A Complete Guide to Choosing The Best Diamonds on Budget

DIAMOND FACTS | DIAMOND BUYING GUIDE

Diamond Cut: In its natural state, a diamond's beauty is generally concealed. While nature determines a diamond's color, clarity, and carat weight, the hand of a master craftsman is needed to release its fire and beauty. What draws out its brilliance is the cut of the diamond, which under ideal circumstances maximizes the optical properties within the diamond, particularly its ability to refract light and disperse color.

Not to be confused with the shape of a diamond, cut refers to the arrangement of a diamond's facets. A diamond that is "ideal cut" captures and releases the maximum play of light. The cut gives each diamond its unique sparkle and brilliance by allowing the maximum amount of light to enter and reflect back out of the diamond.

To achieve an ideal cut, the diamond cutter must adhere to a whole series of exacting tolerances. Those tolerances, in turn, may well mean that much of the rough diamond has to be cut away. For that reason, ideal cut diamonds are the exception rather than the rule. In fact, fewer than 1% of all diamonds are cut to ideal proportions. Consequently, you're likely to find ideal cut diamonds in only the finest stores.

If the cut is too deep or too shallow light will spill through the side or bottom and be lost, resulting in a less brilliant display and thus, a less valuable diamond. Cut is the most critical of all the variables that affect the value of a diamond. It is essential you know the quality of the cut when purchasing a diamond. Round diamonds are symmetrical and capable of reflecting the most of the light, are the most brilliant of all the diamond shapes.

Round Diamond Proportions
8778989	Ideal Proportion	Acceptable Proportions	Unacceptable Proportions
Depth	60% - 63%	57% - 64%	less than 57% or more than 64%
Table	53% - 57%	53% - 64%	less than 53% or more than 66%
Polish	very good to excellent	good to excellent	poor to fair
Symmetry	very good to excellent	good to excellent	poor to fair
Girdle	thin to medium	thin to thick	very thin to very thick
Culet	none to very small	none to medium	medium to large

Fancy shaped diamonds are diamonds other than rounds have different proportion guidelines than the one shown above for round diamond, and affect the ability of the diamond to refract light in different ways. When light strikes a fancy shaped diamond, a small amount of light is lost through the bottom of the stone.

Because the refractive abilities of a fancy cut diamond are reduced by its shape, when looking for a fancy shaped diamond, it is better wise to look up to a higher grade of color and clarity to maximize the diamond’s brilliancy. The following are the ideal table percentages:

Emerald (Octagon): 50% - 75%

Marquise: 50% - 62%

Oval: 50% - 62%

Pear: 50% - 62%

Princess Cut: 65% - 80%

Radiant Cut: 65% - 80%

Round: 52.5 - 57.5%

Diamond Clarity

Diamonds that are absolutely clean are very much in demand and are therefore the most expensive. View Details.

Diamond Color

We think color is one is one of the most important factors to consider when selecting a diamond because it is one of the first things most people notice-whether or not the diamond is "white". View Details.

Carat Weight

Diamonds are sold by the carat (ct)-not to be confused with karat (kt), which refers to gold quality in the Unites States. Once you've determined what cut, color, and clarity grade you're looking for in a diamond, it's easy to determine the carat weight of diamond that will fit within your budget. View Details.