Find your diamond
Find your jewelry
shape
carat
color
clarity

Thoughts on this (almost pulled a trigger but HCA 2.3 made me think!) 1.32ct

C

cyprian94

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jan 8, 2020
Messages
17
Hi,

So I've been working with Ingle&Rhode to find a nice lab-grown diamond since buying diamonds from the US and bringing them here to the UK is a bit more tricky due to Covid.

I found this one, which seemed really nice but I was not sure why the price was relatively low for the spec (it's taken down now as it's being held for me, so can't be 100% sure but was about £3.2k).

I would sooo apreciate if you could please have a look at it as the thing I'm concerned about is the HCA with score of 2.3. I'm attaching the certificate, video and ASET scope.

Just tagging the experts to gain some attention :D @lovedogs @OoohShiny

Thanks in advance :)
ezgif.com-video-to-gif.gif1.jpeg3.jpeg4.jpeg5.jpeg6.jpeg2.jpeg
 

Attachments

Bumping up! Any thoughts on whether this should be canned or taken? I must say to me to ASET scopes don’t look bad but definitely will not pull a trigger on this one without advice as I’m no expert in reading them ;)
 
I'm sorry that I'm not an expert either, but it sure does look beautiful to my untutored eye! I'm also in the UK so absolutely share your frustration with the whole difficulty of shipping and returns for anything from the US. Good luck!
 
Thanks!
Well it does look nice but I’m just not too convinced that it’ll have a lot of fire and will sparkle beautifully.
would be great to see what @flyingpig and @mwilliamanderson have got to say! :)
 
cyprian94 said:
Thanks!
Well it does look nice but I’m just not too convinced that it’ll have a lot of fire and will sparkle beautifully.
would be great to see what @flyingpig and @mwilliamanderson have got to say! :)
Click to expand...

HCA isn’t absolute, if the score is <2.5 I think the stone is definitely worth considering. I personally don’t know how to evaluate an ASET so I’ll leave it to the experts, though it looks nice to my eye, but I wouldn’t conclude that because the HCA is 2.3 that alone is reason to believe it won’t be sparkly or fiery. I mean, it still might not be, but the HCA score isn’t a death sentence in my opinion anyway.
 
I think it’s great that you were able to get advanced images on a lab stone @cyprian94 . But in this case it’s the real photo that bothers me the most. There is not a lot of bright white light return going on under the table. That crown is steep and would be better paired with a 40.6 PA. I would personally keep looking.

Edited to add: I think it’s a great idea to rely on the HCA when buying diamonds, especially online. It’s purpose is to rule out stones like this one.
 
Last edited:
thanks guys, and most importantly - thank you @mwilliamanderson, this is exactly the extra value this forum has for people like me! I hope you don't mind me tagging you in a post like that! :)

I'll keep looking then, and probably keep posting. :)
 
mwilliamanderson said:
I think it’s great that you were able to get advanced images on a lab stone @cyprian94 . But in this case it’s the real photo that bothers me the most. There is not a lot of bright white light return going on under the table. That crown is steep and would be better paired with a 40.6 PA. I would personally keep looking.

Edited to add: I think it’s a great idea to rely on the HCA when buying diamonds, especially online. It’s purpose is to rule out stones like this one.
Click to expand...

That’s so cool that you could tell that it would look sleepy! Is it because of the slight beige-ish ring around the center? I thought that that was just a lighting effect because the rest of the images also seem less saturated overall. Thank you, I learned something today!
 
AllAboardTheBlingTrain said:
That’s so cool that you could tell that it would look sleepy! Is it because of the slight beige-ish ring around the center? I thought that that was just a lighting effect because the rest of the images also seem less saturated overall. Thank you, I learned something today!
Click to expand...

Hopefully others will weigh in and confirm what I’m seeing, but if you look at this cut chart you see how the good examples reflect light across the whole crown but poor examples suffer under the table.

B3C9DB2F-685C-44EA-A148-C6FD582A4548.jpeg
 
A well cut 36/40.7. but it is still 36/40.7.
HCA is nearly always right when it comes to diamonds with HCA greater than 2.0. Nearly all of them have leakage.
 
Apologies for missing the tag in this thread!


flyingpig said:
A well cut 36/40.7. but it is still 36/40.7.
HCA is nearly always right when it comes to diamonds with HCA greater than 2.0. Nearly all of them have leakage.
Click to expand...
I think it's interesting that @Serg has posted recently that he prefers slightly deeper diamonds that might show some leakage in monocular ASET/IdealScope images.

