The Four C’s
If you’ve spent even 2 minutes researching how to buy a diamond, you’re going to come across the 4 C’s. They are:
- Colour
- Clarity
- Cut
- Caret
Having spent literally months looking at websites, researching, and being downright anal about the process… and then putting a similar amount of effort into looking at these stones in person, I think I can say with a fair degree of confidence I’ve got some great advice for you on this front.
Are you ready for it? Here it is, my no-nonsense guide to buying a diamond engagement ring and “The Four C’s” — it’s bullshit. At best it’s “The Three C’s”, and I’ve only listed two of the important ones above.
Colour
Bullshit C number 1. Anything from I upwards on the scale is colourless to the human eye. The more colourless it is the more expensive it is… unless it’s pink, or yellow, or… basically unless they determine that it can cost you a few quid more. We’ve already established that diamonds in themselves aren’t in short supply, so I really don’t buy the whole “rarity” angle here. Your girlfriend and her friends aren’t going to be looking at the ring under a spectroscope so you’re better off saving the money on colour so long as it is in the colourless range.
Clarity
Bullshit C number 2. Again you’ve got a scale measuring the imperfections in the stone, almost all of which resides in the “unable to detect with the human eye” range. I looked at quite a few in the SI classification through a loupe and could only see any markings after a lot of guidance from the dealer showing them to me. Unless your girlfriend is carrying a loupe with her and is a trained gemologist she’s not going to be able to appreciate the difference between a VS2 and an IF
Caret
An important one, it’s basically how big the stone is. Bigger rocks cost more and initially look more impressive. However I’ve seen how a bigger rock with a slightly lower quality cut didn’t have the same sparkle. And in reality, the size difference between a stone that is 0.5 carat and a stone that is 0.6 carat was only perceivable to me when they were side by side.
Cut
This one I’ll agree makes a difference. If we park all emotion and sentiment to the side for one moment, what we’re really looking at here is a particularly dense piece of glass. What makes it pretty is how much it’s able to split the visible light spectrum into it’s individual colours in such a small space, and we learn about total internal reflection and refraction in high school physics. So you want ideal proportions to get the most colourful sparkle out of the stone (referred to in the trade as fire and brilliance ;)
Stones with symmetry offer the most sparkle, so that means a well cut round stone is the best (don’t argue, it’s science!). It also explains why the solitaire cut is the most popular, as it’s the one that gives the best appearance.
Stray from that path and you’re making a conscious decision to not be getting the most impressive ring you can. I did, sort of, because I didn’t want Emma’s ring to look like everyone else’s.
