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I too bought a ring from D.NEA

JamesChemist

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jan 9, 2012
Messages
21
In homage to a previous post: https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/bought-a-ring-from-d-nea.166436/, I too bought a ring from D.NEA for my girlfriend/fiancee. I proposed to her a couple of weeks ago and she is quite happy with it. She said "yes" by the way. :)

The diamond is a 0.63 ct Fancy Intense Blue (FIB), SI2, radiant cut. The ring I decided on is 18K unplated Pd white gold with 18 small colorless diamonds along the band. I will attach an image as soon as I can figure out how. :)

Some thoughts on my purchasing experience:

1) First why did I buy a man made diamond (MMD) over a mined diamond? A couple of reasons: A MMD has a much smaller carbon footprint than a mined diamond as well as a smaller environmental impact. The origin of the diamond is known so need to worry about "blood diamonds." Even Canadian diamonds come from strip mines that have a great affect on the Earth. Those who would argue that a MMD is man made and not natural, the mined diamond is also highly processed material. So I feel that they are equivalent in this manner. As an environmental scientist, I appreciate these facts as well as the technology behind creating a diamond. Finally, there are the same as a mined diamond except for trace metal fluxes found within the MMD which are not normally found in a mined one. But can only be identified by using advanced techniques infrared spectroscopy and/or Raman spectroscopy (feel free to ask me if you want to know more about how these techniques work) and laboratory equipment not commonly found except in large research universities or research companies.

2) Why blue? This was the hardest choice for me as I went back and forth between blue and yellow for weeks. Finally, it came down to what my fiancee liked better. Even though blue diamonds tend to cost similar to man mined colorless diamonds the the cost of a synthetic fancy blue diamond is orders of magnitude less than a mined one. Finally, blue diamonds look stunning! And the amount of blue changes with the light source. (See pictures below)

3) Why a Radiant cut? My fiancee did not want a standard round brilliant so I looked into both princess and radiant cuts. What I found was that in my opinion that well cut radiant cut diamonds sparkled more than princess cut diamonds. I would highly recommend anyone looking into square or rectangular diamonds to look into radiant diamonds.

4) Finally the customer service provided by D.NEA is great, and I would recommend them to anyone looking for a man made diamond without hesitation. In fact, I am getting our wedding bands from D.NEA as well. Their website is http://d.neadiamonds.com

Thanks for reading.

Blue Engagment Ring PS.jpg

Blue Outside.jpg
 

periwinklegirl

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Feb 8, 2010
Messages
1,007
Congratulations! Beautiful ring and excellent choice of diamond! Nice photos too.
 

mepp

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jun 23, 2009
Messages
14
congratulations on the engagement! and the ring looks great!!
 

JamesChemist

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jan 9, 2012
Messages
21
Thank you for your well wishes!

We are also getting our wedding bands from there. Below is the design for the men's band with a matching FIB diamond. As soon as I get the design for the women's band, I'll post it as well.

Sqaure Band-1.jpg
 

txgreeneyes

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Apr 19, 2012
Messages
402
Congratulations to you both!

The ring is gorgeous!!!! I like the man's wedding ring too!
 

Deia

Brilliant_Rock
Premium
Joined
Oct 6, 2008
Messages
735
Gorgeous ring! Congrats to both of you!
 

JamesChemist

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jan 9, 2012
Messages
21
Thanks txgreeneyes and Deia for the well wishes.

I just got pictures of the wedding bands and thought I would share. I can't wait until they get here. I will share hand pics of rings/diamonds later.

1470-1_2_.jpg

1470-3_2_.jpg

1470-2_2_.jpg
 

periwinklegirl

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Feb 8, 2010
Messages
1,007
Simply beautiful! What great choices! Her band is stunning and I really like the blue diamond detail on your band.

Congratulations all around!
 

JamesChemist

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jan 9, 2012
Messages
21
We just had our wedding this past weekend so I thought I would provide another picture to celebrate it. We love how you can see the transition of darker blue diamonds (FIB) to lighter blue (FB) to white in her wedding band in this picture.

Also, I just want to reiterate again how great it was to work with D.NEA. They have great customer service as all three of our rings were custom designed and made. Eric was also very knowledgeable and great to work with as well. I highly recommend them and would work with them again.

22794_10151050640737084_644582881_n.jpg
 

periwinklegirl

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Feb 8, 2010
Messages
1,007
Congratulations all around!!!

Glad you had such a positive experience with Eric!
 

LaraOnline

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Feb 24, 2008
Messages
3,365
Absolutely love that photo of all your rings in the daisies!
Your design for the groom's ring is absolutely gorgeous.
I keep threatening to get my husband another wedding ring (he lost his about two weeks after we got back from honeymoon).
This design could be 'the one'!

I guess the option of colour is an added interest for synthetics.
Natural diamonds will always be desirable though, fwiw. In my opinion nat vs syn are two very different markets.

All the best for your lives together! Your jewellery is lovely.
 

JamesChemist

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jan 9, 2012
Messages
21
Frank thanks for the kind words. I had never seen an engagement ring with a blue diamond either until I started looking around. My wife wanted something different then just a colorless diamond. So I spent a long time talking with her and looking at several different types of fancy yellow diamonds but eventually decided on fancy blue diamonds.

I suspect that many engagement rings do not have blue diamonds for four reasons.
1. It is not the De Beers norm so when people look for a diamond ring they only picture round colorless diamonds.
2. Most affordable "blue diamonds" are treated with radiation to become "blue." These are a turquoise electric blue color which is not a good look for an engagement ring in my opinion. A good youtube comparison between the two can be found here.
3. Mined fancy blue diamonds are incredibly rare and thus incredibly expensive. A quick google search came up with several mined fancy blue diamonds that ranged from $27K-$45K+ for ~0.4-0.5 ct diamond.
4. Man made synthetic blue diamonds are not generally known by the public and there are only a few suppliers. But in my opinion, man made synthetic fancy blue diamonds are just as pretty as man mined fancy blue diamonds.
 

JamesChemist

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jan 9, 2012
Messages
21
Thanks Lara for the kind words. I agree with you that there are two different markets for man made and man mined diamonds with two separate customer bases.
But in my opinion, man made synthetic fancy blue diamonds are just as pretty as man mined fancy blue diamonds. :)

Let me know if you happen to use the design for your husband's new wedding band. I'm curious if other people would like this design and how they would implement it. Below is my wedding band in "used" condition.

Something I will note it that to the eye these blue diamonds are a lot lighter than they appear in photographs and shine like colorless diamonds. I wish I could figure out how to take pictures of these fancy blue diamonds that were more representative to what is seen by the eye.

wedding_band_james_0.jpg
 

AprilBaby

Super_Ideal_Rock
Premium
Joined
Jul 17, 2008
Messages
12,660
Stunning wedding set!!! Congrats!
 
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