I have learned a lot from your site, but am still not sure once I start looking at the diamonds. I am looking for something up to $6,000 just in the loose round diamond.
I am looking for my son who travels a lot and doesn’t have time to research diamonds. He would like to surprise his girlfriend with the diamond and allow her to pick out her own setting locally. Since you have found some great buys through your expert eye, I am really hoping you can lead me in the right direction on hopefully finding a nice round diamond over 1 carat. Thanks.
I’d be happy to make some recommendations and guide you through the process. What type of setting are you considering? Yellow gold or white gold/platinum? Will it be a solitaire or does it have sidestones/pave? This may affect the colors that I recommend for the center diamond (as we explain in our post on color).
Let me know and I’d be happy to send you some suggestions.
The setting has not been picked out yet, as this will be a surprise to get the diamond and allow her to pick the setting, but I know for a fact that it will be white gold, and believe it will have smaller side diamonds. She likes the solitaire settings, but likes some small accents, so the center diamond would be most prominent. My son would like the to have something over 1 carat, and could pay between $6000-$6400 for just the round solitaire, but also would like it to be clean to the eye. I think an I or J color would be fine, and only diamonds with a GIA certificate. I have been looking on James Allen and Brian Gavin because I know you have recommended diamonds from there, but I just don’t have the eye to know how the diamond would really look. I tend to go to the GIA report and look at the date of the report, and the inclusions, which then really throws me off at looking at the diamond. I know that the cut is extremely important, so an ideal cut would be what he is looking for. He is ready to make the purchase now, and after reading all the information on your site for a while now, knowing the proposal was coming, I am confident with whatever you find, he will most likely purchase based upon your opinion and suggestions. Thank you so much for your help.
With that type of setting, I would recommend sticking with I color. I like these for you:
I found this one yesterday. Although it’s a J color, it appears to be a very good cut and the color looks pretty good. Can you tell me what you think about this one?
There is no point buying a VVS2 if you can get an eye-clean SI1. I would recommend one of these instead:
Thanks Mike, but I had to get a diamond ordered by last night to get it here by the end of the week. I’m hoping she will love it.
Let me know how it looks.
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
- 24/7 Customer Service
- Best-in-class packaging
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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