Pros and cons of cupping yellow diamonds?

[diamondhoarder]

I was doing a search on ideas related to color enhance cup for colored diamond, and this came up. I am in the market for a yellow diamond, and debating if I should get a fancy yellow or a smaller fancy intense yellow (assuming the same cost). Of course, I like the idea of an larger stone, thinking a fancy yellow (or even light yellow) will look plenty with the enhancement cup. But I am concern about dirt get inside of the cap and cleaning would be impossible.

Any one can share their experience with color enhancement cup? Does dirt get trap inside? since the cup blocks light from the bottom, does it make the diamond look dull? Would you get the same thing again?

Million thanks!

I had a fancy light pinkish brown with an open rose gold up under it. The diamond was a cushion and quite well cut so actually you couldnt really see much effect from the cup underneath it in terms of colour improvement. I actually think that the rose gold prongs around the diamond made the colour pop more than the cup underneath it. The big problem with the cup was that although it had an opening for cleaning, it was very difficult to get it completely clean. I spent ages with various brushes, ultrasonic and a steam cleaner and got to the point where I only wore it occasionally because of the aggravation of trying to keep it clean. In hindsight I would have been better to have avoided the cup altogether. I ended up selling the ring because of it.

So my advice would be - consider the cut of your stone - if its quite "leaky" you may be able see more of the cup through the stone in which case the cup could be worthwhile. But if its fairly well cut the cup may not enhance it any more than, say having it bezelled in yellow or making the prongs a feature in yellow gold. If having a very clean diamond with maximum sparkle is important to you, I would personally stay away from cups. Maybe others out there have cups which are easy to clean, this was just my experience.