How to Maximize Diamond Size For Your Budget
So, you want a little more glitz for your guap? Don’t we all?
There are oh-so-many phrases that get thrown around in the diamond world. Knowing what a VVS-Whatever is might help you find an excellent diamond. But just picking the top of the cut, color, and clarity charts will also do wonders in clearing out that bank account of yours.
Here’s the tea. You can get a boujee rock on a budget and still maximize your rock size. It’s all about finesse.
GH Is For Glow Up
Let’s talk about diamond color. While you can go ahead and spend the extra money and get a rock that’s rated colorless (D-F), you don’t really need to. Diamonds in the G-H range are colorless enough to look absolutely snatched, even set in white gold. True, rocks with a lower rating will have a low-key warmth to them, but TBH you’d be pressed to tell the difference once these beauties are set in that glorious gold.
Brilliance hides a multitude of things–seriously, aren’t sparkles the best? One of those just so happens to be color. So if you’re going with any sort of sparkle-city brilliant cut like a round, pear, princess, etc., you’ve got nothing to worry about.
That being said, no matter the cut going with a rock in the G-H range is gonna save you a grip over those with higher colors. Just take a look at these two ovals. We’ve got a gorge 3.01ct G-VS1 Oval Natural Diamond on the top, and 3.02ct E-VVS1 Oval Natural Diamond in the bottom.
They’re both stunning. Well, for real, they look almost exactly the same. However, the G color diamond is the better diamond in every way outside of color, and it costs $24,500 less.
Eye Spy
Ok, so you remember that VVS-Whatever? Yeah, let’s talk about that. See, spending a lot on clarity doesn’t get you a better diamond. Literally, all you need is an eye-clean diamond and spoiler alert; you can easily find that in the VS2 range. You can even find it in an SI1 if you’re down to look for it.
The thing is, people often confuse clarity with brilliance, and they don’t want to compromise on sparkle. Clarity actually refers to the number of inclusions and blemishes in a stone and has nothing to do with the sparkle.
The tea here is sparkle is your friend when it comes to hiding inclusions. We love that for you. Peep those SI2 Cushion Natural Diamonds. We know it has inclusions, but where? And more importantly, who cares? This rock is stunning, and you just saved yourself a serious chunk of change by finessing the clarity.
So what is eye-clean? You've got yourself an eye-clean diamond as long as none of those blemishes are visible to the naked eye. Anything you spend above and beyond on an already eye-clean diamond is throwing down cash you could be spending on carat.
Ice Sculpting, Anyone?
We’ve said it before, but we really stan for cut. It’s the true CEO of sparkle, and we never recommend compromising on cut.
A well-cut diamond, especially a brilliant, can hid a ton of imperfections, make the color look brighter, and is entirely responsible for the sparkle, fire, and everything else you love about diamonds, to begin with.
It’s a magical thing, an excellent cut. But what if you’re going for something other than a round brilliant? For fancy shape diamonds, pay attention to proportions. A diamond that’s cut too deep or too shallow won’t reflect as much light, which means a dull rock with less sparkle, big yikes. This Twig seriously understood the assignment, sparkle on queen.
The Cover-Up
Looking for something with a little more coverage? Bet.
Some fancy shape diamonds truly tap into that main character energy by taking up just a bit more space. Elongated shapes like pears, ovals, marquise, etc., have a bigger look carat for carat. All that added finger coverage means more bang for your buck, and we love to hear it. Check it out - all the diamonds here are 1 carat, but the elongated ones look much bigger. What a difference shape makes.
Simply Scientific
While these rules apply to all diamonds, we wouldn’t be doing our job if we didn’t mention the biggest skrilla saver of them all—lab diamonds.
Straight up, there’s no reason not to go with a lab diamond. You can literally get the same diamond for like half the price. The only difference is where it came from.
All the same rules of cut, color, and clarity apply to science stones, and you will go home with a seriously snatched rock. Only you can get as chonky as you want to for the same budget.
Here’s The Twig with a 1ct H-SI2 Pear Natural Diamond . It’s pretty but far from perfect. It’s also gonna cost you $4.5k. We’ve got a 1.5ct H VVS2 Pear Lab Diamond set in the Hidden Halo Penelope. It’s super eye-clean, sparklicious, and just plain gorge. It’s also just about 33% of the price at just $1.5k.
And hey, if $1.5k still feels crazy, keep in mind lab diamonds are high-key affordable in any budget.
Ready To Get Boujee On A Budget?
We love to hear it.
Snagging a snatched stone with some serious heft doesn’t mean spending all your dough in one place. Remember, just because something is technically “the best” doesn’t mean it’s better. Sometimes it just means it’s more expensive.
If you’ve got yourself an eye-clean diamond that looks completely colorless, that’s a major W. The fact that it’s taking up all that gorgeous real estate on your finger? Wig! You are the serious CEO of sparkle city, and we are all just vibing in your presence.
