Lykame
Brilliant_Rock
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2018
- Messages
- 1,433
Following my previous thread here, I wanted to talk more specifically about my actual diamond choosing experience. I know I promised this post a few days ago - I'm really sorry, I got quite tied up with work and I really wanted to give this post the time it deserved. As you can tell, it's a long post - sorry not sorry. 
So my previous main diamond on the ring I have just successfully sold had the following characteristics:
GIA certificated
Triple Excellent
1.65 carats
7.54 - 7.57 x 4.69 mm
F
SI1
Medium blue fluorescence
Table 57%
Depth 62.1
Crown angle 35.5
Pavilion angle 40.8
LGF 80% (GIA round to the nearest 5%).
Its HCA score was 2.4, but! It was a beautiful diamond and I was happy with it for a long time. I especially liked the carat weight because 16 is my favourite number.
Originally I had just wanted to change the setting, but over time here I realised that the thing most important to me was the cut of the diamond, and my diamond, whilst pretty, stopped meeting my standards. I would always get tonnes of compliments on it... but just felt blah about it. I also wasn't a fan of the fact it was an SI1. The fluorescence didn't bother me really, although now, based on my experience trying to sell my fluorescent diamond, I think I will be avoiding fluorescence in the future.
So, with all these doubts about my main diamond, there went my thought process that I would just change my setting. Instead I realised I was essentially going to have to start from scratch, upgrade my central diamond, and change the setting. Of course, that was going to be an expensive journey, and, like with most people I'm sure, I was going to have to work within a specific self-funded budget (which I've still overshot, but never mind).
So, I asked myself, where could I compromise? I felt worried about this; I didn't really feel I had much compromise in me. There was no way I was going to spend thousands of pounds to end up with everything 'less' than my original stone apart from cut.
I certainly didn't want to go smaller than 1.65 carats. I actually wanted to upgrade in clarity to VS. I wanted to upgrade in cut, and I wanted to try and get rid of fluorescence. And in terms of colour, well boy, I am REALLY colour sensitive. I remember buying my F coloured diamond and being shown a GIA G at the same time and really noticing the tint in the G. Not only that, but I didn't like the tint. There was nothing warm or 'buttery' about it. It really shaped my opinions. I suspect that I was shown a G closer to an H but even so, neither of those things were reassuring for me when I was trying to make the decision about this 'upgrade'.
On one of my many trips around my local jewellery shops and also into Hatton Garden, I tried to see if I had any wiggle room in my colour sensitivity. It doesn't help that locally, there's an element of 'scorn' about diamonds even going to H. The best local shop around here won't sell lower than an H (the 'less good' shops will sell I, but they're like frozen spit I1 machine quality type diamonds with dubious certificates... not pretty.) Having said that, I was able to track down some GIA Gs and GIA Hs, and also went into Hatton Garden to do the same. Over some agonising, the G I felt comfortable with, but the H was too tinted, especially from the side.
I think that people often think about the top view of the stone being the only view that matters, but I realised with my previous ring that MOST of the time I was looking at my ring from the side, and that the side profile was just as important if not more important to me compared to the top view. Considering that the tint is meant to be 'more' from the side, this was another worry to me.
Additionally on one of those trips, I tried on a 1.8 carat G, and I was like super
at the size. Damn. I had been trying to stick to the 1.65 range, I had thought I would be fine sticking to the same size, but then that darn 1.8.... Ugh. I also tried on a 2.0 carat D (cut for size, not for cut), and I was a bit... uuuh it's a bit big. I have fingers that are J and a half, I don't know what that is in American sizes. They're not the smallest of fingers, but yeah. I thought 2 carats looked too much.
So, I wanted a 1.8 carat G VS quality diamond, and by now, with all my reading etc etc, I would adore a super-ideal.
Yeahhhh, in my dreamy dreams. I looked at ACAs initially, and I could find SI1s that were maaaaybe okay with ACAs, but that wasn't including all the import fees etc. It was a sad experience, and I didn't really want another SI1. Whiteflash were lovely when I contacted them - as per my other thread they were willing at that time to use my particular stone as part exchange. So that was lovely of them. But even so, I wasn't going to be able to do it unless I compromised a lot.
