Diamonds Diamonds!!!!!

If you plan on purchasing a Diamond you have chosen the most valued of all jewels. If you dont know anything about diamonds however you may be in a world of confusion and perhaps even in the position to be scammed.
first figure out what kind of diamond you want and answer the following:
-How much can I afford?
-What quality am I interested in?
-Is size more important that quality to me?
-Is the diamond fitting the occasion?

First and foremost, how much do you want to spend, because this is ultimately the decider in what type of diamond you will get. are you more interested in the size of the diamond or the quality. Diamonds are ancient and rare gems, they are not supplied endlessly. It takes a great amount of time to mine, and mostly Cut a diamond. They are not cheap and for good reason. If you are thinking that you will walk away with a great diamond for few hundred bucks you are sadly mistaken, talking diamonds down to the jeweler can also ultimately hurt your chances at a good price. Also window shopping will hurt your chances of ever getting a good price at a particular store, but we will talk about that later. lets get into the magic letter C!!!

THE 4 C'S

-CUT
-COLOR
-CLARITY
-CARAT

CUT- cut is often an overlooked C, but not many people realize that cut can make or break the beauty of a diamond. To those in the industry Cut is often the most important and most talked about because it is the only C that is controlled by a single human hand. If you walk out of a store with what you think is just an AWESOME price on a diamond that has great color and clarity, you most likely have unknowingly compromised on cut, which is a big mistake. The brilliance of a diamond is almost always based on the skill of the cutter, so before you compromise on cut compromise on carat.

COLOR-white, yellow, brown, blue, red, pink purple!....Diamonds come in every shade except emerald green. This C can be crucial if you plan on a white gold setting. If you, like most people, plan on purchasing a colorless diamond then know the colors. It is proven that someone without advanced knowledge of diamonds will not notice the subtle color differences between the first 8 letters...oh did i mention they are in letters...let me explain.......
(ABC)- do not exist, nothing can be without color!!! or you couldnt see it right!!!
(DEF)- the best in colorless, of course D being colorless and EF being essentially colorless!!
(GHI)-still not bad, if you are setting into yellow gold the diamond will look great!!!
(JKL)-ok you still will not know the difference unless its in white gold to contrast
anything past this dont purchase, unless you want a yellow tinted or fancy color diamond.
Color can be a starting point for compromise, if you are setting this into yellow gold then choosing a more yellow tinted diamond can save you a load of money without seeing a difference

CLARITY-wow how to start on clarity. first thing, you want a great diamond, but to get one you must pay for it. The old saying you get what you pay for will ring in your mind as you begin talks about clarity. The characteristics of diamonds are either man made mistakes or most often a natural occurance that included your diamond during formation. also there are many things to know about clarity. Dont expect to purchase a flawless diamond, unless you have alot of money you want to let go of. also certification of a diamond can be quite deceiving. one stone may be a VS with a large internal flaw while you see a SI that looks better to you. AND THATS THE IMPORTANT THING! what looks best to you, if you are purchasing a large diamond ask to see it magnified!!!! then choose which diamond you like best, not which diamond the cert card says is best. Clarity grades are as follows:

I(3) I(2) I(1) i stands for included, this means internal flaws, whether they are spots of black or things that look like scratches. I(3) is the bottom of the spectrum, if you dont mind an inclusion or two then the I grades could save you money!!!
SI(2) SI(1) si stands for slightly included, these are nice diamonds, most likely you will not see an imperfection without magnification and help spotting them!!!
VS-VVSI this stands for very slightly included and very very slightly included, wonderful diamonds!!! you will pay more but you are getting a better diamond. you will not see an imperfection in these diamonds, only jewelers with experiance can find any at all!
IF internally flawless!!..these are the rarest of the rare, a diamond that has no imperfection at all, these will cost you, and dont ask for discounts on these, you wont get them.

CARAT- almost always the first thing people look for is the carat weight. how big is the diamond. we measure these in carats 1 carat=100 points. 1/2 carat=50 points and so on. the best word of advice i can give anyone purchasing is do not base your purchase solely on the weight of the diamond, you will only end up with a BIG ugly diamond, unless you pay for quality as well. which is perfectly ok. in the industry we call 25,50,100 points majic numbers, because thats what everyone wants. "i want a 1 carat diamond" so the cutter follow suit and cut diamonds to weight 1 carat, but in order to make it bigger they ofter sacrafice the dimension quality of that very diamond. if you see two 1 carat diamonds and one looks bigger, most likely the quality is worse and it was cut solely for weight and not beautly. dont be caught up too much in weight while compromising beauty and never overlook another C for a another, they are all equally important in the quality of your stone!