Find your diamond
Find your jewelry
shape
carat
color
clarity

Which MMD?

T

Tomato_Pincushion

Rough_Rock
Joined
Mar 27, 2021
Messages
13
Hello everyone! Long-time lurker, first post :)

I'm investigating two mmds and need some help in choosing.

I bought a mmd two weeks ago - 1.96 J color, XXX. I looked for stria/graining, gray and brown tint -- I read constantly about light leakage, etc. I even chose a J because I have a mined diamond of the same color and I love the ivory sparkles. But WHOA what I received was a weird, steely tinted colored J that was very different in comparison to my original e-ring. It reminded me of some fancy gray moissanite I've seen on Reddit. I'm not a fan of that look in a diamond.

Fortunately, the vendor has a great return policy and I'm working to exchange my stone with one of a higher color. I'm still doubting myself! I need some help on the proportions AND the choice of color as well. My skin is brown so I don't want an icy color -- however, I don't want to see that weird brown/gray/steel color again. And I don't want to get the H and it's awful -- and the G gets purchased by someone else. My goal is to get as close as I can to a 2 carat spread, with great performance, good proportions and the 4Cs :)

Option 1
This one has an average spread and, according to the vendor, looks like a 1.85carat
Screenshot1.JPG

Option 2
This one is a little more "squat" and, according to the vendor's calculator tool, will look like a 1.9.
Screenshot2.JPG

What does everyone think? I appreciate any feedback/thoughts. Thank you in advance!
 
The H is considered a steep deep and likely will have leakage under the table. The second one is more promising. Are you able to get an Ideal-Scope image? Have you found out if it's eye-clean?
 
Kim N said:
The H is considered a steep deep and likely will have leakage under the table. The second one is more promising. Are you able to get an Ideal-Scope image? Have you found out if it's eye-clean?
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for your reply! I can't believe I missed the depth -- thank you.

For the second one, I plan on getting an Ideal-Scope image on Monday when I speak to the owner again. The second stone is eye-clean and the inclusions are on the edge and can be hidden by a prong, but I will take another look. Is there anything else I should look for in terms of the proportions?

Thankfully, if this second one is a dud, I can get a full refund.
 
Tomato_Pincushion said:
Thanks so much for your reply! I can't believe I missed the depth -- thank you.

For the second one, I plan on getting an Ideal-Scope image on Monday when I speak to the owner again. The second stone is eye-clean and the inclusions are on the edge and can be hidden by a prong, but I will take another look. Is there anything else I should look for in terms of the proportions?

Thankfully, if this second one is a dud, I can get a full refund.
Click to expand...

That's great that the second stone is eye-clean and the vendor can get you an IS image. Does the vendor have any other stones that are G SI1? It's personal preference, but I generally prefer a smaller table, and a 35.5 crown usually works better with a 40.6 pavilion.
 
The crown angles and pavilion angles need to be in harmony for your diamond to give the best light show. The top one (and Kim N pointed out) has some issues. The bottom one is better, maybe. Still outside the sweet spot.

We could help you with angle guidelines
or you can shop diamonds from the tool section that have vetted angles using the HCA tool or even get free concierge help from a vendor if you do not want to get into the nitty-gritty.

This is the first diamond. That bright red ring is where you want to be for the best light return. Diamond number one is not so great. You see the crown angles on the bottom and Pavillion angles on the side. You can follow this for about any diamond you find.


sweet spot.png

Diamond 2
screenshot (10).png

There is an HCA tool here you can use before you buy a diamond that is more exact than what I am showing you, but it's a start.

PS - I got so tired of weeding out MMD with my last purchase, I used a free concierge service and bought through Distinctive Gems.
 
MMtwo said:
The crown angles and pavilion angles need to be in harmony for your diamond to give the best light show. The top one (and Kim N pointed out) has some issues. The bottom one is better, maybe. Still outside the sweet spot.

We could help you with angle guidelines
or you can shop diamonds from the tool section that have vetted angles using the HCA tool or even get free concierge help from a vendor if you do not want to get into the nitty-gritty.

This is the first diamond. That bright red ring is where you want to be for the best light return. Diamond number one is not so great. You see the crown angles on the bottom and Pavillion angles on the side. You can follow this for about any diamond you find.


sweet spot.png

Diamond 2
screenshot (10).png

There is an HCA tool here you can use before you buy a diamond that is more exact than what I am showing you, but it's a start.