I pondered CBIs. I figured I could at least look into it, to see what I thought. I knew they were more expensive, but I wondered whether I might be able to part exchange my ring and that might make something vaguely possible. There wasn't any harm in checking, I didn't think.
Bring on Melissa at HPD. She was super cute; in her first email when I first enquired, she sent me all these videos with E and F coloured diamonds. Then we hashed down the budget (and the fact that part exchange wasn't really a viable option) and my specific wishes more, and the emails she started sending me changed drastically. Considering as well there's a markup with CBI diamonds (and I'm not at all suggesting that the markup isn't worth it, because in my opinion it is, it's just something to bear in mind), to get my size wishes in, she started sending me videos that included J coloured diamonds.
No no no, I thought. I had expressed my wish for G. I had read their little blurb about the way the idea-cut diamonds face up whiter compared to other diamonds even if they're graded reliably. I could believe it, too, but that wasn't going to magically take away the body colour of the diamond and it wasn't magically going to take away the side-tint. Initially, I was not convinced at all.
But you know, it was difficult to not be swayed by it all. I trust CBI, and Melissa was so enthusiastic. I read through lots of really helpful threads on here looking at 'lower' coloured diamonds and how so many of you guys are super happy with them. It was nice to have a different viewpoint than the standard viewpoint I am used to, and I was open to it. I was, however, aware of my colour sensitivity too. But it was CBI. Why not at least consider it, I thought? I certainly wasn't going to have any other options with super-ideal unless I could really expand my budget or go drastically down in size - there was a 1.25 F VS2 that was really nicely in budget... that kinda thing. But I would have felt so sad to go so far down in size. That's not to say that I think that size diamond is bad - I have seen many glorious and beautiful rings with stones in less than a carat and I fantastise about those types of rings too! But yeah... it wasn't what I wanted for this ring.
So I entertained the idea of J.
It turned out there were three Js on their website that might have been contenders. I only ended up seeing two, it was pretty easy actually to rule out the third (a 1.80 J VS1). I'll still show photos of that third diamond because it's all in context.
Of the other two, the first was this one:
https://www.hpdiamonds.com/en-us/diamonddetail/HPD9893
That was a 1.875, J, SI1.
7.94 x 7.96 x 4.88mm
Table 55.8
Crown 34.4
Pavilion 40.7
LGFs 77
The second was:
https://www.hpdiamonds.com/en-us/diamonddetail/HPD10351
That was a 1.853, J, VS1
7.87 x 7.91 x 4.85mm
Table 56.3
Crown 34.4
Pavilion 40.7
LGFs 77
And as I mentioned, the third was a 1.80 J VS1. I won't add more details here as I ruled that one out fast based on my own personal preferences. You'll see it's still a stunning stone.
So, of the two, very little difference between them, apart from the SI1 being quite a bit cheaper than the VS1. Melissa was super keen on me saving money whilst still getting a bigger diamond, so she really wanted me to aim for the 1.87 SI1. I was super keen to save money and all too, but in all honesty, I was actually more freaked by the fact it was SI1 over it being a J. Like, the J was scary, but I had never seen a CBI diamond in person let alone a J, so I felt I could keep an open mind. The SI1 - that in combination with the J felt a bit like too much compromise. However! I was willing to see it. I was finding it hard to balance my own viewpoint and promise to myself that I was not going to get an SI1 against the trust I have in CBI diamonds (and I still have the same trust in them, all of these are MY issues, not issues with CBI).
Interestingly I have now seen the paper certificate of the SI1, and honestly the plot looks nowhere near anything like the plot on the website. But despite that the SI1 is still a thing for me. Wink very kindly did a video for me - it was useful, and I could tell the clouds weren't any issue - but they felt like a lot of an issue to me. For others it would be nothing to worry about. I wish the website had photos of the actual certificates really, it would make some of the inclusions look way less scary.
Anyhoo, let me share some photos Melissa sent me of the stones. They had been very kindly taken by Jamie, and I am so grateful to her for taking the photos! I have checked it's okay to put these pictures in here because the pictures are so obscenely beautiful I had to share. I can't remember what Jamie's ring size is.
The 1.87 J SI1:
The 1.85 J VS1:
The 1.80 J VS1:
Okay, that's my full picture allowance for this post, oops.
I have pictures of the stones side-by-side, I'll add those into this thread at some point soon. I suspect all these above photos will be rather massive and I certainly recommend clicking on them to fully appreciate their beauty.
