- Joined
- May 19, 2018
I know the topic of engagement rings was like five+ pages ago, but I saw someone recommend getting a white sapphire in place of a diamond for an engagement ring. As someone who is adjacent to the jeweler industry: do not use white sapphires! While they initially start off looking very pretty and remarkably similar to diamonds, they age like milk and turn yellowish and cloudy over the years due to their iron content. White topaz is a better alternative if you're really determined to avoid diamonds in a ring but you want the look of a diamond.
Not to sound like a diamond shill, but the reason why they tend to be preferred in rings is because they're just so fucking durable. A diamond could be literally as old as your grandmother and still look as good as the day that great grandpa bought it in '45, while other stones tend to degrade in quality over the years. They're pricier, but they last. However, there's a few good ways to get around expenses if money is your main objection to buying diamonds.
One is to buy vintage jewelry and get the stone reset. This is a cheaper and more customizable alternative to buying a ring outright from the store. (Or just buy a vintage ring and propose with that. Vintage styles are so pretty and need some love imo) Another is to purposefully look for diamonds with lower color quality and inclusions. They'll be less expensive and imo, flawed diamonds have more personality. Another is to buy small diamonds, so look for rings with flower, honeycomb, or cluster patterns. Or just buy the gems outright and get them set. This is because diamonds tend to be priced by weight, so tiny diamonds are actually relatively inexpensive. My jeweler friend has managed to get about a dozen or so little diamonds for less than $100, with each stone being somewhere between $6-$8 individually.
Edit: Here's a picture of a diamond ring (top) and a white sapphire ring (bottom) next to each other. They're both less than twenty years old, owned by the same woman, and look at the absolute state of the white sapphire compared to the diamond.
Not to sound like a diamond shill, but the reason why they tend to be preferred in rings is because they're just so fucking durable. A diamond could be literally as old as your grandmother and still look as good as the day that great grandpa bought it in '45, while other stones tend to degrade in quality over the years. They're pricier, but they last. However, there's a few good ways to get around expenses if money is your main objection to buying diamonds.
One is to buy vintage jewelry and get the stone reset. This is a cheaper and more customizable alternative to buying a ring outright from the store. (Or just buy a vintage ring and propose with that. Vintage styles are so pretty and need some love imo) Another is to purposefully look for diamonds with lower color quality and inclusions. They'll be less expensive and imo, flawed diamonds have more personality. Another is to buy small diamonds, so look for rings with flower, honeycomb, or cluster patterns. Or just buy the gems outright and get them set. This is because diamonds tend to be priced by weight, so tiny diamonds are actually relatively inexpensive. My jeweler friend has managed to get about a dozen or so little diamonds for less than $100, with each stone being somewhere between $6-$8 individually.
Edit: Here's a picture of a diamond ring (top) and a white sapphire ring (bottom) next to each other. They're both less than twenty years old, owned by the same woman, and look at the absolute state of the white sapphire compared to the diamond.
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