Princess Plus questions

[BadgerBacker]

Hi all,

I am a first time buyer, looking to purchase an engagement ring. I have done a decent amount of research and also learned a lot just reading through posts on this website. Thanks! It seems like most people genuinely want to help and also know a lot about diamonds. Here is my situation and questions: I want to get 3 princess cut diamonds (not sure exactly what the style is called: 1 in the middle and 2 slightly smaller diamonds to either side). I personally am not super crazy about princess cut, but I know my girlfriend likes those best along with that style of ring. I''m not looking for real big diamonds, but I am looking more so for good quality. If they look good, I don''t want to drive myself too crazy with the "specifications," but being a first time buyer it''s hard to judge between the diamonds solely on appearance so I know the specs are important to help me determine good diamonds and a fair price.

One store I have visited sells a Princess Plus, 3 stone ring. The Princess Plus is cut with 101 facets, so it''s supposedly more brilliant that a normal princess cut diamond. I have to say that these diamonds definitely caught my eye much more than all other princess cut diamonds I looked at. Does anyone have more input on Princess Plus? I figure that if they look the best to me and the color, clarity, etc. are what I''m looking for, why not get these? But I also feel like I''m getting suckered in to some sort of hype here and maybe there is something not so desirable about Princess Plus. Any comments?

My biggest question is about the certification of these diamonds, and the cut quality. The ring comes with the stones already mounted. The jeweler showed me a card showing the color, clarity rating, etc., but I am not sure if this was an official certification or just the jewelers evaluation. From what I have read I definitely should make sure they were certified by an independent lab before being mounted. What do you think? As far as grading the cut - can a Princess Plus cut be graded for cut quality? Can a normal princess cut be graded? All the dimensions/proportions I find seem to be for round cut diamonds. Is there a standard to grade against for princess or princess plus cut? I''m a little wary of buying Princess Plus taking only the jeweler''s word on the quality of the cut without any official certification. At the same time, if it looks good to me, I don''t want to get too bent out of shape on a bunch of dimensions. Any help you can offer would be GREATLY appreciated. Have a great day!

Andy

 

[JulieN]

Ok, what mall store did you go to?

and, yes, any stone can be graded for cut quality. You were probably shown an IGI card. From what I can see, Princess Plus finished jewelry is HIGHLY overpriced. It is probably not well cut (princesses are darn tricky) but the extra facets will make it look like a better quality diamond.

Look anything like this?

3000 for .5 center, .25 sides, I color and I1 clarity!

 

[Lorelei]

Andy welcome to PS

I haven't heard of this Princess Plus, however if a 3 stone ring is what you want then it should be easy enough to find one. Have you considered buying online? With all fancy cuts it can be difficult to ascertain cut quality, but I will post a link for you which will give you an idea of what to look for when choosing a well cut Princess. You could get more for your money online so it might be worth having a look around before you pull the trigger, good specs to shoot for might be eyeclean SI1 or even SI2 clarity and for colour...Princesses can show more colour than rounds depending on colour sensitivity, a G or even H could be a good choice. Some I1 diamonds can be eyeclean, and the mall stores sell a lot of these but it isn't always the case and they can take some searching for. With a Princess cut I wouldn't go so low as an I1 as these shapes can show inclusions more than rounds. I have 2 large clean i1's but I was very lucky to find them. Concentrate on finding the best cut diamonds you can, this is what makes them beautiful and then go from there, but above all use your eyes. Don't take any labels that a vendor pins on his cut quality too literally. Also the best certification to go for is GIA, IGI are used a lot in mall stores and the grading some say isn't as accurate. Take your time, there is a lot more to buying diamonds than you probably realized and it can need research, but I can promise you it is time well spent! Best of luck and here is the thread for the Princess proportions. You can use this as a guide, but do remember numbers aren't everything.

http://diamonds.pricescope.com/fnc1.asp

 

[jetmal]

I believe Fred Meyers sells Princess Plus....I looked into those....I did not purchase though....way overpriced ,and you can find a better cut stone for less money.

my 2 cents, learn about princesses here on the tutorial, and keep looking.....

here is the thread I posted about it:https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/anyone-heard-of-a-princess-plus-cut-101-facets.40126/

 

[BadgerBacker]

Thanks everyone for your help so far!!!

You''ve got me pegged, JulieN! This is the exact ring I am looking at. ha ha. As for the particular ring I am looking at, here are the stats. $3000; .5 center, .25 sides, F-G color, SI1-SI2 clarity. This is towards the bottom of my price range, but I haven''t seen anything I like better yet.

It has definitely been in the back of my mind that I don''t want to just buy some pre-packaged ring from a mall store. But at the same time, I haven''t seen any other settings or diamonds that I like as much as this. Granted, I have only looked at mall stores, but all the other settings I see- I just wish they looked more like this one. And like I said, the diamonds to me look better than all other "normal" princesses I''ve seen so far. Would you recommend going to a "non-mall" jeweler to take a look at some others? Would they have higher quality diamonds? I know every cuts the mall jewelers, but what is so much better about an independent jeweler, other than probably better service?

As far as the IGI card, is this card okay? I''m not sure how I could request a different certification. The stones are already mounted - if I stick with Princess Plus, this is the only place to get them so I can''t shop around for Princess Plus diamonds that have a GIA or other certification.

 

[Lorelei]

I think you have to decide if this ring fits the bill for what you want and not question the specs of the diamonds too much or whether you are prepared to invest more time and study to maybe looking around, considering buying online etc. IGI are said to be looser on their colour and clarity grading than other labs, would this worry you if your diamonds appraised lower than you thought? It happens, not in all cases but some. If you want this ring, see if the store would alllow you to get an independant appraisal during a return period, if they have one, to make sure the diamonds check out with the colour and clarity grading at least. We at PS tend to be mainly about the cut, but this isn't the rest of the world, it has to be said that some don't worry too much about specs and buy with the eyes only, if this is you then that's fine, but I expect there are limits to what you can expect with certification etc with a pre made ring.....If you truly love this ring and it suits your needs as to being the e-ring and you don't have much time or inclination to look further or research then that is entirely up to you, nothing wrong with that. It is just that we here tend to purchase in another way, but different strokes for different folks! There are jewellers out there who are a brick and mortar as well as being an online vendor, I don't know where you are located but if you would prefer this approach it might be worth considering, for example Good Old Gold in Long Island, Wink Jones in Idaho, if you look under vendors at the top of the page maybe there might be one in your area. I don't know about non mall jewellers apart from the online guys, maybe someone else can chime in, but generally too these establishments have higher overheads than online vendors so you might have more of a choice than a mall, but higher prices too.

 

[JulieN]

I read that Princess Plus is only available in SI1 to I1 clarity.

There is nothing wrong with those clarity grades, but I've never heard of a brand cutting JUST those grades. And you can buy Princess Plus on Amazon (that's where I got the picture.) Those two things just don't point to a very high quality product.

You know how the government is slow, inefficient, expensive, and frustrating? That's like a mall jeweler, to me. Private companies just often do it better.

You can't get different certification, but you can send it to an independent appraiser.

This is a little similar.

 

[LizzieC]

I actually saw the most beautiful princesses I''ve ever seen at Whiteflash last week (and no I don''t work for them... Just a fan

). Here are some pics: