Four Cs to Know When Looking for an Engagement Ring

When you're shopping for a diamond engagement ring, all the technical terms and decisions can become overwhelming. We're here to guide you and give you an idea of the most important elements of diamond rings. We realize that purchasing a ring is an important decision that will be part of you and your partner's life for many decades to come. We've created an easy "4 C" outline to help you make the decision right for you and your future fiancé. Read on to discover the elements of diamonds that distinguish them and make some more brilliant than others.

Carat

Many people new to engagement ring shopping have heard of carats, but are unsure what exactly these are a measurement of. Carats are a unit of weight. Larger diamonds have more carats, which makes them more valuable. In nature, diamonds weighing several carats are rare, so diamonds weighing more carats will generally cost more. However, a diamond's quality is determined by a variety of factors, which we'll outline below, so don't focus solely on carats when shopping for your ring.

Clarity

Diamonds are natural rocks, so many of them have slight imperfections. These are called inclusions, and can look cloudy, like pinpricks or feathers. These will negatively impact how diamonds reflect light, so a flawless diamonds will have no inclusions and be more valuable. We find that diamonds with better clarity to make our engagement rings look even more outstanding.

Color

Diamonds come in a variety of colors, depending upon which chemicals were present while they were being made, and based from letters D through Z. A D color diamond is the whitest diamond you will find while a Z color will have a yellow-brown color. Different-colored diamonds will look better with different types of metals. Diamonds that have more yellow are generally set in gold. You can also get rarer pink or completely yellow diamonds.

Cut

Diamonds come out of the ground with irregular proportions. It's up to diamond smiths to cut diamonds so that they refract light in the best way to make them brilliantly sparkly. Today, diamonds can be cut in a variety of ways to make their facets reflect the light that gets caught inside them. The most popular cut is the round brilliant cut. However, oval, cushion, and radiant cut are extremely popular as well. We specialize in finding diamonds with symmetry and proportions that will increase the beauty of the diamonds we use in our engagement rings and other jewelry.