Question about diamond billiance and fire

[tampasean8]

I recently purchased a 1.6 carat GIA certified excellent cut loose diamond. I color, VS2 clarity. The GIA report lists excellent polish and symmetry. I verified the specs and also matched the laser inscription to the GIA report.

When I took the loose diamond to a local jewelry store to select a mounting, I compared it to the other diamonds on display... It didn''t have nearly the brilliance or fire that the pre-set stones had in the mountings I was looking at, even when the rings were out of the case and under the same light. I don''t know a ton about diamonds, but thought that a GIA certified excellent cut with excellent polish and symmetry would hold its own in comparison to any other diamond, but it appears I was wrong.

Was wondering if anybody can explain to me why the store''s diamonds looked so much better? Does the I color make that much of a difference? Or was it the fact that the other diamonds were mounted in a setting (does light reflecting off the prongs add to the perception of fire or brilliance)?
Was also wondering what people''s thoughts are about whether it will compare well in "real life" as opposed to the diamonds on display at the jewelry store. I was hoping that spending extra money to get excellent ratings in cut, symmetry, and polish would make the diamond look better than most diamonds on the street. Wondering if you think that will be the case.

Any input would be very much appreciated.

 

[yssie]

How did you carry the stone? If at any point you touched it with your skin and you didn''t have it thoroughly cleaned before comparing, that''s where to point 99.99% of the blame. I''ll leave 0.01% to other factors.

 

[tampasean8]

come to think of it, i did touch it with my hands before going into the store. didn''t realize that could have that much of an effect though.

i assumed that maybe the diamonds on display were "signature ideal" or some cut within "excellent" that was better than mine. however, maybe with some proper cleaning, the diamond will appear more brilliant?

in general, a VS2 excellent cut I diamond will have better than average brilliance and fire, correct? just want to make sure that i didn''t somehow mess up and end up with a dull excellent cut diamond, which i thought was impossible.

 

[yssie]

well - a dull excellent-by-the-numbers certainly is possible, but not with a VS2 in any reasonable size. The I colour has nothing to do with it - the amount of tint present in an I will skew the outputted visible spectrum so negligibly you won't see it. Diamonds are absolute dirt-magnets, and a thorough cleaning will do wonders!

 

[LGK]

Skin oil I bet. If you touched it, that does it pretty quick, especially an unset stone. Diamonds attract skin oil like little dirt magnets and it kills their sparkle like nothing. When it''s set, you can avoid touching it a lot better. Still, I clean mine every day pretty much, because they do get dirty really fast. It makes a *huge* difference if a diamond is dirty vs. clean. And unset it''s really easy to get them quite grubby.

It could be that it is a not-so-great excellent cut, but my money''s on it having been dirty. You can run the numbers off the GIA cert on the cut advisor tool on this site if you''re still worried, though.

 

[tampasean8]

Thanks for all of the responses. Based on what you''re saying, I think it probably is hand oil/dirt. I handled it quite a bit when I first got it to inspect it and never cleaned it afterwards. I''ll give it a good cleaning and see if that does the trick! Thanks again.