Proposal Ring - Part 3

[KingKenny]

Issit? why ah?

I believe it's because usually cutter will push it to flat carat for the sake of more profits even if it suffers in cut quality.

e.g It may be able to achieve a 0.38 ideal cut, but they will rather cut it up into 0.40 even if the cut quality drops lower as the 0.4 could be used to sell for higher price considering that most retailers sell their diamonds solely based on the cert stats and without the ASET scopes to measure the actual light performance / quality of the diamond

And not good value for $$. Better to aim for a 0.3x++ or 0.4c+.

 

[throwawaygrad]

I dont expect my bf to use 2-3 months as a guide. As long as its something that im happy with can liao. it is also relative to how much he earns i guess? if the diamond is too big, it will be too gawdy for me.

+1 for not too gaudy...I got myself a 1.27ct one which was able to fit in at my previous company (lady boss wore a 5ct eternity band) but my current company is a wedding band-only type of environment so I'm going to Orro to buy a 0.5ct for daily wear.

A bit sad I can't wear my actual one but I guess when I'm older then I'll be able to pull it off.

For workplace and I assume age of 30, I think 0.6 to 0.8 is perfect. If finger is not slim (size 6 and up) then maybe 1ct.

 

[lance88]

+1 for not too gaudy...I got myself a 1.27ct one which was able to fit in at my previous company (lady boss wore a 5ct eternity band) but my current company is a wedding band-only type of environment so I'm going to Orro to buy a 0.5ct for daily wear.

A bit sad I can't wear my actual one but I guess when I'm older then I'll be able to pull it off.

For workplace and I assume age of 30, I think 0.6 to 0.8 is perfect. If finger is not slim (size 6 and up) then maybe 1ct.

I think that is what wedding band is for.. to wear on daily, to work etc.

 

[lance88]

I dont expect my bf to use 2-3 months as a guide. As long as its something that im happy with can liao. it is also relative to how much he earns i guess? if the diamond is too big, it will be too gawdy for me.

so what is your expected carat/cost and what did you actually got?

 

[evelynleebali]

so what is your expected carat/cost and what did you actually got?

Sharing my ring photos! They surprised me with the ring ready 1 week earlier ahead of the collection date.

I wore it immediately after we collected the ring. I told my bf no need to propose. My answer is yes already

Sorry for the nails! I didnt expect to collect it today.. If I know, I would have done my nails up already.. heeh

Super happy with the ring! The Solasfera is so pretty and sparkly! When I wear it out, I really get what you guys mean by the many many burst of sparkles.

I tried taking a video of it.. it doesnt really show the full extent of the sparkles. But you can still see quite abit of it!

I got the Solasfera 0.6ct G VS1. With the ring, it was 6k+. My fingers are quite small, so the diamond looks big on my hands

 

[mardybum]

what do you guys based your budget on? really the stereotype of 2-3mths salary gauge?

2-3 months salary gauge? Not for my case. Cos my bf alrdy told me his budget was $4k before he bring me along to choose the proposal ring and his salary is more than $4k. At first I’m abit sian cos I tot at least his one month salary? But after that I’m like ok maybe we shouldnt spend too much on the ring instead we should focus more of the spending on our wedding, future house & reno etc.. So we settled on the ring total was $4200.

 

[KinoChoco]

I got the Solasfera 0.6ct G VS1. With the ring, it was 6k+. My fingers are quite small, so the diamond looks big on my hands

Is your ring size around 4-5 US size?

 

[KinoChoco]

2-3 months salary gauge? Not for my case. Cos my bf alrdy told me his budget was $4k before he bring me along to choose the proposal ring and his salary is more than $4k. At first I’m abit sian cos I tot at least his one month salary? But after that I’m like ok maybe we shouldnt spend too much on the ring instead we should focus more of the spending on our wedding, future house & reno etc.. So we settled on the ring total was $4200.

