Picked out and reserved a diamond, wanted a second opinion!

[helpemepicktherightone]

http://www.bluenile.com/diamond-details/LD05202871

GCAL:
http://www.bluenile.com/certs/243390022.pdf?params=Y291bnRyeT1VU0EmcHJvZHVjdD1CTiZwaG9uZT0xKzg4OC01NjUtNzY0MSZsaW5rPWh0dHAlM0ElMkYlMkZ3d3cuYmx1ZW5pbGUuY29tJTJGX0xEMDUyMDI4NzEmY3VycmVuY3k9VVNEJmxhYj1nY2FsJnNrdT1MRDA1MjAyODcxJg%3D%3D

GIA:
http://www.bluenile.com/certs/2186258620.pdf?params=Y291bnRyeT1VU0EmcHJvZHVjdD1CTiZwaG9uZT0xKzg4OC01NjUtNzY0MSZsaW5rPWh0dHAlM0ElMkYlMkZ3d3cuYmx1ZW5pbGUuY29tJTJGX0xEMDUyMDI4NzEmY3VycmVuY3k9VVNEJmxhYj1naWEmc2t1PUxEMDUyMDI4NzEm

I chose this one because it's the least light leakage I had ever seen on a GCAL report. Drawbacks I could see is that there is a cutlet, although it is very small (0.5mm/0.7%) and the only inclusion sits on the table of the diamond. I couldn't notice the inclusion in the pictures/videos but I suppose it's more likely to be noticeable since it's on the table. This is the first and hopefully last diamond I'll ever buy so I wanted it to be the perfect one. I could go slightly up or down on the price range and the most important aspects of the diamond to me, by FAR, are brilliacne and fire. If that is what I'm interested in does this stone seem like a good choice? I've requested an idealscope image of the diamond if they can provide it.

I welcome any critiques or recommendations. I'm sure almost everyone here is much more experienced than I am so I'd defer to your judgement when it comes to picking a diamond with the most fire/brilliance. Again, I chose this diamond for the most part because it is the least light leakage I have ever seen on a GCAL report. I'm not sure how accurately that reflects the brilliance and fire of the stone in person. If anyone else could weigh in and tell me if I'm looking at the right metrics or whether there are other factors I should take into consideration for fire/brilliance I would be incredibly appreciative.

Thanks!

Edit: It appears me linking the using the URL function didn't work properly, so I've pasted the entire link for you to copy/paste into the browser. Clicking the link seems to redirect to the bluenile homepage for some reason.

 

[helpemepicktherightone]

Re: Picked out and reserved a diamond, wanted a second opini

Bump, could really use some help figuring out how to best determine fire/brilliance and whether or not this seems like a good stone for those criteria.

 

[ac117]

Re: Picked out and reserved a diamond, wanted a second opini

Hi! Is there a reason for such high color and clarity? If it's cultural, than I totally get it! If Bluenile could get you ASET/IS images, that would be better at determining this stones performance. Since it's a signature stone, they should have it in house but I know they've said they are unable to do this in the past.

Are you open to other vendors? From a quick search, WhiteFlash has a few options. They are super ideal cuts and already provide all of the imaging so you know you're buying the best of the best.
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-3625405.htm
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-2708991.htm
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-3379153.htm
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-3634975.htm
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-3565139.htm

At James Allen, you could get one of their TrueHearts diamonds for less than the BN one and not sacrifice much on clarity or color, plus they already have images.

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/?CaratFrom=1.40&CaratTo=30&Color=G,F,E,D&Clarity=VS2,VS1,VVS2,VVS1,IF,FL&Cut=TrueHearts&PriceFrom=200&PriceTo=18000&ViewsOptions=Images

 

[helpemepicktherightone]

Re: Picked out and reserved a diamond, wanted a second opini

No particular reason for the color and clarity other than that the woman I'll be proposing to is incredibly petite (ring size 4.5) and my budget is around $20,000 for the stone. Since she's so small I was looking for a stone in the 1.4-1.75ct range as anything larger than that would probably look a bit absurd on her finger, and in fact 1.75ct is probably already on the "too large" side. I figure since I plan on spending around the $20,000 amount regardless, it made sense to move up the scale for for color and clarity if I'm not going to be going too much further out on the carat spectrum.

Again, however, the most important factor for me is fire and brilliance. I had been considering some of the James Allen True Hearts diamonds, but was a bit concerned that many of the ones I looked at had fairly noticeable inclusions on the table (example from the stones you linked http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/1.65-carat-f-color-vs2-clarity-ideal-cut-sku-872682), which was a bit off putting and made me look at other sites. Those seem to be the most noticeable locations for inclusions so I was looking for stones that have inclusions in other locations. I suppose I'm not all that picky, however I figure with my price range and the fact that this is a once in a lifetime purchase I might as well go for the best possible stone I can get. After a terrible experience with a jeweler previously where I was charged a $5,000 premium over the stone's wholesale listing price I swore off buying from a jeweler and decided to get a loose diamond and have it set a local place where I can buy a nice setting from. That way I'm still supporting a local jeweler but also getting some bang for my buck when it comes to the stone.