So, my thoughts!!!
Firstly, just to touch quickly on the 1.80 J VS1 - to ME, it was obviously more tinted in the office lighting compared to the other two. Outside it still looked awesome, but I could see the tint very easily in the office shot in a way that I couldn't for the other two. Considering it was also smaller, I basically used that to rule it out.
The other two. Well. I couldn't believe how beautiful they were. It was so nice to see them in a real environment. Having said that, I was already biased towards the 1.85 J VS1 - because it was a VS1 - so I was really drawn to the pictures of that stone. My favourite picture, and the one I lusted over again and again, was the 1.85 J VS1 picture of the stone with the tree as the background. I'm not sure how well it will translate here, but when I zoomed in on that one, the ARROWS on that stone were just out of this world!!!!!!!!
I mean,
I was essentially sold.
Come wanting to see them in person. The J was still a worry. As I said, I'll show some other views after this post, but in the pictures it's not that they're without tint. They're just so strikingly beautiful that I felt differently about it. It's difficult to explain, but I was willing to give them a chance.
Antwerp closed over August.
Closed. The stones, to get to England, had to go from America to Antwerp and then to England.
Ugh!
Or well, I say ugh because I was so impatient, but actually this was incredibly fortuitous in reality. I was working through selling my ring, and that definitely bought me some time I do not think I would have had otherwise. In that regard, it was a blessing Antwerp was closed.
Beginning of September, and I've organised a date to see the stones. Faye, the very lovely lady from Durham Rose, was slightly concerned that the stones would not arrive in time - thankfully, they arrived the morning of the day I was going to see them. Phew!!!
Basically, I show up and meet Manu, who I think is essentially the owner of Durham Rose. Or one of the owners. I don't know, I see his name on this forum whenever someone mentions Durham Rose. Manu proceeds to give me as much time as possible with the stones. It's a tad difficult - we all know how important it is to try and see stones in as many different lighting scenarios as possible, so we aim for that. It's not possible to take the stones outside, but we can get them close to a really large window in diffuse sunlight, also under direct streaming sunlight, direct spotlighting, halogen lights etc. The only lighting scenario really missing was the rubbish horrible yellow office lights that are present in a lot of working environments.
I was gobsmacked. There's no way these stones were J. It wasn't even from the top view, I was totally prepared for them to be white face up, but it was from the sides that I was so surprised. To me, although I could see that they had some tint from very certain angles, they felt about the same as the G I had seen in Hatton Garden. I had felt that the G was acceptable - it was a nice warmth; you know how everyone uses the terms 'champagne', 'buttery' etc. I could look at the stones and understand why they might say those things. Like, I could see some tint at certain angles, but there was nothing offensive about it. Mostly the stone just looked white, clear and non-tinted, even from the side. I really felt that one benefit of going with CBI is that they don't just think about the end colour grade of the diamond when they're choosing their rough, but they also think about the undertone to the diamond, and that is really helpful.
And the light performance was out of this world. There's something so fluid about it, I don't know. It's like when you're watching a storm and the lightning just flows across the sky - yes, it's jagged and it jumps from place to place, but it still flows - it's amazing. Every time I watched these stones sparkle I thought of a lightning storm.
Interestingly, there was definitely a difference between them in their type of sparkle. They both had awesome sparkle, but they did seem to have different personalities. One was no better than the other, it would potentially just come down to preference. I got pretty lost trying to keep track of which stone had which quality of sparkle, but I did get the sense that they behaved in different ways. I THINK possibly I preferred the light performance of the 1.87, problematically, although watching back some videos I'm less sure. They're both awesome for different reasons.
So yes, I did take a couple of [very poor quality, rough-and-ready] videos (something else to see if I can add to this thread, although that might be a bit more difficult to be honest) and I have watched them back a few (ahem) times. Annoyingly, I didn't video my F stone with the two stones all together, and I'm really frustrated with myself about that. I regret it. I don't even know why I didn't, it was so silly. When I got home from seeing them I tried to replicate a similar lighting environment and then video my own ring in a similar way, but it's never the same is it? Despite that, there was honestly no comparison, and I remained so impressed by the colour. I'm sure with the videos I can get a sense of the undertone of the stones especially when they're in shadow, but it's not a sense of 'yellow', which was my main concern. And in any other light the stones are fireballs - hard to notice the colour too much then, although I'm sure in time that would change.
