opinions pls on this princess cut

[OCmom3xboys]

RE: my e-ring stone. In 2003, when we started looking at rings, princess cut was very popular and that's what I wanted. I wish I would have discovered PScope before 2003, I would have had a totally different ring. G color is very white and sparkly and the fact that it is an eye clean SI1, the gemologist who appraised it said that it was very close to a VS2 (the inclusions are on the bottom). It is set on a 3 sided pave eternity (1.5mm)

But once in a while, I'm not sure if it's the lighting or angle, I would see a dark whole in the middle, this is rare. I'm not sure if it's worth re-cutting...I am due for an upgrade in 3 years. Do I re-cut and keep it, bling out the setting? Spend the money on a new setting or maybe adding sidestones and turn it into a 3stone ring? Trade it and start all over from scratch, a new center stone and a new setting.

Attached is a photo of the ring and the GIA cert.

 

[slg47]

do you have a trade in policy? when you say 'due' for an upgrade...were you planning to upgrade? if you are planning to keep this one I would ask BGD about a recut. If you are planning on upgrading anyway...then maybe not.

 

[shihtzulover]

I think that you should do what makes you happy. Is this diamond beautiful to you, or would you prefer a new one? Also, have you compared it to other diamonds, to see if you like it better than others?

 

[booman]

I think you should also get what makes you happy. I have had the same thoughts as you, and actually acted on them five times. I think when you look at PS sometimes,your opinion on your ring can change. I think we start to scrutunize our rings and compare to what we see others on PS have. Princess cuts are still very popular in the "real world' , however to me, on PS they don't get as much love. Rounds and haloed Cushions are all the rave.I love them on other people, but when I try them on they weren't me( my original was a round) and so I've changed/upgraded five times. Personally, I think your current ring is beautiful, and your eternity band is to die for, but if you are thinking about upgrading in a few years, I would not recut. Find out what YOU love,( setting style, shape, clarity) and then try to stick to that. Maybe look into a tennis bracelet, or diamond necklace as your next piece. I had to finally find out what I was happy with, and I didn't want a cookie cutter ring so I had my ring custom made. Sorry, I am no help, I need to practice what I preach! LOL

 

[OCmom3xboys]

I think you should also get what makes you happy. I have had the same thoughts as you, and actually acted on them five times. I think when you look at PS sometimes,your opinion on your ring can change. I think we start to scrutunize our rings and compare to what we see others on PS have. Princess cuts are still very popular in the "real world' , however to me, on PS they don't get as much love. Rounds and haloed Cushions are all the rave.I love them on other people, but when I try them on they weren't me( my original was a round) and so I've changed/upgraded five times. Personally, I think your current ring is beautiful, and your eternity band is to die for, but if you are thinking about upgrading in a few years, I would not recut. Find out what YOU love,( setting style, shape, clarity) and then try to stick to that. Maybe look into a tennis bracelet, or diamond necklace as your next piece. I had to finally find out what I was happy with, and I didn't want a cookie cutter ring so I had my ring custom made. Sorry, I am no help, I need to practice what I preach! LOL

booman ~ so true about PS, not only it educates you about jewelry, it also gives you the "ring envy" feeling. I am very grateful for my e-ring although if I would have known better and with the diamond prices going higher and higher just like gasoline prices, we would have bought a 3 carat stone 6 years ago. I might have other financial priorities in 3 years but DH and I always talked about upgrading to a 5 carat but in reality, it's probably not gonna happen. If I do upgrade, my center stone will be close to 3 carats and I'm still not sure about the shape. If I do keep my princess, I will definitely have BGD do the re-cut on the stone and upgrade the setting, a heavily pave blingged out setting Wishes, wishes, wishes...

Thank you for your input.

