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Q&A: Help Choosing a Princess Cut Diamond for a Yellow Gold Pavé With a $3,500 Budget and Shipping to Sweden

By Mike Fried,

Hi Diamond Pro,

Firstly, thanks for this amazing service that you are providing.

I’m looking to buy an engagement ring for my girlfriend. I started looking about a month ago, mostly on Blue Nile since my best friend’s fiancé told me about the site. About a week ago she told me that she used your service to find a diamond and that she found it helpful.

Lately I have searched the James Allen website for settings and diamonds. I think that I’ve found a diamond which meets “my” requirements but I want to run it by you to see if I’m paying for unnecessary characteristics such as high clarity and high color.

My budget is a total of around 3500$. I know that my girlfriend wants a princess cut and a yellow gold setting and I’m happy with the 1160$ “Pave cathedral engagement ring” setting that I found on the James Allen website.

I’ve also looked at this diamond which looks good to me.
www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut/0.71-carat-f-color-vvs2-clarity-sku-2693114?a_aid=dmnd1357

What is your opinion on this diamond? It’s an ideal cut diamond but you could also get about the same size diamond with a true heart cut, but you would have to go down in clarity, do you think that doing that is a better option? Is the color and clarity unnecessarily high?

I like that the stone is over 5×5 mm. if you could send me some other stones which you would suggest with my budget I would appreciate it!

Many thanks.

The diamonds you found are beautiful, but you are right, you’re paying a premium for the color and clarity grades. You can easily drop down a few grades and still get a fantastic diamond.

I searched in the H+/SI+ range and I found this beautiful diamond:
www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut/0.70-carat-e-color-vs2-clarity-sku-3268618?a_aid=dmnd1357

It has great specs.

What do you think?

Thanks for your help.

The diamond you recommended looks nice, however in one of the corners you can see some black spotting (impurities, I guess). I understand that the picture of the diamond is enhanced in size and that this diamond would be “eye-clean”. But it’s hard to unsee something. I’m willing to pay around 2500$ for the diamond if going down clarity and color would mean that you would get a noticeable larger diamond.

Otherwise 2000$ is better since it’s likely I’ll have to pay duty and VAT for importing it to Europe. I have also looked at this diamond, but I guess it’s the same thing with this one (paying for high clarity and color): www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut/0.73-carat-e-color-vvs2-clarity-sku-3177645?a_aid=dmnd1357

When choosing color of diamond does it matter if the setting is in white cold or yellow gold?

The new one looks good, too.

Regarding the color of the metal, yellow gold allows you to go a bit lower in diamond’s color. However, as far as a pave goes, I wouldn’t go lower than an I to make sure the diamond still looks colorless.

Would you consider Blue Nile as well? They are based in Europe (they have an office in Ireland) so you wouldn’t pay any import fees, just the regular VAT.

Ok, good to know regarding the metal and stone color.

Blue Nile have nice diamonds but I like the settings on James Allen better. I could look at the Blue Nile settings again and see if I find one that I like and get back to you if I find one. Meanwhile you could absolutely use Blue Nile to find suggestions on diamonds.

Thanks again for all your help.

Alright, keep me updated.

Here are some BN diamonds that look great to me:
Blue Nile LD09122951
Blue Nile LD09032911

I liked both diamonds from Blue Nile. Can you explain the difference between:
1. thick girdle
2. thick girdle, faceted?

I had trouble finding a similar setting as the one that I liked on James Allen. It seems that Blue Nile doesn’t have that many different yellow gold settings. Do you know if it is possible to ask them to do a setting in a different metal? If they would, will it cost more?

I read somewhere on your website that princess cuts with a depth and table under 71% each is ideal? Do I recall it correctly?

As I’m leaning towards going with James Allen what do you think about these diamond?
www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut/0.70-carat-h-color-vvs2-clarity-sku-3200198?a_aid=dmnd1357

www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut/0.74-carat-h-color-vvs2-clarity-sku-3231066?a_aid=dmnd1357

Many thanks!

Girdle is the area in between the diamond’s crown and pavilion. It looks like a tiny little belt. Faceted girdle is made from little facets instead of being smooth when it’s not faceted. However, it doesn’t have a huge impact on the diamond whatsoever.

Regarding the setting, you’d better ask them directly. They will tell you more.

As for princess cuts, these are the parameters we use:
Depth: 68-76 (ideal: 69-74)
Table: 69-75 (ideal: 70-74)
L:W ratio under 1.05

The most recent diamonds are, again, beautiful choices.

Thanks for all your help! I ordered from James Allen using this email.

This was the diamond I went with:
www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/princess-cut/0.70-carat-h-color-vvs2-clarity-sku-3200198?a_aid=dmnd1357

Once again thanks for your help and patience.

I would be happy to recommend this service to friends.

That’s great news! You got yourself a beautiful diamond. I’m glad I could help you decide on it. Thank you for thinking about us with the email address.

Let me know how the diamond looks when it arrives!

Have a great day.

No problem! I’ll let you know how the diamond turned out.

Many thanks!

Great! Thank you.

James Allen James Allen is the leader in online diamond sales. Their imaging technology is the same as inspecting a diamond with a jeweler's loupe. They have the largest exclusive loose diamond inventory online and fantastic prices. They also have the nicest collection of lab-created diamonds online. Get 30% off lab-grown diamonds during a limited time sale.
What we love about them:
  • No questions asked returns within 30 days of shipment. James Allen will send you a paid shipping label to return the ring.
  • Lifetime Warranty
  • Free International Shipping
  • Free prong tightening, repolishing, rhodium plating and cleaning every 6 months
  • Provide insurance appraisals
  • One free resizing within 60 days of purchase
  • Free ring inscriptions
  • Best-in-class high quality imagery of all diamonds in stock
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Blue Nile Blue Nile is the largest and most well-known internet jewelry seller. They have a very large exclusive online inventory. Their high-quality images are catching up to James Allens' and their prices are amazing. Save 25% on settings at Blue Nile!

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What we love about them:
  • No questions asked returns within 30 days of shipment. Blue Nile will send you a paid shipping label to return the ring.
  • Lifetime Warranty
  • Free Shipping
  • Free prong tightening, repolishing, rhodium plating and cleaning every 6 months
  • Provide insurance appraisal
  • One free resizing within the first year of purchase
  • High quality images of about half of their diamonds
  • 24/7 Customer Service
  • 100% credit towards future upgrades (must be at least double in value)
  • Best in class fulfillment
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