I couldn't get over it. I still haven't got over it - can you tell?
However, I rapidly was developing a bigger issue, and that unfortunately was to do with size.
Bear in mind the 1.85 was 7.87 x 7.91 and the 1.87 was 7.94 x 7.96, that's what? Like a 0.07 x 0.05 mm size difference?
I have seen threads recently with debates about size difference and how big it needs to be (generally 0.2 mm) before it can be seen or before it really makes a significant difference. @sledge, news for you - even that tiny difference made a massive difference!!! Argh!!!
I could consistently (to the surprise of Manu, I think) identify the 1.85 from the 1.87 by size. It was pretty easy face up, although not possible face down. I totally get that the two stones were in comparison to each other, and that makes a big difference, but actually from the sense I got from the stones, I do feel I would have been able to 'feel' the size difference as well even if I just had one in front of me at a time.
1.65 carats is fine, you say to yourself. Fiiine. 1.80 is more than enough. And there I was looking at a 1.85 and a 1.87 and thinking that the 1.85 was TOO SMALL!!!!!!!
What in the name...!
I couldn't believe it. It was a bit upsetting.
It was just... my 1.65 in a setting and the 1.85 not in a setting didn't feel that different from each other, considering the amount of money I was about to spend. Now, please note that's not at all true, there's a massive size difference between the two stones, but it was more to do with my reaction that I was having this thought process, not to do with actual numbers. The 1.87 seemed large enough especially compared to my 1.65, but the 1.85 didn't. I don't know why, I can't explain it, but that was the reaction I had. Probably it was because I could see the size difference between the two Js.
Great, you say, a diamond that's larger, feels like the right size, has awesome light performance, and is cheaper... but I just couldn't do SI1. Honestly, the SI1 looked just lovely, whoever gets it will be seriously lucky, I just couldn't get over my clarity issues. And here I was, suddenly feeling fine with a J coloured diamond (at least from CBI, although obviously as you can tell with the 1.80, J is a spectrum). It opened a different world.
I wondered a lot of things after seeing those two stones. I wondered whether if I had seen the 1.85 by itself, whether I would have had a different reaction to it. It was a stunning stone, I loved it, I loved that tree photo, everything. But it felt too small. I decided that I need to just choose a different diamond, and that way I was getting a diamond that was not in a competition with any other diamond.
I went through the website and pondered the different stones available. I really thought about it, and my finances, and then picked out a stone, sight unseen:
https://www.hpdiamonds.com/en-us/diamonddetail/HPD10106
It's a 2.075 J VS2
8.19 x 8.21 x 5.06 mm
Table 55.2
Crown 34.4
Pavilion 40.7
LGFs 76
I don't know if you remember me saying I tried on a 2 carat D and that it was too big.
Um.
Oops?
It looks like it will be an awesome stone, I especially like the smaller table and the 76% LGFs. I did have a brief wobble about the plot and the additional clouds not shown, but I got over that. It's a VS2. It's a CBI VS2. That plot is nothing to worry about.
Faye kindly checked with Paul, and supposedly this J is on the same spectrum as the two I saw in person. Fingers crossed it is, because the J of the 1.80 I do think is too tinted for me.
Anyhow, so that's where I am now. I have paid a deposit on that stone whilst pending setting options (another thread entirely). I'm actually trying to figure out a way to see the stone in person before it gets set, and because I'm pretty certainly going custom on the setting, before any setting is made. I do recognise that there is such a big jump between my original stone being an F, my initial wiggle room to G, and now to get a J... obviously that's a big change. I feel comfortable with it because I feel in every other way I will have upgraded beyond anything I could have imagined, and because the two Js I saw in person were unreal. Considering what I'm spending (pennies I know compared to a lot of people on here, but this is a massive purchase for me) I really feel it prudent to just take measures to ensure I'm completely comfortable. I wish actually Durham Rose had one of those ring diamond holders, that would have made seeing the diamonds initially a bit easier and would make seeing this stone easier, too.
I just cannot believe all this, and am looking forward to keeping you guys updated with this journey.
Well done if you made it through all of this.
Best,
Lydia.
