Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend
Everyone knows abt the 4C’s of a diamond. Most ppl I’ve come across are happy buying:
1) A huge carat, with
2) A perfect cut,
3) Of at least VS1/2 clarity,
4) Of some good/mediocre color.
That appears to be the general criteria for girls when choosing their wedding solitaires, in descending order of importance.
Cancan, on the other hand, sees wearing a diamond beyond its superficial cause, i.e. “the bigger the better”. I received my first diamond on my 14th birthday and that sparked off an enormous interest in diamonds.
Diamond research has almost been a hobby in the past, those days when there seemed to be 48 hrs a day. Reading up on the gem and visiting different jewellers (and pretending to look like a serious buyer) were once a fave pastime.A diamond is an art piece, and shld be examined beyond its carat weight and its (not-so) perfect cut.
Bigger is better, but bigger is not always better. A one carat diamond is a diamond only if it sparkles like one. That’s when the cut becomes most important. Many ppl tell me their diamond is a perfect cut, but with today’s technology, a perfect cut is not hard to come by.
You need more than that “perfect” cut to bring out the diamond’s true brilliance. Lee Hwa’s Destinee diamonds, for example, boast a 57-facet cut compared to the conventional 58-facet, with uniquely calculated facets at the girdle to ensure more light is refracted within the diamond. Soo Kee’s Brilliant Rose also claims to possess an anti-conventional 66-facet cut. Each diamond has its own entourage of fans - I will not attempt to convince everyone that Destinee appears more sparkly. I suspect that at a bigger size, the Brilliant Rose might look more brilliant, due to a greater no. of facets, but that’s just my guess. The fact is both are great diamonds, of genuinely perfect cuts.
Most girls, I notice, do not do their huge wedding solitaires justice; they probably don’t clean the diamonds regularly enough. Couple that with the less-than-true-perfect cut, their rocks often look just that - like rocks. Or even “plasticky”. Of course I’ve never said that to anyone, because they have spent a bomb on those rings and there is a sentimental value attached to everyone’s wedding ring, I presume? Well except for those rare few stories I’ve heard, of girls trading their wedding solitaires in for an upgrade. I would have never understood this, but it’s the individual’s choice ultimately.
My piece of advice?
If you truly love diamonds, choose a good (I mean really good-good) cut and take good care of them. If you are a perfectionist, go for a D/E color with at least a VS1 / VVS1 clarity. In my opinion, a VS1 is better than a VVS2, because VS1 indicates a bigger inclusion (VS) at an inconspicuous spot (1), while VVS2 is a smaller inclusion (VVS) smacked right in the middle of the gem (2). Colors below E are commerical grade diamonds that should never make it to be set on your wedding ring.
Of course that would mean smaller diamonds for a given budget. Cancan’s diamonds to date are, unfortunately, pretty small due to budget constraints and her undying pursuit for perfection in the world of diamonds. The belief is that girls should wear a smaller, sparkling diamond than carry a huge, dull plastic.
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* The above represents the author’s personal views and is provided only as a guide.
