Picking an emerald diamond

[gotrice1284]

Hello,

I been reading and searching around and looking for an emerald diamond... My budget is around 3800 USD... I found the following and wanted to get some feedback as to what you would pick:


https://www.bluenile.com/hk/diamond-details/LD09185873 . (i think this one is best bang for buck?)
https://www.bluenile.com/hk/diamond-details/LD08935122
https://www.bluenile.com/hk/diamond-details/LD09273363

All of these look very close, i tried to keep to what was recommended in terms of depth, table, and thickness as well.

Looking for:
around 1.0c
color D-E
VS1 or better
very good cut or better

Thank you all for your help.

 

[Lookinagain]

Hi OP, those are all sample photos and not actual photos of the diamonds. You need real photos and ideally ASET images but I don't believe BN supplies those. You can't evaluate EC's or other fancy cuts by numbers alone.

 

[gotrice1284]

I see. Will look around other sites for pics... Any suggestions for the price range?

 

[ecf8503]

I see the links above are for BN UK - are you in the UK? Are you ok buying from the States? I'd check out James Allen and Good Old Gold (GOG is very good at sourcing fancy cuts like EC's. If they don't have what you want in stock, please reach out to them and they can source them and work them up for light performance).

 

[tyty333]

I took a look at JA and found a few that I thought were worth a look... Try to look for stones where the steps flash on/off all the way down into the
center as the stone turns. Usually like steps that are relatively the same size (some have large discrepancy in step size). A little variety is fine though.
Make sure you are looking at the mm LxW and not just the carat size.

https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/emerald-cut/0.91-carat-e-color-vvs1-clarity-sku-3177969
https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/emerald-cut/0.91-carat-f-color-vs2-clarity-sku-3112409
https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/emerald-cut/0.91-carat-f-color-vs1-clarity-sku-3054729
https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/emerald-cut/0.91-carat-d-color-vs1-clarity-sku-2752661 not sure if this has enough contrast
https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/emerald-cut/0.90-carat-f-color-vs1-clarity-sku-3206160

JA can give you 3 aset images but only for stones in the NY area (wont bring in stones that are out of the country).

Karl K is our resident emerald expert. He cant really comment on individual stones because he is in the trade but you can learn things from him that
will help you eliminate/exclude stones that dont appear to be performing like a well cut emerald should.

You can check BlueNile emeralds by looking at their Signature Ideal Emeralds. These will have videos to help you see how they are performing.
They are a little harder to look at then JA. I'll try to take a look later and see what they have (or maybe someone else will take a look).

 

[Karl_K]

tyty333, good job selecting those.
Rotating end to end is not the best way, and sitting on the pavilion facets does not help, rotating the other way is much more informative.
However based on what I do see you did good.
btw I see why you made a comment on the one not having enough contrast, it could be the best of the lot.
To narrow it down further I would look for bands of brightness across the stone and skip the ones with the largest dark zones.
ASET images would be next.

 

[gotrice1284]

Thank you all. I will be looking at them later today.

I see the links above are for BN UK - are you in the UK? Are you ok buying from the States? I'd check out James Allen and Good Old Gold (GOG is very good at sourcing fancy cuts like EC's. If they don't have what you want in stock, please reach out to them and they can source them and work them up for light performance).

I am ok to buy in US. I am currently living in Hong Kong so I'm guessing that is why BN defaulted to UK site. I will try these other sites as well. THe more selection the better!

tyty and Karl_K: I will look at them. If I had to sacrifice some a few details for others then should I go in the order of?

1. color D to E?
2. clarity VS2 and above?
3. cut of excellent to very good and using the table of at?
https://www.diamonds.pro/education/emerald-cut/

 

[Karl_K]

There are a ton of things I disagree with on that chart.
very thin girdle is not excellent actually its poor.
length/width ratios are personal preference, one isn't inherently better than another.
It doesn't even consider crown height which is important. A flat top is going to stink.
The biggest thing is a diamond could hit all excellent on that chart and be a total dog.

 

[gotrice1284]

Thank you all for your help on this.. Did a bit of shopping today and unfortunately, now she is looking for a round (so the wedding band can also be worn with it at times....) I will do some search and ask for the community's opinion.