PS: Other posts will follow with the other pictures and possibly with the videos, but it's now past 02:00 here and I need to go to bed. Was just feeling guilty about posting this so many days later than my intention!
So my previous main diamond on the ring I have just successfully sold had the following characteristics:
GIA certificated
Triple Excellent
1.65 carats
7.54 - 7.57 x 4.69 mm
F
SI1
Medium blue fluorescence
Table 57%
Depth 62.1
Crown angle 35.5
Pavilion angle 40.8
LGF 80% (GIA round to the nearest 5%).
Its HCA score was 2.4, but! It was a beautiful diamond and I was happy with it for a long time. I especially liked the carat weight because 16 is my favourite number.
Originally I had just wanted to change the setting, but over time here I realised that the thing most important to me was the cut of the diamond, and my diamond, whilst pretty, stopped meeting my standards. I would always get tonnes of compliments on it... but just felt blah about it. I also wasn't a fan of the fact it was an SI1. The fluorescence didn't bother me really, although now, based on my experience trying to sell my fluorescent diamond, I think I will be avoiding fluorescence in the future.
So, with all these doubts about my main diamond, there went my thought process that I would just change my setting. Instead I realised I was essentially going to have to start from scratch, upgrade my central diamond, and change the setting. Of course, that was going to be an expensive journey, and, like with most people I'm sure, I was going to have to work within a specific self-funded budget (which I've still overshot, but never mind).
So, I asked myself, where could I compromise? I felt worried about this; I didn't really feel I had much compromise in me. There was no way I was going to spend thousands of pounds to end up with everything 'less' than my original stone apart from cut.
I certainly didn't want to go smaller than 1.65 carats. I actually wanted to upgrade in clarity to VS. I wanted to upgrade in cut, and I wanted to try and get rid of fluorescence. And in terms of colour, well boy, I am REALLY colour sensitive. I remember buying my F coloured diamond and being shown a GIA G at the same time and really noticing the tint in the G. Not only that, but I didn't like the tint. There was nothing warm or 'buttery' about it. It really shaped my opinions. I suspect that I was shown a G closer to an H but even so, neither of those things were reassuring for me when I was trying to make the decision about this 'upgrade'.
On one of my many trips around my local jewellery shops and also into Hatton Garden, I tried to see if I had any wiggle room in my colour sensitivity. It doesn't help that locally, there's an element of 'scorn' about diamonds even going to H. The best local shop around here won't sell lower than an H (the 'less good' shops will sell I, but they're like frozen spit I1 machine quality type diamonds with dubious certificates... not pretty.) Having said that, I was able to track down some GIA Gs and GIA Hs, and also went into Hatton Garden to do the same. Over some agonising, the G I felt comfortable with, but the H was too tinted, especially from the side.
I think that people often think about the top view of the stone being the only view that matters, but I realised with my previous ring that MOST of the time I was looking at my ring from the side, and that the side profile was just as important if not more important to me compared to the top view. Considering that the tint is meant to be 'more' from the side, this was another worry to me.
Additionally on one of those trips, I tried on a 1.8 carat G, and I was like super
at the size. Damn. I had been trying to stick to the 1.65 range, I had thought I would be fine sticking to the same size, but then that darn 1.8.... Ugh. I also tried on a 2.0 carat D (cut for size, not for cut), and I was a bit... uuuh it's a bit big. I have fingers that are J and a half, I don't know what that is in American sizes. They're not the smallest of fingers, but yeah. I thought 2 carats looked too much.So, I wanted a 1.8 carat G VS quality diamond, and by now, with all my reading etc etc, I would adore a super-ideal.
Yeahhhh, in my dreamy dreams. I looked at ACAs initially, and I could find SI1s that were maaaaybe okay with ACAs, but that wasn't including all the import fees etc. It was a sad experience, and I didn't really want another SI1. Whiteflash were lovely when I contacted them - as per my other thread they were willing at that time to use my particular stone as part exchange. So that was lovely of them. But even so, I wasn't going to be able to do it unless I compromised a lot.
I pondered CBIs. I figured I could at least look into it, to see what I thought. I knew they were more expensive, but I wondered whether I might be able to part exchange my ring and that might make something vaguely possible. There wasn't any harm in checking, I didn't think.
