Two days ago I received by FedEx delivery the diamond earrings I bought from Whiteflash.com as a Christmas gift for my wife.
With the help of Bob Hoskins of Whiteflash (aka DimonBob), who was terrific (and very patient!!) throughout the whole process, we picked out two "A Cut Above" H&A diamonds, each about a half carat and each E/SI1 in color/clarity -- a great match. It was a great experience and the diamonds (and the white gold settings) are absolutely fantastic! The beautiful crisp look of the stones and the flashes of white and colored light are truly amazing. It''s especially interesting to see how the stones look in different lighting. Even in subdued light, there seems to be a glow and a lot of sparkle in the stones.
Before buying, I did a lot of homework on pricescope.com and other sites. Although certainly still a novice, I got a good sense of ideal and superideal cut parameters (the sweet spot), the significance of hitting the crown and pavilion angles, hearts and arrows symmetry, etc. With all the numbers and charts and scope analysis that is available, the tendency (at least for some!!) is to obsess about getting the absolutely perfect stone. The nice thing about A Cut Above stones, with their high cutting standards and narrow parameters, is that it takes a lot of the uncertainty out of the process for the consumer, which is especially important for those buying over the internet. If you examine the Sarin reports on ACA stones, you will see narrow ranges of measurements, especially pavilion angles which are crucial. And I know they take great care in getting the facets just right.
One interesting story -- I took the earrings into a local mall store that carries Hearts On Fire diamonds and asked the clerk if I could compare the the 1 ct earrings I had just bought over the internet to the 1 ct. HOF earrings in the display case. She said sure, thinking that the HOF would be far superior. Without doubt, the HOF earrings were great diamonds, but the ACA were better -- bigger flashes of light!! The clerk wouldn''t admit to it (at one point saying "I don''t think these are ideal diamonds") but it was clear that the ACA stones were superior, and I know they knew it -- you could see it in their faces!!
I would recommend Whiteflash and Bob Hoskins without hesitation. A truly great experience!!
With the help of Bob Hoskins of Whiteflash (aka DimonBob), who was terrific (and very patient!!) throughout the whole process, we picked out two "A Cut Above" H&A diamonds, each about a half carat and each E/SI1 in color/clarity -- a great match. It was a great experience and the diamonds (and the white gold settings) are absolutely fantastic! The beautiful crisp look of the stones and the flashes of white and colored light are truly amazing. It''s especially interesting to see how the stones look in different lighting. Even in subdued light, there seems to be a glow and a lot of sparkle in the stones.
Before buying, I did a lot of homework on pricescope.com and other sites. Although certainly still a novice, I got a good sense of ideal and superideal cut parameters (the sweet spot), the significance of hitting the crown and pavilion angles, hearts and arrows symmetry, etc. With all the numbers and charts and scope analysis that is available, the tendency (at least for some!!) is to obsess about getting the absolutely perfect stone. The nice thing about A Cut Above stones, with their high cutting standards and narrow parameters, is that it takes a lot of the uncertainty out of the process for the consumer, which is especially important for those buying over the internet. If you examine the Sarin reports on ACA stones, you will see narrow ranges of measurements, especially pavilion angles which are crucial. And I know they take great care in getting the facets just right.
One interesting story -- I took the earrings into a local mall store that carries Hearts On Fire diamonds and asked the clerk if I could compare the the 1 ct earrings I had just bought over the internet to the 1 ct. HOF earrings in the display case. She said sure, thinking that the HOF would be far superior. Without doubt, the HOF earrings were great diamonds, but the ACA were better -- bigger flashes of light!! The clerk wouldn''t admit to it (at one point saying "I don''t think these are ideal diamonds") but it was clear that the ACA stones were superior, and I know they knew it -- you could see it in their faces!!
I would recommend Whiteflash and Bob Hoskins without hesitation. A truly great experience!!