Hahaha, it depends on individual, I know some friends who earns 10k, but wants to buy a fake diamond instead as they don’t even feel like spending for a diamond. As for me personally, I love diamond and wouldn’t mind spending more for it.

Just like some guys willing to spend 35k on rolex but some don’t even want to spend 500 for a watch even if both earns the same amount

As long your partner treats you well and does love you, that’s all it matters.

 

[iori12]

can some kind bro help me check this diamond proportion?

gia 2316401017

thank you

 

[patryn33]

what do you guys based your budget on? really the stereotype of 2-3mths salary gauge?

De Beers is successfully!
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27371208

Some say you should spend three months' salary on an engagement ring. Or perhaps two. Or maybe even one. Over the years these ring-wallet equations have come to be regarded as a tradition. Why?

When actor George Clooney presented Amal Alamuddin with a diamond engagement ring reportedly costing £450,000, celebrity-watchers might have had a familiar water-cooler conversation. Did that ring really represent a month's salary?

But where did this calculation come from? Is it a real tradition that stretches back centuries?

The short answer is no. The idea was embedded in popular culture in the West by an advertising drive from the De Beers diamond cartel that started in the lean years of the 1930s. The Depression was a disaster for De Beers, which controlled 60% of rough diamond output. De Beers embarked on what it now describes as a "substantial" campaign, linking diamonds with engagement.

Prior to the 1930s, presenting a woman with a diamond engagement ring was not the norm. Even on the eve of World War Two, a mere 10% of engagement rings contained diamonds. By the end of the 20th Century, 80% did.

In the 1930s, at the start of the De Beers campaign, a single month's salary was the suggested ring spend. In the 1980s in the US, it became two months. One advert featured a pouting woman, a scarf, a finger, a diamond ring and the words: "Two months' salary showed the future Mrs Smith what the future would be like."

Another did away with the woman, the pout and the finger, leaving only a diamond ring against a black background and the question: "How can you make two months' salary last forever?"

As well as establishing the salary calculation, years of De Beers marketing inextricably linked the diamond to the concept of an engagement ring.

The real breakthrough was created by a team at the advertising firm NW Ayer and Son. The tagline "A Diamond is Forever" was written in 1947 by Frances Gerety. The slogan worked.

These two achievements - making the diamond ring an essential part of getting married and dictating how much a man should pay - make it one of the most successful bits of marketing ever undertaken, says Dr TC Melewar, professor of marketing and strategy at Middlesex University.

"They invented a tradition which captured some latent desire to mark this celebration of love," he says. Once the tradition had been created, they could put a price on it - such as a month or two's salary. And men, says Melewar, would pay whatever was expected because it was a "highly emotive" purchase.

t was not just in the US where demand for diamond engagement rings rocketed. The marketing campaign is credited with conquering Japan, where diamond rings were unheard of before World War Two. But the salary calculation was different.

In the UK, writes Rebecca Ross Russell in Gender and Jewellery: A Feminist Analysis, the advertisements kept the single month's pay suggestion. But Japanese men were urged to spend three months' salary. "The salary rules were a stroke of genius," writes Russell, who believes De Beers managed to entwine western values with the Japanese sense of honour. "A diamond engagement ring: worth three months' salary," ran one of the adverts in the 1970s. Japan remains one of the leading markets for diamond jewellery.

The idea of the durability of diamonds and therefore their suitability for engagement rings, the ultimate symbol of durability, is now totally embedded in the Western mindset. Other stones are available, says Lindsey Straughton of the British Jewellers' Association but diamonds have stood the test of time. "There have always been other stones such as sapphires and rubies which, along with diamonds, you can easily wear on your finger all of the time."

With the West largely hooked on the diamond engagement ring, attention is now on China and India, according to Bain and Company, which produces an annual report on the industry. There has been a gradual rise in Indian couples "adopting the Western engagement ring practice".

