fir3bon3
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Don’t be afraid to visit shops to compare and ask analyse their diamonds. You are the paying customer and its perfectly normal to find out more on the product you’re buying. After all, you’re spending a huge chunk of your savings and most people will want something value for money.
The common direction that most people take (or rather I took) is to find the most brilliant diamond and at the lowest price. To me, the point of buying a diamond is so that it is brilliant and attention grabbingThis has all to do with the Cut, which I find can be very confusing. Different shops can tell you different things. But one thing that they all tell you is that theirs is “the most perfect/brilliant/best cut diamond” etc… So who to believe? You need to do your own research. Lol
The very basic round cut is the round hearts and arrows diamond a.k.a the 57 facets, 8 hearts and arrows diamond. Essentially, all these branded diamonds like the Hearts on Fire, Lazare, Destinee, etc are technically cut the same way… meaning they have 57 facets with 8 hearts and arrows. The only difference is how “perfect” they are cut or how tight is their quality control.
When you go around shopping, you’ll realize that branded cuts tends to focus more on marketing their diamonds as the best, rather than explaining the technical aspects of their diamonds.
Destinee Ideal Cut
From what I know, Destinee markets their diamond as Ideal by focusing on the AGS certificate. They are certified by AGS and graded Ideal. They don’t provide their cut criteria range. I only managed to find someone’s else purchase info.
The HCA score for this Destinee Ideal cut diamond is only 2.2. Technically, it’s not even an Ideal cut. Ideal – HCA <2
Super Ideal – HCA <1.4
I’m sure they have good and bad ones.. You’ll need to check yourself. Though you will be paying a premium for their branding. For a 0.6ct, I was quoted around 10k.
Lazare Ideal Cut
This is their Ideal proportion requirements,
Can also read http://www.proposalring.com/buyingLazare.htm
It’s abit looser than most other Ideal ranges.. The table % is ok. But the crown, pavilion, depth range does fall out of the Ideal Cut. If I randomly input the proportions into the HCA calculator,
Table 57%
Depth 62.3%
Crown 35.5 degree
Pavilion 41.2 degree
I get a crazy HCA score of 4.5…. this is no way close to an Ideal cut. Of course there can be better ones.. but you will need to check yourself. That being said, different shops have their own specifications of what is their Ideal Cut. So you cannot assume that a Lazare Ideal cut as other shop’s Ideal Cut, vice versa.
Hearts on Fire Ideal Cut
I don’t have much info on this diamond. Lol. They don’t reveal their proportion range. There’s a lot of marketing and branding on this diamond on their 8 hearts and arrows. The sales person emphasize how perfect it is and how it is the most superior out of all the diamonds. But when I ask more about the cut, its mostly replied by them telling me to trust their reputation and brand… They didn’t have the specs that I wanted… I saw a 1ct E VS1 diamond and out of curiosity, asked how much. It was $48k…….. For that price, I can double up and get a Super Ideal 2ct diamond.
Check the quality yourself!
At the end of the day, it is your money. You need to do your own due diligence.
Checking the proportions of the diamond is only the first step. The only true way to analyse the brilliance of the diamond is to use the ASET and heartsandarrows scope. There’s no other way to this. In fact, I think its even more important to use those scopes than to see the proportions blindly. A diamond can be fantastic on the paper but still terrible in its light performance.
Some brands comes with additional certificate on top of GIA or AGS. These can be useful if its from a 3rd party lab like Gemex or the Sarin report. But other than that, if its issued from their own company, its does not carry much weight. They can print out whatever they want for themselves. Whereas 3rd party certificates have no conflict of interest.
Last but not least, don’t get confused with Ideal and Super Ideal cut!
Ideal Cut ≠ Super Ideal Cut
All of these 3 brands are essentially Ideal Cuts and not Super Ideal.
In order to determine if it’s a Super Ideal, you need the ASET scope and heartsandarrows scope. All the these shops I been to, did not have the Ideal or ASET scope to check the light return. They only have the heartsandarrows scope.
Sometimes, a lousy or Ideal cut diamond can still look great in the shop. But that’s also because of the jewellery shop lights they use. One way is to view the diamond outside with natural light. Then all the flaws (if any) will come out. Thing is most shops won’t let you bring the diamond outside or they’re located inside the mall. So the best bet is to use the scopes.
For me, I ended up with a Super Ideal Cut without paying for the brand. In fact, the Ideal cuts from those stores was actually more expensive than my Super Ideal cut. It didn’t make sense for me to pay more for a lower cut branded ring. When my wife wears her ring, no one will know whether its from Tiffany, Lee Hwa, etc… they all only comment on how brilliant it is
Wa super detailed..
Only if you had posted this before I started hunting for my diamond then I wouldn't have had to spend so much time hahahah!!
But yea these are the things I found out after visiting different shops..