IIRC his argument is that unless you have lost an eye :D then you'll be viewing your diamond with binocular vision.

This will mean that while there might be a touch of leakage head-on with one eye closed (similar to 'scope use), as soon as it's tilted and both eyes are open, the leakage will work in a similar way to contrast/obstruction - i.e. it will increase the apparent strength of light return because one eye will see bright light return and the other will see darkness/a bit of leakage, which makes the bright light return look brighter.

(If I understand things correctly!)


I think that if the Returns policy is good, I'd be tempted to pick this stone up and see how it performs in real life - it looks very well-cut and the 35.9 degree crown should create a lot of fire :)
 
OoohShiny said:
Apologies for missing the tag in this thread!



I think it's interesting that @Serg has posted recently that he prefers slightly deeper diamonds that might show some leakage in monocular ASET/IdealScope images.

IIRC his argument is that unless you have lost an eye :D then you'll be viewing your diamond with binocular vision.

This will mean that while there might be a touch of leakage head-on with one eye closed (similar to 'scope use), as soon as it's tilted and both eyes are open, the leakage will work in a similar way to contrast/obstruction - i.e. it will increase the apparent strength of light return because one eye will see bright light return and the other will see darkness/a bit of leakage, which makes the bright light return look brighter.

(If I understand things correctly!)


I think that if the Returns policy is good, I'd be tempted to pick this stone up and see how it performs in real life - it looks very well-cut and the 35.9 degree crown should create a lot of fire :)
Click to expand...
I have read those comments by Serg and Garry. They make sense and logical.

What I am afraid is that vendors using that argument as justification for leakage.

Consumer: I think it is a bit leaky.
Vendors: Oh, do not worry about it. You got two eyes.
 
flyingpig said:
I have read those comments by Serg and Garry. They make sense and logical.

What I am afraid is that vendors using that argument as justification for leakage.

Consumer: I think it is a bit leaky.
Vendors: Oh, do not worry about it. You got two eyes.
Click to expand...
:D

I can appreciate that fear.

I would count you as one of the most knowledgeable MRB people on the forum, so I find your (and Garry's and Serg's and...) views very useful for forming my own opinion - even if they each differ slightly and are perhaps even contrary in some cases! Thank you for your efforts :)


I guess that, ultimately, we must buy what appeals to our own personal taste - whether that's a SuperIdeal within strict criteria, or a GIA XXX with angles that place it towards HCA ~2.5, or even a 32c/41.5p, as long as the angles make it in the top 5-10% in terms of actual light return!
 
Haha THE PLOT THICKENS. now you made it difficult! But I love that kind of difficult and appreciate all the input and knowledge here.

I’ll enquire about the return policy and will see if it’s easy enough. I believe it shouldn’t be too bad as it’s jeweller based in London. I could also enquire about photos/videos before making the purchase.
Is there any particular angles/light that I could ask for for the photo/video that would help with the assessment?

thanks all again!
 
OoohShiny said:
I think it's interesting that @Serg has posted recently that he prefers slightly deeper diamonds that might show some leakage in monocular ASET/IdealScope images.
Click to expand...

However, in this case the diamond itself looks dark under the table with both eyes open.
 
mwilliamanderson said:
However, in this case the diamond itself looks dark under the table with both eyes open.
Click to expand...
Do you mean in the video?

Or in real life?

I'm reading the comments from the OP and I can't find anything referencing it looking dark!
 
seems like the video has expired/been taken down, so here it goes again:

https://imgur.com/cUWfdfz

will try to get your attention once more: @OoohShiny @mwilliamanderson @flyingpig :) What do you think? Should I pull the trigger? Not sure if it's the lighting in the video but doesn't seem to have too much fire?

The returns policy is quite okay, with the only caveat of having to pay £100 of restocking fee to cover shipping.
 
streamable.com

Video-1

Watch "Video-1" on Streamable.
streamable.com streamable.com

hmm, can't seem to be able to edit those posts?! here's another link
 
Sorry, I didn’t see this until now. I just reread the whole thread and I still would keep looking. I wouldn’t buy any diamond that scores above a 2 on the HCA. There are sooo many lab grown stones on the market you should be able to find something that scores between 1 and 2.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
GET 3 FREE HCA RESULTS JOIN THE FORUM. ASK FOR HELP

Featured Topics

Jewelry Blog
PriceScope-Concierge-Ad
Find prime cuts.
Top