Bring on Melissa at HPD. She was super cute; in her first email when I first enquired, she sent me all these videos with E and F coloured diamonds. Then we hashed down the budget (and the fact that part exchange wasn't really a viable option) and my specific wishes more, and the emails she started sending me changed drastically. Considering as well there's a markup with CBI diamonds (and I'm not at all suggesting that the markup isn't worth it, because in my opinion it is, it's just something to bear in mind), to get my size wishes in, she started sending me videos that included J coloured diamonds.
No no no, I thought. I had expressed my wish for G. I had read their little blurb about the way the idea-cut diamonds face up whiter compared to other diamonds even if they're graded reliably. I could believe it, too, but that wasn't going to magically take away the body colour of the diamond and it wasn't magically going to take away the side-tint. Initially, I was not convinced at all.
But you know, it was difficult to not be swayed by it all. I trust CBI, and Melissa was so enthusiastic. I read through lots of really helpful threads on here looking at 'lower' coloured diamonds and how so many of you guys are super happy with them. It was nice to have a different viewpoint than the standard viewpoint I am used to, and I was open to it. I was, however, aware of my colour sensitivity too. But it was CBI. Why not at least consider it, I thought? I certainly wasn't going to have any other options with super-ideal unless I could really expand my budget or go drastically down in size - there was a 1.25 F VS2 that was really nicely in budget... that kinda thing. But I would have felt so sad to go so far down in size. That's not to say that I think that size diamond is bad - I have seen many glorious and beautiful rings with stones in less than a carat and I fantastise about those types of rings too! But yeah... it wasn't what I wanted for this ring.
So I entertained the idea of J.
It turned out there were three Js on their website that might have been contenders. I only ended up seeing two, it was pretty easy actually to rule out the third (a 1.80 J VS1). I'll still show photos of that third diamond because it's all in context.
Of the other two, the first was this one:
https://www.hpdiamonds.com/en-us/diamonddetail/HPD9893
That was a 1.875, J, SI1.
7.94 x 7.96 x 4.88mm
Table 55.8
Crown 34.4
Pavilion 40.7
LGFs 77
The second was:
https://www.hpdiamonds.com/en-us/diamonddetail/HPD10351
That was a 1.853, J, VS1
7.87 x 7.91 x 4.85mm
Table 56.3
Crown 34.4
Pavilion 40.7
LGFs 77
And as I mentioned, the third was a 1.80 J VS1. I won't add more details here as I ruled that one out fast based on my own personal preferences. You'll see it's still a stunning stone.
So, of the two, very little difference between them, apart from the SI1 being quite a bit cheaper than the VS1. Melissa was super keen on me saving money whilst still getting a bigger diamond, so she really wanted me to aim for the 1.87 SI1. I was super keen to save money and all too, but in all honesty, I was actually more freaked by the fact it was SI1 over it being a J. Like, the J was scary, but I had never seen a CBI diamond in person let alone a J, so I felt I could keep an open mind. The SI1 - that in combination with the J felt a bit like too much compromise. However! I was willing to see it. I was finding it hard to balance my own viewpoint and promise to myself that I was not going to get an SI1 against the trust I have in CBI diamonds (and I still have the same trust in them, all of these are MY issues, not issues with CBI).
Interestingly I have now seen the paper certificate of the SI1, and honestly the plot looks nowhere near anything like the plot on the website. But despite that the SI1 is still a thing for me. Wink very kindly did a video for me - it was useful, and I could tell the clouds weren't any issue - but they felt like a lot of an issue to me. For others it would be nothing to worry about. I wish the website had photos of the actual certificates really, it would make some of the inclusions look way less scary.
Anyhoo, let me share some photos Melissa sent me of the stones. They had been very kindly taken by Jamie, and I am so grateful to her for taking the photos! I have checked it's okay to put these pictures in here because the pictures are so obscenely beautiful I had to share. I can't remember what Jamie's ring size is.
The 1.87 J SI1:
The 1.85 J VS1:
The 1.80 J VS1:
Okay, that's my full picture allowance for this post, oops.
I have pictures of the stones side-by-side, I'll add those into this thread at some point soon. I suspect all these above photos will be rather massive and I certainly recommend clicking on them to fully appreciate their beauty.So, my thoughts!!!