As for why I was looking at Blue Nile over James Allen - I like that the GCAL reports show the light leakage. I'm a layman and assumed that if the idealscope images look good the next best thing for fire and brilliance would be minimizing light leakage, which the GCAL report has a good physical measurement of. I've already requested an idealscope image for the diamond I posted above and if/when it comes through I will post it here for review. That being said if you look at the GCAL report for the diamond I linked you can see fairly clearly from the images to the left that the hearts/arrows pattern is pretty distinct and the diamond itself looks (hopefully) high quality.

Sorry if this post is a bit rambly, I've had a few drinks because spending this much on a stone is a bit nervewracking! Thanks for the post and I greatly appreciate your feedback. I'm also very open to other suggestions when it comes to vendors so if you have any suggestions for a diamond in that price range that you believe would have a high level of fire/brilliance I would love to see them. Going to go through the whiteflash listings you showed me right now and see how they compare, thanks!

Edit: also, two more quick questions... Is having no cutlet extremely important for my criteria or is it okay to have a very small/small cutlet? And how about the thickness of the girdle, should I be leaning towards thin/medium or is slightly thick acceptable?

 

[helpemepicktherightone]

Re: Picked out and reserved a diamond, wanted a second opini

I'm actually loving this whiteflash site, thank you for the recommendation. I might even be leaning towards:

http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-3653224.htm

Fire and brilliance is absurd, idealscope image looks very good according to the guide on beyond 4 cs... (which apparently is an affiliate link? I don't know what that means. Oops. Had to edit because link was deleted)

 

[ac117]

Re: Picked out and reserved a diamond, wanted a second opini

If you want the best, I recommend you browse Whiteflash, Brian Gavin, Crafted by Infinity and GOG Ascendancy lines. All of their in-house super ideal cuts will blow BN and JA stones out of the water. I'm not saying you can't get a beautiful stone from BN or JA, but for the price of that BN stone, I would much rather one from one of the vendors above. They have strict requirements and have already put each and every stone through several light performance tests and they provide you with every detail so you know that if it makes their cut, you could basically pick one out of a hat and it'll be stunning.

 

[helpemepicktherightone]

Re: Picked out and reserved a diamond, wanted a second opini

One last question for you:

If I'm going to make some sacrifices what category should I do it in? Should I consider upping the color bound to G or clarity to VS2/SI1? What about allowing for mild fluorescence? A lot of the diamonds I am looking at on these sites are coming out to the mid 20's which is a bit more than I am willing to spend. Just curious as to where you believe would be the best area to sacrifice in, in order to get the price back to within my budget at around 20k. I'm leaning for around 1.4-1.8 carat so I'm not sure if some areas (eg color) would be more noticeable to the naked eye if I were to lower the bar.

Edit: By going for a slightly smaller one I actually found a diamond that is around/below my price range but that looks absolutely gorgeous. Any opinion on this one?

http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-3646333.htm#

 

[farrahlyn]

Re: Picked out and reserved a diamond, wanted a second opini

a G colored stone is still going to be incredibly white! 1.5ct would be a lovely size and WF has some really nice ACA's around that size if you drop to a G.

this might give you an idea of finger coverage on different ring sizes. I flipped through a little, page 27 has a 2ct stone on a 4.25 finger and a 1.7ct on a 4.5 on page 23

https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/show-me-your-1-2-ct-center-stones.35700/

 

[ac117]

Re: Picked out and reserved a diamond, wanted a second opini

One last question for you:

If I'm going to make some sacrifices what category should I do it in? Should I consider upping the color bound to G or clarity to VS2/SI1? What about allowing for mild fluorescence? A lot of the diamonds I am looking at on these sites are coming out to the mid 20's which is a bit more than I am willing to spend. Just curious as to where you believe would be the best area to sacrifice in, in order to get the price back to within my budget at around 20k. I'm leaning for around 1.4-1.8 carat so I'm not sure if some areas (eg color) would be more noticeable to the naked eye if I were to lower the bar.

Edit: By going for a slightly smaller one I actually found a diamond that is around/below my price range but that looks absolutely gorgeous. Any opinion on this one?

http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-3646333.htm#

You'll get a variety of answers asking others' preference around here! Me personally, though, I'd sacrifice a tiny bit on both fronts. I personally don't want to pay for something I can't see, like clarity. If the stone is 100% eye-clean from all distances, I'd do a VS2 or even SI1 any day to get the size. But I have larger hands than your gf so I always like to maximize size! Everyone has different color sensitivity, too, but a G will still be perfectly white and few untrained people could tell the difference between an F and a G. For those reasons, my personal picks would be either of these two:
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-3634975.htm
http://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-3565139.htm

Whiteflash also has EXCELLENT customer service - if you narrow it down to a couple of options, they could pull the stones for you and give you their honest opinion on which performs the best!