 

[lbbaber]

OCMOM, I LOVE your ring...its gorgeous and the stone really looks white and sparkly. I understand where your coming from, looking at other stones here at PS really gives you a case of the "what if's", especially for us Princess owners bc they are not exactly a "popular" choice....yeah, yeah too trendy, not sparkly enough, I get it!! But you LOVE IT (or did love it once) and if you are planning on upgrading later dont do anything. You mentioned in another post that you were looking to buy a bigger house soon. Focus on that and try not to let PS get to you. And if you want more bling than buy another peice of jewelry. I could have had a bigger stone but then I wouldnt have bought my huggies/5 stone ring I'm working on/eternity band....etc....
You have lots of fantastic jewlery INCLUDING your e-ring. Make sure its really YOU that wants a change and not the PS influence. And for the record, I have what is supposed to be a fantastic cut Princess but sometimes, in certain light (like direct sunlight) I think its not "perfect"...almost every diamond will have moments, when in the wrong lighting, they dont look "perfect". Try to remember its the lighting and not your beautiful stone.
No matter what you do, we will support you...but just so you know...I LOVE your ring!!

 

[OCmom3xboys]

OCMOM, I LOVE your ring...its gorgeous and the stone really looks white and sparkly. I understand where your coming from, looking at other stones here at PS really gives you a case of the "what if's", especially for us Princess owners bc they are not exactly a "popular" choice....yeah, yeah too trendy, not sparkly enough, I get it!! But you LOVE IT (or did love it once) and if you are planning on upgrading later dont do anything. You mentioned in another post that you were looking to buy a bigger house soon. Focus on that and try not to let PS get to you. And if you want more bling than buy another peice of jewelry. I could have had a bigger stone but then I wouldnt have bought my huggies/5 stone ring I'm working on/eternity band....etc....
You have lots of fantastic jewlery INCLUDING your e-ring. Make sure its really YOU that wants a change and not the PS influence. And for the record, I have what is supposed to be a fantastic cut Princess but sometimes, in certain light (like direct sunlight) I think its not "perfect"...almost every diamond will have moments, when in the wrong lighting, they dont look "perfect". Try to remember its the lighting and not your beautiful stone.
No matter what you do, we will support you...but just so you know...I LOVE your ring!!

lbbaber (my huggies buddy) ~ thanks for the kind words. I do love my ring, especially I don't wear it that much anymore, mostly my eternity ring, so when I do wear it, it looks bigger and more sparkly Just wishes and wishes and for sure, we will have other priorities, like college funds for my kids and stuff. We have been looking for a bigger house, not a lot out there, no one is selling unless they really have to, as a joke, DH and I were talking, forget the big house, let's buy a boat for you and bigger diamond ring for me....hehehe

Our 10th year anniversary is 2 1/2 years away, who knows. I can't wait to pick up my huggies tommorow! (actually, they are like small hoops, from what I have read in other postinga, the term "huggies" means the earrings small enough to hug your ear lobe)

 

[OCmom3xboys]

I think you should also get what makes you happy. I have had the same thoughts as you, and actually acted on them five times. I think when you look at PS sometimes,your opinion on your ring can change. I think we start to scrutunize our rings and compare to what we see others on PS have. Princess cuts are still very popular in the "real world' , however to me, on PS they don't get as much love. Rounds and haloed Cushions are all the rave.I love them on other people, but when I try them on they weren't me( my original was a round) and so I've changed/upgraded five times. Personally, I think your current ring is beautiful, and your eternity band is to die for, but if you are thinking about upgrading in a few years, I would not recut. Find out what YOU love,( setting style, shape, clarity) and then try to stick to that. Maybe look into a tennis bracelet, or diamond necklace as your next piece. I had to finally find out what I was happy with, and I didn't want a cookie cutter ring so I had my ring custom made. Sorry, I am no help, I need to practice what I preach! LOL

booman ~ btw, I love your ring, if I keep my stone, I will upgrade to setting similar to yours

 

[shihtzulover]

I agree that princesses don't get as much love on here as they tend to in real life. I also understand that some people might think that they are too 'trendy' right now, but if the shape is what you love, then I wouldn't hesitate to keep it, or to get another princess that I liked better (after comparing).

Before I ever found PriceScope, I did not know much about diamonds at all. Long before I even noticed what other people were wearing, and before I even knew which diamond cuts were more trendy and which were newer versus more classic, I decided that princess cuts were my favorites. That was several years ago, when my then-boyfriend and I were looking at promise rings. I saw a beautiful classic white gold band with a little round diamond on top, and I liked it. Then, I saw the same band with a princess cut diamond, and I absolutely fell in love. At that point, I knew pretty much nothing about diamonds - I didn't know about the differences between cuts, or that diamonds were even rated for color and clarity.

