Q&A: Princess Diamond for $4K Budget: Premium or Ideal Cut?

First, your website is a great resource and it has made looking for a diamond much less stressful!

I am looking for a diamond for my girlfriend’s engagement ring. I was hoping to get your opinions on a few diamonds and perhaps have recommendations for other diamonds that you may come across. Specifically, I am looking for a princess cut diamond in the 1 carat range for around $4,000, give or take a few hundred dollars. From reading your site, it seems like a nice diamond would be one that has G or H color with VS1 or VS2 clarity. All things being equal, I think I would sacrifice a bit of size for better color. I also was looking at SI1 diamonds, but I couldn’t find any that didn’t seem like the inclusions would be noticeable to the eye.

I found the following diamonds at James Allen and was interested to see what you thought of them:

https://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/H-VS1-Premium-Cut-Princess-Diamond-1232675.asp

https://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/H-VS1-Premium-Cut-Princess-Diamond-1344733.asp

https://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/G-VS2-Premium-Cut-Princess-Diamond-1311317.asp

https://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/G-VS2-Premium-Cut-Princess-Diamond-1261297.asp

https://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/H-VS1-Premium-Cut-Princess-Diamond-1344001.asp

https://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/H-VS1-Premium-Cut-Princess-Diamond-1345791.asp

Again, if you see any other diamonds that you would recommend, feel free to do so. I’m not totally against purchasing a diamond from a vendor other than James Allen, but it really is nice to get a good idea what you are getting. I greatly appreciate your help!

Thank you very much!

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly! I was including them in my searches, but I guess I wasn’t looking at them too closely because they were more slightly more expensive, with everything else being equal. If you think it is better to only look at ideal cuts, I will do that.

Both the diamonds that you linked look very nice. For the second one you linked to, I wanted to ask about the medium blue flourescence it has. I know that you mentioned on your site that flourescence in G or better diamonds might lead to cloudiness. Do you not see any reason for concern with this diamond? It looks like a very nice diamond!

I also saw the following ideal cut:

https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds-search/diamonds/G-VS2-Ideal-Cut-Princess-Diamond-1326696.asp

What is your thought on that spot near the center? Do you think it will be noticeable to the naked eye? Other than that, the diamond looks really nice.

Similarly for this one: https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds-search/diamonds/G-VS2-Ideal-Cut-Princess-Diamond-1326505.asp

Thank you again for your help!!

I hope I’m not being too much of a pain! I think I’ve come up with a list of diamonds that I like based on your recommendations and I was hoping you would give me your thoughts on them (and maybe let me know which one you like most).

https://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/G-VS2-Ideal-Cut-Princess-Diamond-1333900.asp (I like this one a lot too)

https://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/G-VS2-Ideal-Cut-Princess-Diamond-1326505.asp (I still really like this diamond. I’ll be sure to ask if it is eye clean because of that spot on the top)

https://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/H-VVS2-Ideal-Cut-Princess-Diamond-1350176.asp (I think this would be my fallback if the others aren’t eye clean)

https://www.jamesallen.com/diamonds/E-SI1-Ideal-Cut-Princess-Diamond-1237769.asp (the GIA report shows that there are some naturals on the table of the diamond. I can’t make them out in the photo, so do you think they would be of concern?)

Thanks again for your help!! I think I’m about ready to make a decision 🙂

Hi again Ira,

I just wanted to thank you for all of your help! I purchased that E SI1 diamond and am very pleased with it. No inclusions are visible to my eye and I couldn’t see anything under a loop. Very beautiful. I’m sure my girlfriend will love it! I will definitely recommend your site and resources to others!