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).
0.64 Carat Diamonds
Walk into a diamond shop and wait around, and sooner or later you'll hear someone getting confused or frustrated about the fact that the carat weight of a diamond and the width of the diamond are very different things - most likely they will be confused or frustrated because a diamond with double the carat weight is only a little bit wider.
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There are hundreds of thousands of diamonds available online, which can be quite a daunting prospect if you're trying to narrow your choices down. One tip is to add another property of the diamond to the phrase that you're entering into your web browser - you could enter vs1 clarity alongside 0.64 carat diamonds.
Buying a diamond should really be about what you and your partner want, but if it's really important to you, know that the average diamond size in an engagement ring is about half carat, give or take. You can trade carat size for diamond rarity by doing something like choosing a pink diamond. If you do this, perhaps you'd like to consider putting in a bid for the darya-ye noor diamond which is the largest pink diamond the world, or 182 carats of it. To get it, you'd have to go to iran however..
Don't mix up carat weights of single diamonds with total diamond weights - the mean very different things and mixing them up can trick you when you're considering different prices.
A large diamond which has a huge crack down the middle, or alternatively a big yucky looking inclusion, is not a good look - it looks like someone has gone for size and sacrificed all the other desirable properties of the diamond. Clarity, for example, can be just as important in picking a diamond.