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Hi, I would appreciate your advice. I am looking at buying my wife a ring to mark our tenth wedding anniversary and also the birth of our first child this year.
Originally I was thinking about an eternity ring but she would like a diamond ring (think technically this is essentially an engagement ring that she will wear on a different finger).
The ring that she likes on Blue Nile is the Channel Princess Cut Diamond Engagement Ring Platinum.
She is looking for a princess cut diamond ideally in the region of 1.5 carat. I am tying myself in knots trading off which is the best diamond. I have a budget of up to about HKD 80,000 for the diamond.
Any advice you can give on which diamond would be best, work with the ring would be much appreciated.
I found this beautiful princess cut diamond that would look amazing in the setting your wife liked:
Blue Nile LD13125476
It has a wonderful cut, no noticeable inclusions and would be very bright and brilliant in real life.
Thanks for coming back to me and for your advice.
I just had a few questions. My budget is up to around HKD 80,000 and I note that the diamond you recommended was HKD 58,900. Not that I am complaining and don’t want to spend money for the sake of it but is there a better diamond if I spend nearer to my budget or do you think I would just be wasting my money going higher?
I see the diamond you recommended is a colour H. Will this look colourless in real life or do you think it is worth paying a bit extra for a better colour grade?
I was well aware that there was still room in your budget, but the 1.5ct princess cut I sent you was already a gorgeous option, there was no point in choosing something more expensive. The 1.5ct range is very wide and there are a lot of diamonds that are just getting more and more expensive without actually increasing their carat weight or significantly increasing quality. H color looks absolutely colorless in most settings, you don’t need to worry about any yellowness. We don’t recommend spending extra on higher color (unless it’s necessary for some reason) or higher clarity grade (once the diamond is eye-clean, it doesn’t matter what grade it has), what makes sense to us is to spend money on something you can actually see (like a better cut or bigger diamond). But the diamond already has a perfect cut and since you don’t want to go higher in carats, I don’t see where you could spend the extra $$$.
Thanks for that, makes perfect sense!
Can I please ask one last question. In terms of carat size, is there a noticeable difference between a 1.5 and say 1.6 or 1.7? Was thinking about what you said and was having a look at some of the bigger ones. Is there a larger one that you would recommend or do you still think that the 1.5 carat is the best option. Again not trying to spend money for the sake of it so if you think that the diamond you have recommended is the best option then I will go with that one.
No worries, ask as many questions as you need, that’s why I’m here.
It always depends on how each diamond is cut, but I don’t think there’s a noticeable difference in size between a ~1.5 and a ~1.6ct diamond. Around 1.7ct and higher is where the difference would really start to show (but keep in mind that everybody perceives sizes differently and in reality, nobody usually knows what a 1.5 or 1.7 or a 2ct diamond is supposed to look like, there’s a lot of factors that can affect the “visual” size of a diamond – the size of the wearer’s fingers, nails, physique…).
This is the first recommendable1.7ct diamond I found. If you check out the real measurements, you can see that the difference between this and the original diamond is minimal, but the difference in price is huge. Seeing this, makes me rooting for my previous diamond even more, it’s an amazing value.
Blue Nile LD13590725
Great, thanks for your help. I will go with your original recommendation
…
Looking for your help again!
The diamond you recommended has now been sold.
Would you be able to have another look using same criteria as before?
No worries, there are still many great options to choose from.
These two looked amazing to me:
Blue Nile LD13827769
Blue Nile LD13372684
Thanks for coming back to me again.
Both of these diamonds look really nice. Do you think it is worth paying the extra for the larger carrot or would you recommend the smaller one? I know before you had gone with the smaller as it was really good value. I guess these 2 are slightly closer in price than before, was just keen to have your thoughts .
Personally, I don’t think there’s a noticeable difference in size between those two diamonds. It’s around 0.2mm which is not much. I would, again, choose the smaller one, but the final decision is yours of course.
The 1.52 carat diamond that you recommended has been sold.
The 1.72 carat is still available but I am conscious that in terms of value you were recommending the 1.52 as it really wasn’t very different in size anyway.
I wonder if you would mind taking a final look and seeing if there is a diamond closer to 1.5 carat that you would recommend ahead of the 1.72 carat or if you think the 1.72 carat is probably my best option now.
Here are some nice options I found today:
Blue Nile LD11437913
Blue Nile LD13137597
Blue Nile LD13860199
Thanks for sending these over to me. I think they all look nice. Is there one in particular that you would lean towards?
I would personally choose this diamond Blue Nile LD13137597 because it has great cut parameters or this one if you want to go higher in carats: Blue Nile LD13860199.
Thanks for that. I will get the first one. One thing I saw on your website is that you have discount codes available for Blue Nile. Would you have any of these?
Sure. It’s for 15% off the setting: contact us for your own unique coupon code
Thank you so much, I really appreciate all your help!
It was my pleasure helping you.
What we love about them:
- No questions asked returns within 30 days of shipment. James Allen will send you a paid shipping label to return the ring.
- Lifetime Warranty
- Free International Shipping
- Free prong tightening, repolishing, rhodium plating and cleaning every 6 months
- Provide insurance appraisals
- One free resizing within 60 days of purchase
- Free ring inscriptions
- Best-in-class high quality imagery of all diamonds in stock
- 24/7 Customer Service
- Best-in-class packaging
What we love about them:
- No questions asked returns within 30 days of shipment. Blue Nile will send you a paid shipping label to return the ring.
- Lifetime Warranty
- Free Shipping
- Free prong tightening, repolishing, rhodium plating and cleaning every 6 months
- Provide insurance appraisal
- One free resizing within the first year of purchase
- High quality images of about half of their diamonds
- 24/7 Customer Service
- 100% credit towards future upgrades (must be at least double in value)
- Best in class fulfillment
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