I love this site and have been reading for a while but have not posted yet. Great information and much fun to be had here! There have been many posts about clarity in SI graded stones and I have a story that may put things in perspective for many readers. I recently upgraded my e-ring from a .5 marquise to a 1.02 princess cut and felt that wasn''t big enough so I went for a 1.5 princess cut and then decided I wanted an oval cut after looking at one at my jewlers that I fell in love with. I now have a 1.75 ctw oval that is an SI2. Believe it or not, it did not even register to me what SI2 really meant because I fell in love with the size, color (E!) and fire of the stone (this was before I was a frequenter of Pricescope!). Anyway, to make a long story short, I spent several days gazing at my new rock in all types of light, outside in the bright sun and clouds, indoors, you name it, and never saw an inclusion, just a big white rock with lots of sparkles. One day, I must have had the diamond at just the right angle in just the right light and was mortified to see three small black inclusions at one end of the table. It really bothered me for a while. I considered taking it back to my jeweler and exchanging (they give you the full price of the diamond on any exchange, hence my 3 upgraded diamonds in one year
!), but I loved everything else about the stone and didn''t really want to exchange yet another diamond. I know where the inclusions are and I can see them with my naked eye, but I am sure that no one else could if I didn''t even see them for several days. Even though it is not "eye clean" to me now, I know it is "eye clean" because no one but me is going to stare at it for 3 days straight...right?? I get many compliments on my ring and no one has ever noticed anything about it. My manicurist even comment about how "clear" it looks and she has it right under her nose quite a bit! I hope this helps those who question SI graded stones!