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).
1.02 Carat Diamonds
Each carat in a diamond is equivalent to 200 mg, so this 1.02 carat diamond weighs 204 mg. Although there is a strong correlation between the carat weight of a diamond and its width, this does not guarantee that every 1.02 carat diamond is 6.57 mm wide.
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Kissing your hand may make you feel very good, but a diamond lasts forever. Anita Loos .
Be careful of assigning too much importance to the carat weight of the diamond while neglecting other properties such as the girdle thickness, which is to wide can make the diamond appear smaller than other diamonds of the same carat weight.
Odd carat weights are carat weights which don't form round numbers, for example 1.97. Often diamonds with odd carat weights are quite a bit cheaper than diamonds with round number carat weights.
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 1.02 carat diamonds. Many people buying a diamond engagement ring for the first time often go overboard with the size of the diamond, not realising how big the diamond will appear when you put it on a small woman's hand.
In the quest for finding the largest diamond possible within a budget, it can be fun to consider famous large diamonds like ashberg diamond, which had a huge weight of 102 carats - about 200 times the mass of a diamond used in a typical engagement ring.
First-time diamond buyers who are in a hurry often just focus on the diamond carat size, which is a big mistake - other properties such as the clarity of the diamond are important in getting a diamond which is attractive not just in terms of its size, but also its appearance.