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Searching for Oval Engagement Ring - Budget Inside

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Moose5562

Rough_Rock
Joined
May 9, 2018
Messages
6
Hello All,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I am looking for an oval engagement ring and wanted to reach out to the experts for help. Would appreciate any suggestions for specific rings or just general "oval buying" advice. Below are a few criteria:

Shape: Oval
Size: 2.5 or greater (ideally as high as I can get with my budget)
Color: H or higher
Clarity: SI1 or higher (obviously will want this eye-clean so this may need to tick up)
All-In Budget (including the setting): $30,000

The goal for me is to get closer to 3 ct. without making huge sacrifices on the sparkle/brilliance/fire of the diamond. Trying to hit the happy medium of size and the shiny "wow" factor.

Open to suggestions on settings as well, but taking this one step at a time for now.

Thanks in advance for any insight or suggestions. This forum has been a tremendous source of knowledge.
 
I love Lorelei's pick too but would love to see a video of the DBL I linked.
 
Lorelei and Quaddio -- thank you so much. I have been looking at these throughout the week (although work has been a bit crazy). Really appreciate your helping out thus far. Very excited with what each of you have been able to find.

I will chime in at some point tonight or this weekend with a more thorough response and some questions.
 
Moose5562 said:
Lorelei and Quaddio -- thank you so much. I have been looking at these throughout the week (although work has been a bit crazy). Really appreciate your helping out thus far. Very excited with what each of you have been able to find.

I will chime in at some point tonight or this weekend with a more thorough response and some questions.
Click to expand...

No worries Moose, we'll be around!:wavey:
 
Hopefully other PSers will chime in too
 
If you don't buy that oval from Blue Nile, I'm never speaking to you again. :lol::lol::lol::lol:
 
On the oval from Blue Nile, couple of questions (with the understanding that I think this is a very gorgeous diamond):

1. Lorelei - in your original post you said "not perfectly cut" but "a nice make". What do you think its lacking in the cut department? It looks like there is little to no bow-tie effect here; would you agree?

2. I would presume that this is eye-clean given the SI1 clarity, correct?

3. Based on your experience (speaking to the collective prosumer base), how would you categorize the pricing here? Great, good, average?

4. What do you see as the primary deficiency of the diamond? Just trying to get a well-rounded perspective.

I agree that this seems to check all of my boxes and am excited about the potential here. Looking forward to responses.
 
Moose5562 said:
On the oval from Blue Nile, couple of questions (with the understanding that I think this is a very gorgeous diamond):

1. Lorelei - in your original post you said "not perfectly cut" but "a nice make". What do you think its lacking in the cut department? It looks like there is little to no bow-tie effect here; would you agree?

2. I would presume that this is eye-clean given the SI1 clarity, correct?

3. Based on your experience (speaking to the collective prosumer base), how would you categorize the pricing here? Great, good, average?

4. What do you see as the primary deficiency of the diamond? Just trying to get a well-rounded perspective.

I agree that this seems to check all of my boxes and am excited about the potential here. Looking forward to responses.
Click to expand...

Hello Moose, just coming back to answer your questions!


1) Ok you have two questions here! What do I think is lacking in the cut department? A couple of things, which are chiefly, light leakage and potential colour absorption. It's a beautiful diamond but if you're comparing it to the rare, cut for maximum optical performance ovals that are now becoming available, it's not there. Having said that, it's still a lovely oval and when shopping for a larger stone, the choices available are less anyway than if you were looking for a well cut round in a smaller size for example. An ASET image would be useful but BN do not offer such services.


Regarding the bow tie effect, I'm not sure how many ovals you've seen in real life to know whether BN's photography accurately mimics head/body shadow to know how faint or strong a bow tie is from their particular photography set up, but were I spending the amount of money you're considering, I'd want this vetted by a professional to make absolutely sure if trying to eliminate any bow tie effect is important to you and bear in mind, you may not be able to eliminate it altogether.

2) Regarding whether a diamond is eye clean in SI clarity grades, never presume such a stone is eye clean or not! The only parties who can decide that are the potential buyer and an expert vendor with the stone in hand, so the buyer can make their expectations clear and the seller to help them decide whether a particular diamond will fit the bill or not.

3) You asked for perspectives on the price from the collective prosumer base, here are my particular thoughts on this, others might have different opinions.

It's impossible to say really because you can do a search for a particular carat/clarity/colour and find pricing all over the board due to various gemological aspects that we can't necessarily see or know just from just the information posted. What we as consumers may perceive to be a great deal shall we say, may actually turn out to not be a good value based on those unforeseen aspects.

4) Stated in original paragraph.

I hope this helps clarify!
 
All,

Lorelei -- thanks for the detailed response. I've continued the hunt and recently came across the diamond linked below (and pictured). Wanted to get the forums general reaction on this diamond. I also have a video but not quite sure how to upload the video.

Thanks for thoughts!

https://www.b2cjewels.com/dd/11014611/Oval-diamond-H-color-IF-clarity

Image for stock# 11014611.jpg
 
Welp - learning the lesson that you have to move quick! No longer on the market.
 
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