Evaluating An SI1 Diamond For Best Bang For Buck

Q:

Hi Liz,

I have short listed a couple of diamonds, need your help finding out which one you think is better bang for the buck.

https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.90-carat-i-color-si1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-1907832

http://www.zoara.com/diamonds/p_round_excellent_cut_i_si1#p=6065020

The one from Zoara is a little bigger and cheaper as well. Appreciate your help.

Thanks,

Paul

A:

Hi Paul,

Eye-clean SI1 diamond from James Allen with grade making inclusions of twinning wisps

I’m happy to help you.

In this case, the clear winner is the James Allen diamond. Why? Well, the Zoara diamond has poor proportions and without seeing an actual magnified image we cannot determine if the diamond is eye-clean or not. The James Allen diamond on the other hand has ideal proportions and the grade making inclusions of twinning wisps followed by clouds are not visible without magnification.

The interesting thing to note about this particular .90ct I SI1 is that the GIA lab report doesn’t have a corresponding plot diagram showing us where the inclusions are. This is where seeing actual magnified images of diamonds plus HD video is extremely helpful in evaluating whether the diamond is eye-clean or not. To show you what I mean, have a look at the GIA Lab report for this diamond:

How do you know where the inclusions are in this SI1 diamond? Hint: you don’t! This GIA report doesn’t have a corresponding plot diagram to show where the gemologist plotted the inclusions. Therefore, the only way a consumer can know if this diamond is eye-clean is to view the magnified image and HD video. Hence, images and videos of diamonds are extremely important to confirming clarity grade acceptability.

Notice there is not diagram with inclusions. This is just one kind of report that GIA offers and in this report the consumer will have to do some investigative work on their own in order to determine if the diamond has acceptable clarity grade. Luckily, James Allen has thousands of images of all their diamonds so it’s super easy to search their diamond database to see which diamond offers you the best bang for buck! So, I definitely recommend the .90ct I SI1!

Let me know if you have any additional questions or concerns.

Best,

Liz