When it comes to diamonds, the bigger the better, and since there is no such thing as too many diamonds, it is fine even if you found this article after your umpteenth diamond shopping trip. As said before, the bigger a diamond is, the finer it makes jewelry look. That goes for rings, engagement rings, earrings, necklaces, bracelets and any other piece of jewelry. That is true, except for one problem. Diamonds come for a price, and a big diamond comes for a bigger price. So, here is some advice raked up from the books of pros to help you solve the mystery of carats.
Below One Carat
Let’s start with diamonds lesser than a full carat. Any gem below a carat is weighed in cents. As a buyer, if that’s your limit, then you have some really good news. Diamonds that small hardly reveal their crack lines and clouds to naked eyes. In fact, spotting them through a jeweler’s loupe or a laboratory grade magnifying device proves to be a tricky exercise. So, when shopping for diamonds of this size, forget all about clarity. Feel free to pick from SI2 category and below for whatever it is that the stone may have in terms of imperfections, it will never show, not to bare eyes.
Above One Carat
When you graduate to one carat and above, hiding the marks becomes tricky. From this point forth, you can only make a trip upward in the 4C scale if you want to get a seemingly expensive diamond, at least. You can at best go as low as SI1 without risking exposing the marks. SI1 and higher grades have blemishes too, but they are rarely visible to the naked eyes.
More than Two Carats
Care and caution should be adopted when sojourning through this section. You are now in the easily noticeable genre. A diamond that big is easily noticeable, and so are its flaws. Diamonds of two carats and above demand high clarity. So upgrade to VSI or VVSI if possible to get a decent diamond with reasonably rare flaws. If you are thinking of putting it on a ring, then be prepared to cough up a good deal just to make sure that the color and clarity are as high grade as possible.
The tips shared here are designed to keep the cost margin low without forsaking the quality unreasonably. If your budget allows you, by all means, go for a flawless color D piece.