PS - I got so tired of weeding out MMD with my last purchase, I used a free concierge service and bought through Distinctive Gems.
Click to expand...

Wow! I haven't been searching long but I'm starting to feel like how you did with your last purchase, lol. I'm already tired! A concierge service sounds really good -- I will check out Distinctive Gems and others.

Thanks again!
 
Tomato_Pincushion said:
Wow! I haven't been searching long but I'm starting to feel like how you did with your last purchase, lol. I'm already tired! A concierge service sounds really good -- I will check out Distinctive Gems and others.

Thanks again!
Click to expand...

Seriously, if you just tell Jon your dreams and your budget, he will get you an amazing diamond. He is so well trusted around here to just "handle it" and find you an amazing diamond.
 
If you leave it to someone like Jon, he can probably find you a H/I/J stone as well that is warm as you'd expect with yellow tinted naturals. I'm not sure if your J was a HPHT stone but it sounds like it had some serious blue nuance. It's not normal of all lower colour labs. My L is super buttery when leaning towards the yellow end but looks like a warm golden 'white' stone in other lighting conditions. It's a CVP stone however.
 
Thanks again to all who chimed in to help me.

I did a full return of the weird steel colored lab diamonds I purchased three weeks ago. Turns out the vendor is new to labs and admitted to me they they weren't sure if my CVD stones had been undergone HPHT post growth treatment (a reason why CVD get a blueish hue). The reports say nothing of that and I'm not sure IGI has to reveal that. I could be wrong.

I took the advice of a pp and looked in the "Diamond Search" section of Pricescope for the specs I wanted. I know the HCA is an elimination tool rather than a selection one, but I was relieved to not have to think so hard about angles and such ...lol.

I pulled the trigger on a James Allen HPHT stone:

1.84
G
SI1
Ideal cut
7.86mm x 7.89mm
No blue nuance/fluorescence/phosphorescence
HCA 1.3

(I hope that was the right format for the specs!)

I was so nervous! The price was almost too good (slightly under 4k). Maybe this was because of people being put off by the 360 zoomed-in videos on the inclusions - but this lady is gorgeous and eye clean in person!

The clarity - I could see a carbon speck, deep down, reflecting in the video. It looked like polka dots :obut was not in or directly under the table. There is also a crescent shaped inclusion on the crown (the SI1 I was told) but could be hidden under a prong. It's not on the very edge so I am not worried about chipping -- I will still take this to a jeweler to check, though! I talked to three JA geologists in the chat and they all said the stone looked extremely good. They said the tiny speck would have made it a VVS2 and the stone was only graded SI1 because of the inclusion on the crown. Still....I know they want sales so I didn't completely trust it lol.

So I decided to buy and see for myself. Wow! What can I say? She's beautiful. I've never had such a fiery and lively stone. I was nearly blinded in Walmart last night! It is not weird like the two others I returned. I am STILL hunting for these inclusions but I cannot see them (yet?) because the cut and crown/pavilion angles are so so good. There's so much light and sparkle. I'm still getting used to the stone going dark in intense sunlight -- but I realize my other diamond didn't do that because of a shallow cut and milkiness from feather inclusions...

I think I did ok! I'm not trying to find a super super ideal or a perfect stone.... but a reallllly good one that I love and looks better than my old diamond (see below). I'll still continue to look for flaws and oddities over the next few days -- but I'm hopeful :)

Here's an imgur album:
https://imgur.com/a/719xbPp
Any turquoise/blue you see in the facets is a reflection from my phone :)
 
Last edited:
Omg its GORGROUS!!!
 
Wow - I think you did extremely well! Your stone is stunning!!!
 
LOL - "geologist" - I meant "gemologist."

Additional specs from the cert:

Table: 56.6
Crown: 34.3
Pavilion: 40.8
Depth: 61.5
Girdle: Medium (faceted)
Culet: Pointed

No post-growth treatment :)
 
It's gorgeous! You picked such a good one!
 
Wow....I am thrilled for you. What a georgeous stone! Absolutely lively facets. You have beautiful hands too!
 
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