But the effect of the salary "tradition" is harder to judge. According to a report for the Jewelers of America, people will spend an average of about $4,000 (£2,372) on that ring. If the average US salary is just over $3,000 (£1,700) a month, or around $37,000 (£22,000) a year, then US proposers are spending just over a month's salary on their engagement rings.

Allowing for the fact that the average US citizen - especially the younger man getting engaged - will actually earn less than the average salary (because of the distorting impact of the super-rich on salary averages) then the actual amount may come a bit closer to two months' salary.

In the UK, Liverpool Victoria did some research back in 2011 which claimed the "average engagement ring" was believed to cost £1,231 ($2,069) which LV claimed meant the "average man spends the equivalent of three weeks' pay on a ring".

More recently the Birmingham-based jewellers Marlow's compiled data from 2,000 engagement ring orders. It found the average amount spent on an engagement ring was £1,329 ($2,200), again slightly less than a month's average UK salary.

But the "salary rule" is likely to remain, says Melewar because: "There will always be the question of who has the bigger ring, with girls comparing and boys not wanting to be outdone."

 

[Alwayslookup]

Guys.

A good friend recommended his jeweller.

She offered me 0.81 Carat, triple ex, VS1, colour grade E, fluorescence None, Characteristic Pinpoint. With GIA cert.

Together with 18k full rose gold and side pave diamond, quoted 6250.

Should I hit it?

 

[Miltah]

Guys.

A good friend recommended his jeweller.

She offered me 0.81 Carat, triple ex, VS1, colour grade E, fluorescence None, Characteristic Pinpoint. With GIA cert.

Together with 18k full rose gold and side pave diamond, quoted 6250.

Should I hit it?

Depends on how much u value cut quality.
If we used bluenile as an example n just punched in 0.81c, E, VS1, triple ex, the cheapest comes in at $5k
So you could say the jeweller was good value as it comes with a pave ring setting
But if I put in super ideal specs in the filter, the cheapest comes in at $7-8k
So for exactly the same diamond, the price can vary $2k, which comes back to the same question... how much do u value the cut?

 

[Alwayslookup]

Depends on how much u value cut quality.
If we used bluenile as an example n just punched in 0.81c, E, VS1, triple ex, the cheapest comes in at $5k
So you could say the jeweller was good value as it comes with a pave ring setting
But if I put in super ideal specs in the filter, the cheapest comes in at $7-8k
So for exactly the same diamond, the price can vary $2k, which comes back to the same question... how much do u value the cut?

What's super ideal cut?

She say she earn only a decent meal for two from me as the shop dont open to public, only to regulars.

Do these help?

0.81 carat
VS1
Excellent cut
Excellent polish
Excellent symmetry
None fluorescence
Clarity pinpoint
Table size 56%
Depth 61%
Angle crown 34.5%
Gridle Medium

Full 18k rose gold
5 side diamonds each
Size 4.5

My brother who is not a connoisseur say it is very good deal.

But of course we not pros...

 

[rosifiedZ]

Well there’s super ideal cut , ideal cut, the common triple Es, very good and good cuts. The cut affects the light performance which in turns affects the scintillation or fire of a diamond(how blink the diamond will be basically.
Now i don’t know how much research you did on diamonds nor i am some know-it-all but from what i know, basically two simolar carat diamonds can have the same grading on their GIA certificates(triple Es) but physically the two can be very very different and this is usually due to the cuts.

That said, even within the super ideal cuts range, it differs from jeweller to jeweller as some have more lax criteria, so it’s always better to see the diamond physically. From the comfort of your chair, you can always look at youtube videos to know and see how different cuts affect the performance of the diamond. Personally i am a fan of jann paul and purchased a solarferas from them so take this with a pitch of salt, but they have videos showing the difference a common triple Es and their super ideal cut , granted i don’t know if they purposely used a diamond with a larger disparity but you will get an idea of it la.

