Buying Guides
The four Cs guides explain the scales. These explain the decision — which specification to actually buy, given what the stone is for and who will wear it. Each one ends in a written specification you can send us, or take anywhere else.
Engagement9 min read
Choosing an engagement ring stone
An engagement stone is the one diamond most people buy without ever having bought one before, and it is worn every day for decades. That combination — no experience, high stakes, hard wear — is what this guide is built around.
Read the guideValue & rarity10 min read
Investment-grade vs wear-grade
What the trade means by investment-grade, why almost every diamond sold is wear-grade, the costs nobody quotes, and how to buy the rarer end honestly if that is genuinely what you want.
First purchase8 min read
A first diamond, on a set budget
How to get the most visible diamond for a fixed figure: the three numbers to decide before you shop, the order to spend in, where first-time buyers overspend, and how to compare two quotes properly.
Anniversary7 min read
Anniversary and milestone stones
Buying for an anniversary or milestone: whether to upgrade the centre stone, add a band, or commission something new — and how to match a new diamond to one bought years ago.
Earrings6 min read
Matched pairs for earrings
How diamond pairs are matched for studs and drops: the tolerances that matter, why fluorescence has to match, and where a pair can safely be graded lower than a ring stone.
Surprise6 min read
Buying a diamond as a surprise
How to buy a diamond without the recipient there: what you genuinely need to know first, how to find it out, and how to structure the purchase so the surprise survives being wrong about something.
What every one of these assumes
Four principles sit underneath all six guides. If you read nothing else here, read these — they account for most of the difference between buying well and overpaying.
01
Cut before everything
It is the only grade that changes how much light comes back out of the stone. Nothing else compensates for a dull diamond.
02
Grades are thresholds, not targets
Clarity to eye-clean, colour to the setting metal. Past those points you are paying for a difference nobody will see.
03
Millimetres, not carats
Weight is not size. What a stone looks like on a hand is a measurement, and the report prints it.
04
What a report cannot tell you
Eye-clean, milkiness, bow-ties and make are not graded. For those, ask for a video — or ask us.
Or skip to the stones
If you already know the specification, the catalogues filter on every grade these guides discuss. If you do not, send us the brief — what it is for, what it is worth to you, and by when — and we will come back with stones rather than questions.
Send a brief