Firstly, just to touch quickly on the 1.80 J VS1 - to ME, it was obviously more tinted in the office lighting compared to the other two. Outside it still looked awesome, but I could see the tint very easily in the office shot in a way that I couldn't for the other two. Considering it was also smaller, I basically used that to rule it out.
The other two. Well. I couldn't believe how beautiful they were. It was so nice to see them in a real environment. Having said that, I was already biased towards the 1.85 J VS1 - because it was a VS1 - so I was really drawn to the pictures of that stone. My favourite picture, and the one I lusted over again and again, was the 1.85 J VS1 picture of the stone with the tree as the background. I'm not sure how well it will translate here, but when I zoomed in on that one, the ARROWS on that stone were just out of this world!!!!!!!!
I mean,
I was essentially sold.
Come wanting to see them in person. The J was still a worry. As I said, I'll show some other views after this post, but in the pictures it's not that they're without tint. They're just so strikingly beautiful that I felt differently about it. It's difficult to explain, but I was willing to give them a chance.
Antwerp closed over August.
Closed. The stones, to get to England, had to go from America to Antwerp and then to England.
Ugh!
Or well, I say ugh because I was so impatient, but actually this was incredibly fortuitous in reality. I was working through selling my ring, and that definitely bought me some time I do not think I would have had otherwise. In that regard, it was a blessing Antwerp was closed.
Beginning of September, and I've organised a date to see the stones. Faye, the very lovely lady from Durham Rose, was slightly concerned that the stones would not arrive in time - thankfully, they arrived the morning of the day I was going to see them. Phew!!!
Basically, I show up and meet Manu, who I think is essentially the owner of Durham Rose. Or one of the owners. I don't know, I see his name on this forum whenever someone mentions Durham Rose. Manu proceeds to give me as much time as possible with the stones. It's a tad difficult - we all know how important it is to try and see stones in as many different lighting scenarios as possible, so we aim for that. It's not possible to take the stones outside, but we can get them close to a really large window in diffuse sunlight, also under direct streaming sunlight, direct spotlighting, halogen lights etc. The only lighting scenario really missing was the rubbish horrible yellow office lights that are present in a lot of working environments.
I was gobsmacked. There's no way these stones were J. It wasn't even from the top view, I was totally prepared for them to be white face up, but it was from the sides that I was so surprised. To me, although I could see that they had some tint from very certain angles, they felt about the same as the G I had seen in Hatton Garden. I had felt that the G was acceptable - it was a nice warmth; you know how everyone uses the terms 'champagne', 'buttery' etc. I could look at the stones and understand why they might say those things. Like, I could see some tint at certain angles, but there was nothing offensive about it. Mostly the stone just looked white, clear and non-tinted, even from the side. I really felt that one benefit of going with CBI is that they don't just think about the end colour grade of the diamond when they're choosing their rough, but they also think about the undertone to the diamond, and that is really helpful.
And the light performance was out of this world. There's something so fluid about it, I don't know. It's like when you're watching a storm and the lightning just flows across the sky - yes, it's jagged and it jumps from place to place, but it still flows - it's amazing. Every time I watched these stones sparkle I thought of a lightning storm.
Interestingly, there was definitely a difference between them in their type of sparkle. They both had awesome sparkle, but they did seem to have different personalities. One was no better than the other, it would potentially just come down to preference. I got pretty lost trying to keep track of which stone had which quality of sparkle, but I did get the sense that they behaved in different ways. I THINK possibly I preferred the light performance of the 1.87, problematically, although watching back some videos I'm less sure. They're both awesome for different reasons.
So yes, I did take a couple of [very poor quality, rough-and-ready] videos (something else to see if I can add to this thread, although that might be a bit more difficult to be honest) and I have watched them back a few (ahem
) times. Annoyingly, I didn't video my F stone with the two stones all together, and I'm really frustrated with myself about that. I regret it. I don't even know why I didn't, it was so silly. When I got home from seeing them I tried to replicate a similar lighting environment and then video my own ring in a similar way, but it's never the same is it? Despite that, there was honestly no comparison, and I remained so impressed by the colour. I'm sure with the videos I can get a sense of the undertone of the stones especially when they're in shadow, but it's not a sense of 'yellow', which was my main concern. And in any other light the stones are fireballs - hard to notice the colour too much then, although I'm sure in time that would change.I couldn't get over it. I still haven't got over it - can you tell?
