Q&A: Choosing a Round Diamond for a White Gold Petite Vintage Setting With a $6-7.5k Budget

Hello,

I’m comparing two round cut diamonds on Blue Nile:

Blue Nile LD11625015

and

Blue Nile LD11741216.

Could you help me assess if these diamonds are eye clean? Are there any inclusions in conspicuous locations that I might have missed? Should I be concerned about the strong fluorescence making them appear hazier? Which diamond would you assess as a better purchase overall?
If there’s anything egregious that I’m missing about these diamonds, I’d appreciate your opinion.

Thank you so much! Your website has been extremely helpful and informative.

This is the setting for the diamond:
Petite Vintage Pavé Leaf Diamond Engagement Ring

I have been looking at these parameters using GIA standards, but am open to suggestions and modifying them to find the right balance:

Price range: ~$6500-7000, with some flexibility. Can also modify parameters below to get lower price, which would be very helpful.
Carat: ~1-1.2 carat (Overall, emphasis more on quality vs size. >1.2 c ok too, but I don’t want to compromise too much on quality for size.)
Cut: Round, excellent/ideal
Clarity: VS2 or higher
Color: H or I or higher ? (whatever is not visibly yellow)
Table: 54-59%? (not sure about this)
Depth: 59-62.3%? (not sure about this)

Thank you for these recommendations and info on the cut parameters! It’s also really helpful to see a range of carats and prices. Is there much visible difference between the 1.14 c and the 1.2 c (~0.1mm) in terms of size?

I like the look of slightly bigger than 1c, and if the 1.14c is visibly comparable to a 1.2, then I think the cost savings is worthwhile. Would love to hear your thoughts. Thanks!

Great, thank you! I think this diamond strikes the right balance between what I’m looking for and our budget. I’ve put a 48-hour hold on the diamond (waiting for new credit card to come in mail) and will let you know when I purchase it using this email address.

Fingers crossed that we’ll be able to get it. Will keep you posted. Thanks for your all your help!

I wanted to update you on my diamond purchase! Long story short… we delayed in buying the 1.14c diamond because we were waiting for a new credit card to arrive. I had put the diamond on hold, but after I attempted to purchase it today, I was notified that it was no longer available. Alas, you snooze you lose! I purchased another diamond (rather hastily, unfortunately) using this email address. Here is the diamond I purchased:

Blue Nile LD12030752

It’s a tad smaller and more expensive than the one I originally wanted, but it looked to be of overall decent quality.

What do you think of this diamond? Is there anything faulty that you would recommend against? If you think I can get a significantly better diamond for around that price or lower, I can exchange it for another diamond within 30 days of shipment. I’ll wait to see what your thoughts are on this diamond and how I like it when I see it!