Several years later, princesses are still my favorite. Of course, I know much more about diamonds now, and I'm now engaged (but thankfully not to the man who I went promise ring shopping with). My jewelry tastes obviously haven't changed much though, since I ended up picking the same basic style for my engagement ring - the only real differences are that the band is made of platinum instead, and that the diamond is larger and GIA-graded (and also that it was much more carefully researched, so I'm sure the diamond is of much higher quality than the diamond in the promise ring, which wasn't even graded by a lab).

As has already been mentioned, rounds and cushions seem to really be favored here, with some princesses and other shapes and types sprinkled in. I'm sure that it really varies by region, but I do think that I see almost as many princesses as rounds where I live - especially in my age group. Like I said though, I loved princesses long before I knew what other people like.

I'm not sure why I have such a strong preference towards princess cuts. I love the sleek-looking shape with the defined edges and corners, but I also love the facet patterning. After I started learning that round brilliants are the most classic and popular, that they tend to show color a bit less (since princesses sometimes show more color in the corners), that they face up larger for their carat weight, that they tend to sparkle more, and that they have been studied so much more so that the cut quality has been most perfected, I tried to love rounds more. I can definitely appreciate a beautiful round, especially the H&A look - but when I asked my jeweler to show me a well-cut round diamond next to the princess that I was considering, there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted the princess.

Anyway, sorry for such a long post. I guess I'm just trying to say that if you love princesses and you love your ring, then there is no reason to change it because it's not the most favored diamond shape here, or because it doesn't fall into the 'ideal' cut range. If, however, you find that you are now drawn to something else, then it's wonderful that you are able to upgrade to something that is more pleasing to you now.

ETA: I forgot to mention that most princess that I see tend to go 'dark' in the middle sometimes like what you're describing. I noticed the same thing with my original engagement ring diamond, but my new diamond displays the same thing. In fact, all of the princess diamonds that our jeweler showed us also showed the same thing, specifically in sunlight. I also went into Tiffany, and I noticed that their largest and most sparkly diamond displayed the same behavior under their spotlighting, if I looked closely.

 

[OCmom3xboys]

I have been wearing my e-ring more latety (again). We were on vacation last week, being out in the sun and in and out of department stores, I noticed it sparkles a lot more and I don't see the dark spot anymore.

This morning I was at Macy's in the watch/fine jewelry department, it must be the lighting too, no dark spot

Who knows, it might be a keeper after all.

 

[SuzyQZ]

OCMom:
You know I recut my princess diamond from my wedding ring because, for sentimental reasons, I wanted to keep the same stone that was given to me by my husband, but the cut was in serious need of fixing.

Brian Gavin recut my princess and I must say, the difference was absolutely AMAZING. I lost very little surface area, most of it was cut off the bottom. It was not very expensive, I think $500/carat or something like that. Sure beat buying a new diamond. Brian will give you an evaluation of what it will take for an ideal recut and then you can decide if you want to do it or not. You can always have the ring sent back if it's not worth it, but at least you will know what the cost of it (both in carat weight and money) is.

I can tell you, I have never regretted doing it. My recut sparkles like crazy, all the time, in every environment and there is no dark center, ever. The difference is like night and day!
Here's my recut thread.
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/bgd-princess-recut-from-ugly-duckling-to-swan.148522/

 

[OCmom3xboys]

OCMom:
You know I recut my princess diamond from my wedding ring because, for sentimental reasons, I wanted to keep the same stone that was given to me by my husband, but the cut was in serious need of fixing.

Brian Gavin recut my princess and I must say, the difference was absolutely AMAZING. I lost very little surface area, most of it was cut off the bottom. It was not very expensive, I think $500/carat or something like that. Sure beat buying a new diamond. Brian will give you an evaluation of what it will take for an ideal recut and then you can decide if you want to do it or not. You can always have the ring sent back if it's not worth it, but at least you will know what the cost of it (both in carat weight and money) is.

I can tell you, I have never regretted doing it. My recut sparkles like crazy, all the time, in every environment and there is no dark center, ever. The difference is like night and day!
Here's my recut thread.
https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/bgd-princess-recut-from-ugly-duckling-to-swan.148522/

Thx SuzyQ, I will for sure contact BG for a possible re-cutting when my upgrade time comes.