Diamond Buying Guide | Perfect Engagement Rings

Shopping for a Diamond Ring? Here are Some Cash Saving Tips

If you’re shopping for a diamond engagement ring, then you’re probably planning a proposal in the near future. First things first – Congrats! Getting engaged is an exciting time in anyone’s live and is something that every woman has dreamed of since she was playing with barbies.

Time for the crucial part of the process – hunting for an engagement ring! For many guys, this is the hardest part of getting engaged. Everyone knows that a diamond is a girl’s best friend! Obviously,The problem is that most men have never shopped for a diamond so they have no idea what to look for.

It’s normal to get a confused when you first walk into a jewelry store. You are confronted with lots of shiny diamonds and plently of dollar signs! And as you can probably guess, the jewelry store employee is going to show you the most expensive diamonds first!

Don’t panic! Trust me, you can find a fantastic diamond ring at an unbelievable price. Don’t pay attention to the pricetags that you see in the stores – these prices are NOT set in stone. There’s plenty of wiggle room and more importantly, you can look for certain things in a diamond in order to get the biggest value your buck.

The key to shopping for a diamond ring is to be educated about how diamonds are graded. Find a good diamond buying guide to give you a hand. Get a strong understanding of the “4 C’s” and how the labs grade diamonds.

Once you understand the 4 C’s, you will also know what is looked at when determining the price of diamonds. From there, you can decide which grading characteristics are most important to you in purchasing a diamond.

Decide the amount you want to spend, and try to stay in that pricerange. You can increase the size of your diamond simply by dropping down a notch in one of the other grading characteristics. For example, by going from a “F” color diamond down to an “I”, you can save huge dollars or increase the size of the diamond by a good amount.

Good luck and enjoy this time of your life!

A close look at how diamonds are priced – let’s talk about clarity!

This time I’m going to take a look at one of the “4 C’s” of diamonds. For those that aren’t aware, diamonds are graded in 4 main categories or groupings - cut, color, carat and clarity. Let’s have a close look at the last one – clarity.

The clarity grading scale ranges from IF (the best) down to I3 (the worst). As a whole, there are ten different categories that a diamond can fall into.

Clarity refers to the number of “inclusions” that are found in the diamond. In a nut-shell, inclusions are small blemishes or imperfections. These occur naturally when the rock is forming in the earth and inclusions are found in almost all diamonds.

In order to place a grade on the diamond, a gemologist inspects the diamond under intense magnification in order to look at any inclusions that are present. The grading is then decided on the number of inclusions, and as well how noticeable or large they are. Remember that this is done under strong magnification.

As an example, a diamond that has an IF or flawless grading has no inclusions whatsoever. This is incredibly rare, and understandably, this type of diamond will have a huge bump in price.

A diamond graded VS2 will have “very slight” inclusions – these will only be noticeable when viewed under a microscope and aren’t typically noticeable with your human eye alone. These diamonds sell for significantly less that an IF graded diamond.

It’s important to familiarize yourself with the different ways diamonds are graded. Grab a diamond buying guide – you will be pleased you did in the end as you can save some huge cash on your purchase. It can be the difference between finding an affordable engagement ring instead of shelling out big bucks and making your jeweler richer.