Cut
How well the stone is shaped and polished. Cut does the most for sparkle, and it is the one people notice from across a room.
At the counter: Ask to see two stones with the same weight and different cuts, side by side, under the same light.
Before the counter
The four Cs, plainly.
Cut, color, clarity, carat. What each one means, what it does to the price, and what to ask at the counter.
The stone beside the words is a drawing. It shows each C as you read it. Turn it by hand.
Color
How little color a white diamond shows. Graded from D, colorless, down through the alphabet. Past a couple of grades apart, most people cannot tell under normal light.
At the counter: Ask me which grade I would put in my own ring, and why.
Clarity
The small marks inside a stone. Graded from flawless down to included. What matters is what you can see with your own eye, not what the loupe finds.
At the counter: Ask me to show you the mark on the report, then try to find it without the loupe.
Carat
Weight, not size. Two stones of the same weight can look different sizes depending on how they are cut, and a stone just under a round number costs less than one just over it.
At the counter: Ask what a stone just under the weight you had in mind would look like on the hand.
The question everyone asks now
Lab-grown, or mined.
- Same stone. Chemically and optically, a lab-grown diamond is a diamond.
- Different price. Lab-grown costs a good deal less per carat, and the gap has been widening.
- Both get graded. A report from a lab tells you what you are buying either way.
- Different resale. Mined stones have held value differently. Neither is an investment. Buy the one you will wear.
Ask me which I would put in my own ring, and why. I will show you both.
The report
A grading report from a lab such as GIA describes the stone. It is not an appraisal and it is not a price. It is a description you can compare across stores.
- Ask to see it before the price.
- Match the number on the report to the one inscribed on the stone.
- Keep it with the ring.
Then
Bring the number you have in mind.
I tell you what it buys, and show you. That is the whole conversation, and it is easier at the counter than on a phone at midnight.