I exchanged a lot emails with Vivia around Dec 2013, wanting to upgrade my sapphire ring, later I found an untreated sapphire in the most reputable, upscale local jeweler in Austin, I told Vivia about it, she was ok with it. At the beginning of June, I took my family to New York, I decided to pay Vivia a visit, I wanted to see their rubies. I was busy planning my visit, no time to research, no plan of buying or spending big money. While I was in NY, I almost planned not to turn up, there were more interesting things to see in NY than the ruby. I did turn up at the appointment on time, tired and not dressed the part by the end of the day, ( soaking by the rain at the beginning of the day), Vivia greeted us with grace and gave us a bottle of water each.
She has about 15 rubies for us to view, and she kept all our emails 6 months ago, the ruby I looked at then was sold, but she showed me all the oval stone, for the stones I was interested in the past were all oval, she has attention to details. I was a bit intimidated going there before, I did talk to Tiffany before, Tiffany wants to do private showing for untreated stone, but I had no intention to spend big money, so I declined it.
Anyway, we spent 11/2 hr there, my son picked a true red ruby, my daughter picked a purple red ruby (Vivia said close to pigeon blood), I chose the one my son picked out, he went to our local dealer to look at color stones all the time and has good eyes. I paid for the stone and had it certified by GIA.
I also looked other color sapphires Vivia has in hand, they are all very nice, ruby is the most expensive, in fact I almost gave up on ruby and buy spinel instead, in fact, my local jeweler found me a spinel at the Vegas show, the day after I bought the ruby, he called my home, my hubby said to her I bought a ruby in NY the date before, the spinel is perfect cut, perfect colour, but can't compare to my ruby color and more expensive. Hi ruby is ruby, more expensive stone, better color.
All the stones Vivia picked out for me are all very rich red, and beautiful, only two of them are a little pale red. I really can't tell the different, they all look good to me, that is why I asked my children to pick. The stone I bought looks way better than the photo on the website, I will never buy the stone if I did not see the stone with my naked eyes, Natural sapphire co's stones are much better than their website, the photos can not catch their true beauty, I also looked the ruby near their window in the natural late afternoon sun light, the show room hasn't got those fancy lighting in the jewelery store, the ceiling is very very high. Didn't you know the gem always look better in the shop?
Their price is very very low for untreated stone, the begining of week there was a gem show at Las Vegas, the company took their gems there to sell, my local jeweler went there to buy, their stones are from the mine, no middle man, I love sapphire, I have been looking for sapphire about 2 years and I worked at the jewelery store selling diamond for a while, though I am not expert, but I look at stone every day. Yes there are mixed reviews, with a GIA certificate what else can go wrong?? The GIA's machine is worth over 1 million dollar. If you don't trust NSC, trust the CIA machine and the GIA expert. I was in the gem business for a while, I won't trust anyone either. From now on I will look nowhere else but this company in the future. The upgrade sapphire I bought early in the year had no certificate, I went back to this upscale local jeweler to look for the mounting and showed him my paper work, my jeweler told me NSC is a reputable co, they had business with them in the past, I said NSC had mixed reviews, but my jeweler said all good Co has mixed reviews. I did ask for certificate for my sapphire in my local jeweler store, but they said it would cost double the cost for the certificate. All NSC has certificate without extra cost, that is the selling point to me, for me untreated is the key word, if you don't mind treated, glass filling stone, you can get them anywhere, much cheaper, but there are not the same things.
I am still waiting for my stone to come, it took 6 weeks for the certification. I will wait.
She has about 15 rubies for us to view, and she kept all our emails 6 months ago, the ruby I looked at then was sold, but she showed me all the oval stone, for the stones I was interested in the past were all oval, she has attention to details. I was a bit intimidated going there before, I did talk to Tiffany before, Tiffany wants to do private showing for untreated stone, but I had no intention to spend big money, so I declined it.
Anyway, we spent 11/2 hr there, my son picked a true red ruby, my daughter picked a purple red ruby (Vivia said close to pigeon blood), I chose the one my son picked out, he went to our local dealer to look at color stones all the time and has good eyes. I paid for the stone and had it certified by GIA.
I also looked other color sapphires Vivia has in hand, they are all very nice, ruby is the most expensive, in fact I almost gave up on ruby and buy spinel instead, in fact, my local jeweler found me a spinel at the Vegas show, the day after I bought the ruby, he called my home, my hubby said to her I bought a ruby in NY the date before, the spinel is perfect cut, perfect colour, but can't compare to my ruby color and more expensive. Hi ruby is ruby, more expensive stone, better color.
All the stones Vivia picked out for me are all very rich red, and beautiful, only two of them are a little pale red. I really can't tell the different, they all look good to me, that is why I asked my children to pick. The stone I bought looks way better than the photo on the website, I will never buy the stone if I did not see the stone with my naked eyes, Natural sapphire co's stones are much better than their website, the photos can not catch their true beauty, I also looked the ruby near their window in the natural late afternoon sun light, the show room hasn't got those fancy lighting in the jewelery store, the ceiling is very very high. Didn't you know the gem always look better in the shop?
Their price is very very low for untreated stone, the begining of week there was a gem show at Las Vegas, the company took their gems there to sell, my local jeweler went there to buy, their stones are from the mine, no middle man, I love sapphire, I have been looking for sapphire about 2 years and I worked at the jewelery store selling diamond for a while, though I am not expert, but I look at stone every day. Yes there are mixed reviews, with a GIA certificate what else can go wrong?? The GIA's machine is worth over 1 million dollar. If you don't trust NSC, trust the CIA machine and the GIA expert. I was in the gem business for a while, I won't trust anyone either. From now on I will look nowhere else but this company in the future. The upgrade sapphire I bought early in the year had no certificate, I went back to this upscale local jeweler to look for the mounting and showed him my paper work, my jeweler told me NSC is a reputable co, they had business with them in the past, I said NSC had mixed reviews, but my jeweler said all good Co has mixed reviews. I did ask for certificate for my sapphire in my local jeweler store, but they said it would cost double the cost for the certificate. All NSC has certificate without extra cost, that is the selling point to me, for me untreated is the key word, if you don't mind treated, glass filling stone, you can get them anywhere, much cheaper, but there are not the same things.
I am still waiting for my stone to come, it took 6 weeks for the certification. I will wait.