Bridal Guide for Buying Diamond Jewellery

The first ‘C’ to think about when choosing a diamond is the cut. Now, the cut determines the shape of the diamond as well as its brilliance because different cuts have differing numbers of facets and it’s these facets that give the diamond its sparkle. The cut is one of the important factors for the guide for buying diamond jewellery.

Types of Cuts

• Round Cut: The round brilliant cut is the most popular cut for engagement rings because it gives a nice shape on the hand and it has an awful lot of brilliance as well, thanks to its 57 facets.
• Oval Cut: The oval shape is, in fact, a variant of the brilliant cut, so it’s got lots of brilliance and sparkle. It suits more on petite hands.
• Pear Cut: The pear shape is really feminine cut. It works beautifully on petite hands. The pear shape has got the pointed end, which gives the effect of elongating the fingers.
• Cushion Cut: The antique style of the cushion cut has gained favour in the past few years because of its nice combination of very precise, modern cut, but with a nice sort of old-fashioned style.
• Emerald Cut: The emerald cut is very traditional. It has these long, clean lines which give a deep shine to the stone. Emerald cut suit’s hands with long fingers. Once you have decided the cut of the diamond, it’s really important that you make sure you buy a good quality cut. The precision of the cut determines how much brilliance you will get from a diamond.
• Princess Cut: The princess cut is almost same like the round cut, but the princess cut has a rectangular outline. This cut is a great option if you like square or rectangular shape.
• Radiant Cut: The radiant cut has trimmed corners and has a rectangular or square shape. This cut is often compared to the cushion cut.
• Marquise Cut: The Marquise cut diamonds have two pointed ends with the oval outline. These sharp points are very exposed to chipping and should be preserved properly.
• Heart Cut: As the name itself tells, that the diamond is in a heart shape. When buying a heart-cut diamond, you have to make sure both its left and right parts are balanced.

This refers to how clean or clear the diamond is. It goes a lot more than just skin deep. To determine how clean a diamond is, you will need one of these, which is a jeweller’s loop. The flaws that occur in a diamond have two names. So, if the flaw is inside a diamond, it’s called inclusions. If it is on a surface, it is called blemishes. Inclusions are more visible in some cuts than others. The most forgiving cuts for inclusion is the cushion cut, whereas the emerald is quite opposite. The clarity of a diamond is graded on a scale and right at the bottom is imperfect and top is flawless.

Colour is a very important factor when shopping for a diamond jewellery. If it is a white diamond, it is totally transparent with no colour. Top grading of a white diamond is ‘D’. The way you should decide the grading for a diamond is by looking it upside down. Grading is an important bridal guide of buying diamond jewellery.

Carat refers to the weight of the stone and one carat is one-fifth of a gram. A five-carat diamond is many times more valuable than a one carat diamond. Not all diamond cuts look the same size even if they are the same carat weight, and a brilliant cut is the one that punches above its weight because of its diameter, it looks bigger than a similar carat emerald cut. Now for a single stone ring, for an engagement  ring, don’t go below one carat because you really want to have that wow factor. Always remember carat and size is not everything. So, before shopping makes sure you follow this guide for buying diamond jewellery.

BY M. DIVYA SRI