Author: Review

Inquirer: Hi there. My maximum budget is around 9,000 Macau Patacas. I live in Macau right now. Me and my wife do not know much about diamonds at all. I really hope you can help me pick a good diamond ring, thank you so much. I have one big question that confuse me a lot. Is it more cost-effective to buy a ring setting from Bluenile directly? Or is it cheaper if I only buy a loose diamond first and send it to local stores to get it mounted later? I heard different opinions online, so I want to get a professional suggestion from you.

Ijadiamond: Well, both choices got their own good points and bad points, there is no absolute better one for everyone. Let me break it down for you in easy words. If you buy a complete ring with setting from Bluenile, the whole process is super convenient for buyers. Their workers will finish all the diamond mounting work in advance, then ship the finished ring straight to your address. Once you receive the package, you can put the ring on your finger immediately without any extra steps or waiting time. But there are obvious downsides you need to notice. The ring styles Bluenile provides are really old-fashioned and lack variety, you can barely find unique and modern designs there. Besides, their setting price is quite high compared with local mounting service in Macau.

If you only purchase a loose diamond and do the mounting locally in Macau, you will have much more freedom on ring designs. You can customize every tiny detail of the setting exactly how you and your wife like it, from band thickness to side stone decorations. The total cost of custom mounting here is also much more affordable in general. However, this choice will cost you extra time and energy. You need to spend time searching reliable local jewelers, compare their service fees, and wait for several days while they finish making your custom ring. It takes a little patience, but many customers think it worth the trouble for a personalized ring. By the way, do you have specific standards for your diamond’s carat size, color grade and clarity grade?

Inquirer: We do not have strict special standards for those parameters. Our main wish is the diamond look as big as possible within our budget. It has to be bright and sparkly under all lights. Most importantly, there should not be any obvious flaws or spots that people can see with naked eyes.

Ijadiamond: Got it, I totally understand your demands now. Your 9,000 Macau Patacas budget convert to roughly 1,000 US dollars. I can show you a really nice loose diamond that fits your budget perfectly. This stone weights 0.6 carats, and its clarity grade reaches VVS standard. G color. It looks extremely transparent and clear without cloudiness inside. The stone owns excellent cut proportions, which brings strong light reflection so it shine brightly all the time. There is no milky tint or brown tint on this diamond, it is a clean stone overall. You can click the link to check full details of this 0.6 carats VVS diamond.

Inquirer: Alright, that sound really great. Thank you very much for your thoughtful recommendation!

Client: Hi there, your article is really helpful, can you do me a favor please? I’m looking for a loose diamond around 1.04 carats. I need F color grade, clarity VS1 or higher, and my budget is under 5,000 US dollars. Could you give me some proper recommendations? Also, I spotted one or two diamonds marked with very strong or deep blue fluorescence on the product page. I wanna know what these terms actually mean, I’m totally confused about them.

IJAdiamond: Let me break this down for you. Strong blue fluorescence makes high-color grade diamonds look hazy under ultraviolet light. They don’t have that clear, transparent glow you get from non-fluorescent stones. Diamonds with fluorescence are way more common on the market. As the old saying goes, rare things cost more, so fluorescent diamonds carry a much lower price tag compared to stones with zero fluorescence.

You should never buy stones with strong yellow fluorescence though. That yellow tint visually drags down the diamond’s natural color grade, making it look dull and yellowish all the time. If you want your diamond to sparkle bright and vivid every single day, I highly suggest picking stones with 3EX cut grade. F color is already a pretty high color tier, so non-fluorescent diamonds are the best match for this grade.

But here’s a bad news for your budget. Sites like Blue Nile and James Allen (James Allen has merged with Blue Nile now) don’t have any bare diamonds that hit all your requirements cheaply. The cheapest matching loose stone—3EX cut, no fluorescence, F color, VS1+ clarity—costs at least $5,400. You’ll need to raise your budget a little bit to find a diamond that checks all your boxes.

Client: I see, that makes sense now. So which type of fluorescence is considered good if I have to pick a fluorescent stone? And if I insist on my target specs, how much extra money do I need to add to my original budget?

IJAdiamond: When two diamonds hold identical carat, color, clarity and cut specs, non-fluorescent ones are always the top choice, and they also hold the highest market price.

If you’re open to dropping your color grade to H or I, weak blue fluorescence or medium blue fluorescence stones are decent picks. The cool blue hue from the fluorescence cancels out the faint yellow tint natural to I color diamonds. This trick makes the diamond appear whiter to the naked eye, and these stones come with a really great cost performance. H color diamonds offer amazing value too; you can barely notice the subtle yellow undertones under regular natural sunlight.

But if you refuse to change your requirements—around 1.04 carats, F color, 3EX perfect cut, VS1 clarity or above—your budget needs to go up to under $6,000 total.

Client: Alright then, I’ll adjust my budget upwards. Could you help me handpick some suitable diamonds and share your recommendations with me?

IJAdiamond: Sure thing. Would you accept diamonds ranging from 1.02 carats to 1.06 carats as an alternative to exactly 1.04 carats?

Client: The ring setting I picked was labeled to fit a 1.04 carat stone. I’m not sure if the jeweler can resize it to match different carat weights. Is a 0.02 carat difference going to create any noticeable fitting issues?

IJAdiamond: There’s no need to worry about that at all. Two stones both marked 1.04 carats can have totally different physical proportions—some are deeper and narrow, others are shallow and wide. Carat weight doesn’t lock in a fixed diameter. A 1.02 carat diamond might measure wider across the table than a 1.04 carat one, and a 1.04 carat stone could look smaller than a 1.06 carat diamond depending on cutting ratios.

On top of that, the metal of ring bands has natural malleability. Jewelers can tweak the setting’s inner frame within a small range to fit whatever diamond width you end up buying.

Take a look at these two options I filtered out for you, both deliver incredible fire and sparkle: https://www.bluenile.com/diamond-details/LD0711607 and https://www.bluenile.com/diamond-details/LD0875049.

I lean more toward the 1.04 carat option. Its cutting proportions are engineered to reflect more light, so theoretically it has stronger fire dispersion. Both stones appear eye-clean without any visible flaws to bare eyes. The only tiny downside of the 1.04ct stone is a small black crystal inclusion on its table facet, but it’s invisible when you look at it normally, so it won’t ruin the appearance at all.

The 1.03 carat diamond is also a solid choice. It features a wider table surface which boosts overall white brightness, but it carries a higher price point compared to the 1.04ct pick.

Client: Okay, thank you so much for your detailed explanation. I’ll go through the two diamond links and study them carefully. If everything looks good after my research, I will settle on the 1.04 carat diamond you recommended.