for sure before you spend more money.”
That seemed reasonable enough.
So this morning my package of loose stones arrived. What did I think? Here’s the email I sent Wink a few hours later:
“ !!!!!
Inclusions? What inclusions???? All I see is sparkle!!!!
I have been walking around the house with these gorgeous stones all afternoon. I forgot to eat lunch because I was staring at them.
In other words, I am over my mind-clean freak-out.
The only problem I foresee with these is the need to look in a mirror all the time to see them on my ears!”
So....a few lessons for all of you out there. First, if Wink says something is eyeclean, it is eyeclean. Yes, even an SI2. You can absolutely trust him. I can see the inclusions from the bottom...if I use a loupe. And I saw the twinning wisps in one photo that I magnified. That’s it. Truly. In person the diamonds are moving so much light that it’s truly difficult to see anything else.
Second, CBIs are gorgeous diamonds. I took a few videos for you because my still photos were not going so well. My phone camera had a hard time focusing because of all the fire!
Here’s one in late afternoon sun:
Another, in later afternoon sun:
Indoors, in indirect light.
Third, you know someone is confident in their product when they send it to you with all the tools you need to critique it. Wink sends a loupe, an ASET, and an IdealScope.
Indoors.
They consistently threw so much fire outside that my camera struggled to focus.
Wait, this one is fire indoors.
And more fire outside.
This might be the only half clear shot I got outside.
After New Year’s I will send these back to Wink and the HPD bench will set them. Melissa helped me to select a beautiful 8 prong setting (similar to the Whiteflash 8 prong setting). I have had martinis but wanted something that didn’t dig into my piercing.
Thanks for looking!
I immediately emailed Wink.
We are lucky enough to live very close to a CBI retailer, and after seeing people rave about CBIs on PS, I had dropped by that retailer sometime in the last couple of years to take a peek. I remember being absolutely blown away by the diamonds and thinking they were like looking in a kaleidoscope. It made a huge impression and I was determined that some day I would love to own one.
Wink, for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of dealing with him, is a truly fabulous gentleman. This is my second purchase through HPD (the first was beautiful studs for my daughter from HP Lux melee), and I genuinely enjoy working with @Wink and Melissa @Winks_Elf . They are caring and kind and funny, and go out of their way to make things easy for the client. My email came in to Wink at the peak of HPD’s busy season, and he still took time to call me. We talked for a very long time and looked through HPD’s inventory. I thought I was looking for around 2 ctw, based on my past try-ons at local stores. We combed through, looking for the best pair around 1 carat each.
And then I looked a bit farther up and I saw this pair. It was actually cheaper than the smaller pairs we had been considering. But SI2s? Could I be ok with SI2s?
“Wink,” I said. “What do you think of those 1.11 G SI2s?”
He started to chuckle. “Oh....that Paul Slegers,” he said. “Wow.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
Wink explained that the clarity grade allowed the price to be significantly cheaper than other stones this size, and than many smaller stones. He didn’t have the stones in house—they were in Antwerp. But he looked at the AGS reports, and said he felt good about the inclusions. One had a grade setting crystal. He said those were usually white, and very hard to see. The other had twinning wisps. He said those were actually his favorite kind of inclusion.
So we selected the 1.11 G SI2s. I was super excited. This allowed me to go up in size to 6.7 mm! Now we had to wait a week or so for the stones to get in from Antwerp.
When they arrived, the plan was for Wink to send a video of the stones before they were set. However, before a video made it to me, HPD updated their website with the GCAL videos and images of the stones.
EEEEEEEK.
All my confidence came to a screeching halt as saw every inclusion magnified in high definition on my screen.
I immediately sent an email to Wink, telling him I was having second thoughts about these stones. I pored over HPD’s inventory once again. At this point I was set on the larger size, and thinking we needed to go up in clarity. That would mean a sizeable bump in budget. My husband was willing to do it. But then Wink called.
“To me, they are eyeclean,” he said. “If I had 150 CBI diamonds in a tray, I wouldn’t be able to differentiate these from the rest. They are simply beautiful. But to put your anxiety to rest, you need to see them in person,” he said. “Either you will think they are beautiful (you will), or you will see the inclusions and want to switch to a more expensive pair. But this way you will know for sure before you spend more money.”
That seemed reasonable enough.
So this morning my package of loose stones arrived. What did I think? Here’s the email I sent Wink a few hours later:
“ !!!!!
Inclusions? What inclusions???? All I see is sparkle!!!!
I have been walking around the house with these gorgeous stones all afternoon. I forgot to eat lunch because I was staring at them.
In other words, I am over my mind-clean freak-out.
The only problem I foresee with these is the need to look in a mirror all the time to see them on my ears!”
So....a few lessons for all of you out there. First, if Wink says something is eyeclean, it is eyeclean. Yes, even an SI2. You can absolutely trust him. I can see the inclusions from the bottom...if I use a loupe. And I saw the twinning wisps in one photo that I magnified. That’s it. Truly. In person the diamonds are moving so much light that it’s truly difficult to see anything else.
Second, CBIs are gorgeous diamonds. I took a few videos for you because my still photos were not going so well. My phone camera had a hard time focusing because of all the fire!
Here’s one in late afternoon sun:
Another, in later afternoon sun:
Indoors, in indirect light.
Third, you know someone is confident in their product when they send it to you with all the tools you need to critique it. Wink sends a loupe, an ASET, and an IdealScope.
Indoors.
They consistently threw so much fire outside that my camera struggled to focus.
Wait, this one is fire indoors.
And more fire outside.
This might be the only half clear shot I got outside.
After New Year’s I will send these back to Wink and the HPD bench will set them. Melissa helped me to select a beautiful 8 prong setting (similar to the Whiteflash 8 prong setting). I have had martinis but wanted something that didn’t dig into my piercing.
Thanks for looking!
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