However, I rapidly was developing a bigger issue, and that unfortunately was to do with size.
Bear in mind the 1.85 was 7.87 x 7.91 and the 1.87 was 7.94 x 7.96, that's what? Like a 0.07 x 0.05 mm size difference?
I have seen threads recently with debates about size difference and how big it needs to be (generally 0.2 mm) before it can be seen or before it really makes a significant difference. @sledge, news for you - even that tiny difference made a massive difference!!! Argh!!!
I could consistently (to the surprise of Manu, I think) identify the 1.85 from the 1.87 by size. It was pretty easy face up, although not possible face down. I totally get that the two stones were in comparison to each other, and that makes a big difference, but actually from the sense I got from the stones, I do feel I would have been able to 'feel' the size difference as well even if I just had one in front of me at a time.
1.65 carats is fine, you say to yourself. Fiiine. 1.80 is more than enough. And there I was looking at a 1.85 and a 1.87 and thinking that the 1.85 was TOO SMALL!!!!!!!
What in the name...!
I couldn't believe it. It was a bit upsetting.
It was just... my 1.65 in a setting and the 1.85 not in a setting didn't feel that different from each other, considering the amount of money I was about to spend. Now, please note that's not at all true, there's a massive size difference between the two stones, but it was more to do with my reaction that I was having this thought process, not to do with actual numbers. The 1.87 seemed large enough especially compared to my 1.65, but the 1.85 didn't. I don't know why, I can't explain it, but that was the reaction I had. Probably it was because I could see the size difference between the two Js.
Great, you say, a diamond that's larger, feels like the right size, has awesome light performance, and is cheaper... but I just couldn't do SI1.
Honestly, the SI1 looked just lovely, whoever gets it will be seriously lucky, I just couldn't get over my clarity issues. And here I was, suddenly feeling fine with a J coloured diamond (at least from CBI, although obviously as you can tell with the 1.80, J is a spectrum). It opened a different world.I wondered a lot of things after seeing those two stones. I wondered whether if I had seen the 1.85 by itself, whether I would have had a different reaction to it. It was a stunning stone, I loved it, I loved that tree photo, everything. But it felt too small. I decided that I need to just choose a different diamond, and that way I was getting a diamond that was not in a competition with any other diamond.
I went through the website and pondered the different stones available. I really thought about it, and my finances, and then picked out a stone, sight unseen:
https://www.hpdiamonds.com/en-us/diamonddetail/HPD10106
It's a 2.075 J VS2
8.19 x 8.21 x 5.06 mm
Table 55.2
Crown 34.4
Pavilion 40.7
LGFs 76
I don't know if you remember me saying I tried on a 2 carat D and that it was too big.
Um.
Oops?
It looks like it will be an awesome stone, I especially like the smaller table and the 76% LGFs. I did have a brief wobble about the plot and the additional clouds not shown, but I got over that. It's a VS2. It's a CBI VS2. That plot is nothing to worry about.
Faye kindly checked with Paul, and supposedly this J is on the same spectrum as the two I saw in person. Fingers crossed it is, because the J of the 1.80 I do think is too tinted for me.
Anyhow, so that's where I am now. I have paid a deposit on that stone whilst pending setting options (another thread entirely). I'm actually trying to figure out a way to see the stone in person before it gets set, and because I'm pretty certainly going custom on the setting, before any setting is made. I do recognise that there is such a big jump between my original stone being an F, my initial wiggle room to G, and now to get a J... obviously that's a big change. I feel comfortable with it because I feel in every other way I will have upgraded beyond anything I could have imagined, and because the two Js I saw in person were unreal. Considering what I'm spending (pennies I know compared to a lot of people on here, but this is a massive purchase for me) I really feel it prudent to just take measures to ensure I'm completely comfortable. I wish actually Durham Rose had one of those ring diamond holders, that would have made seeing the diamonds initially a bit easier and would make seeing this stone easier, too.
I just cannot believe all this, and am looking forward to keeping you guys updated with this journey.
Well done if you made it through all of this.
Best,
Lydia.
PS: Other posts will follow with the other pictures and possibly with the videos, but it's now past 02:00 here and I need to go to bed. Was just feeling guilty about posting this so many days later than my intention!
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