Quick and Easy Buying Guide
Carat weight: 1 carat = 200 milligrams = 6.5 mm diameter. Doubling weight doesn't double diameter.
Diamond clarity: FL/IF/VVS/VS = super expensive, near perfect. SI = best value if you can check a photo for obvious inclusions (defects).
Color: D-G = colorless, expensive, only if you have money to burn. H-J = best value. Can go lower in gold metal settings than white metal.
Cut: Better cut ratings let more light into a diamond, making it sparkle more. Very important property, don't skimp here.
Set a budget and minimum cut (Premium). Go J color for gold and I/H for white metals. Go searching for SI1/SI2 clarity diamonds at James Allen. Pick a diamond with small/no inclusions. Choose a ring setting and buy it risk-free (60-day returns).
0.49 Carat Diamonds
Each carat in a 0.49 carat diamond is equivalent to 49 points, so a 0.49 carat diamond is the same as a 49 point diamond. Although it would seem so, the carat weight of a diamond and the diameter of a diamond have an interesting relationship - as the carat weight of the diamond increases, the diameter of the diamond grows at a much slower speed.
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Diamonds never leave you... men do! Shirley Bassey .
Because diamonds with the carat weight of one or two carats are very very popular, it's common for shops and online stores to raise the prices. You can save money by looking for diamonds which don't have the sizes.
For prospective buyers who are really focused on the size of a stone but not the material or quality, consider changing to a different gemstone apart from diamond. Some other gemstones are significantly less dense than diamond, which means for a certain carat weight they will have a larger volume and hence will look bigger to the naked eye.
There's a lot of hearsay on the internet about the average size of a diamond used in a typical diamond engagement ring - it's around half carat - but that of course doesn't give you any information about the typical clarity or colour of the diamond, and that in itself should tell you how useless that statistic is in isolation. Carat size is only one that property out of a number that you should be considering. You should also consider a diamond other properties such as cut, because this will have a drastic effect on how well the diamond sparkles.
