which diamond to choose

[bhushan]

Hey guys, i was thinking of buying a 1ct princess cut diamond with the following specs

Shape: square modified brilliant

measurements : 5.58x 5.47x 3.98

Carat weight: 1.02
Color grade : D
clarity grade : VS1

Triple x in polish symmetry and fluoresence

diagram shows

medium to slightly thick gridle
Table 72%
Depth 72.8%

it has cloud inclusions

price is £5000 for the diamond

and i want to compare that with another one

everything is the same but the following

clarity grade is vs2

measurements 5.45x5.32x4.01

Table is 68%
Depth is 75.4%

It gas feather and needle inclusions.

Price is £5200

I just wanted to know for that price are the dimensions good.

any help will be much appreciated.

Thanks guys

 

[bhushan]

I forgot to mention the second diamond has a thick gridle.

 

[Gypsy]

Neither diamond "looks good". Why? Because numbers tell you nothing about a princess. You need pictures and an ASET. Because you have to judge princesses by faceting and light performance.

Or you can get an AGS0 princess. But from what you have posted? Those diamonds could be gorgeous, or complete dogs. GIA does not grade their princesses for performance. Only AGS does. And if those diamonds are graded by any lab other than GIA or AGS you shouldn't be considering them at all.

The entire purpose of faceting a diamond is to reflect light.
How well or how poorly a diamond does this determines how beautiful it is.
How well a diamond performs is determined by the angles and cutting. This is why we say cut is king. With fancies though (anything other than a round brilliant), that is a little complicated. But no other factor: not color, not clarity has as much of an impact on the appearance of a diamond as its cut.

There really is no other way to determine if you have a good princess is to see images of the stones, and then you need is a way to check actual light performance of your actual stone.

That's what an ASET image does. http://www.highperformancediamonds.com/index.php?page=education-performance Please read.
And ASET shows you how and wear your diamond is reflecting light, how well it is going at it, and where you are losing light return That is why you won't see us recommending vendors like Blue Nile, as they do not provide images or ASET images for their diamonds. James Allen and Good Old Gold do this. So do Brian Gavin and Whiteflash and High Performance Diamonds.


Also you are wasting money on D color. You should be shooting for F/G. VS is fine but I would recommend you consider VS2 instead of wasting money on VS1, though an eyeclean SI1 would work as well.

You should go UP in quality of cut and go for an AGS0 diamond and go DOWN on color and clarity to get there. Cut is the most important thing.


Here is what I mean. Compare these two:

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut/1.00-carat-g-color-vs2-clarity-sku-295886
G color
VS2
Depth 76.3
Table 69
Ratio: 1.01
Excellent polish
Good Symmetry
Girdle Medium

http://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut/1.00-carat-g-color-vs2-clarity-sku-283672
G color
VS2 clarity
Depth 76.2
Table 69.9
Ratio: 1.02
Very good polish
Very good symmetry
Girdle Thin to Slightly thick

Numbers are VERY close right? And the first one has a better girdle. And while the symmetry on the first one is only good, that's not a disqualifier with princeses.

Now look at the pictures. The first one is a VERY dark stone, and frankly a dog as far as princesses go. Second one is an AGS0 with ideal light return and is very bright, with just enough patterning to provide contrast.

In summary. YOU NEED AN ASET AND IMAGES. Or if your vendor doesn't provide those. You need to stick to AGS0 stones.