Also, assuming your diamond is a 57 facets round diamond, you can always look up on the holloway cut advisor(HCA) which takes into account the measurements of your diamond(i believe is the crown angle etc etc, idk cos my solarferas is a special cut, so the HCA does not apply to mine) and gives a score on it. It cannot help u choose between the better diamonds but can help u eliminate the much-worst diamonds, anything more than a score of 2 should be rejected imo. After that it’s up to the ASET or hearts of arrows scope etc as even if two diamonds shows a HCA score of below 2, the light performance can still greatly differs but some shops do not show u those because they know their diamonds is inferior if measured on by that and instead will say aiya ASET is not important or i got alternative certs and stuff like that .

End of the day, no one will bring scopes out or compare their diamonds until so in-depth but it’s more of a i want the best value out of what i am paying. Which in my case is what i am going for. My 0.781 solasfera F VVS2 cost me 10.1k which compared to the price you were quoted seems quite big but yea i prioritise the quality and i want to get the best value from what i am paying(Won’t say why i think is more value cos i don’t want to advertise for jann paul). If the diamond appears eye-clean to you and ur S/O and you ok with it then it’s the right one for you. There will always be a better diamond out there somewhere so end of the day, you and your S/O happy can le.

Yea, there may be some error in my comment but i am just trying to help! xD

What's super ideal cut?

She say she earn only a decent meal for two from me as the shop dont open to public, only to regulars.

Do these help?

0.81 carat
VS1
Excellent cut
Excellent polish
Excellent symmetry
None fluorescence
Clarity pinpoint
Table size 56%
Depth 61%
Angle crown 34.5%
Gridle Medium

Full 18k rose gold
5 side diamonds each
Size 4.5

My brother who is not a connoisseur say it is very good deal.

But of course we not pros...

 

[ThiamWan]

What's super ideal cut?

She say she earn only a decent meal for two from me as the shop dont open to public, only to regulars.

Do these help?

0.81 carat
VS1
Excellent cut
Excellent polish
Excellent symmetry
None fluorescence
Clarity pinpoint
Table size 56%
Depth 61%
Angle crown 34.5%
Gridle Medium

Full 18k rose gold
5 side diamonds each
Size 4.5

My brother who is not a connoisseur say it is very good deal.

But of course we not pros...

You got the GIA number? Though it is hard gauge on this without the scopes.

 

[Jayden Goh]

Here are the specs guys! Please advise whether it is worth paying 5.4k for this

Any advice on the above?

 

[throwawaygrad]

I just browsed some lab grown diamonds and saw Brilliant Earth and Clean Origin offering some good stuff at good prices (you get 360 view too). Good for those who will be happy with a simple 3EX/ Ideal (as mentioned by other forummers, don't expect Jannpaul Ideal level la).

Example:
G Color • VS1 Clarity • 0.62 CT • Ideal Cut Grade = $1.6k SGD (before shipping and tax)

Tbh, at this price point I'm willing to just buy and test out but I just got several new jewellery end of last year already so I've to let my wallet breathe a bit first

 

[beary2teddy]

What's super ideal cut?

She say she earn only a decent meal for two from me as the shop dont open to public, only to regulars.

Do these help?

0.81 carat
VS1
Excellent cut
Excellent polish
Excellent symmetry
None fluorescence
Clarity pinpoint
Table size 56%
Depth 61%
Angle crown 34.5%
Gridle Medium

Full 18k rose gold
5 side diamonds each
Size 4.5

My brother who is not a connoisseur say it is very good deal.

But of course we not pros...

Can pm me the shop name?

 

[Alwayslookup]

Can pm me the shop name?

Bro sorry but she dont open to people she dont know.

My friend, who's mother is a regular went with me.

I can ask... and act like you are my buddy buddy if you wanna try.

 

[Alwayslookup]

You got the GIA number? Though it is hard gauge on this without the scopes.

Next time i pass by I go take photo of the cert.

I didn't take!