Choosing The Gem Of Your White Gold Engagement Ring

Diamonds are a timeless and vintage gemstone to pair with a white gold engagement ring. The luxuriant look that this combination offers makes for a jewellery piece that will never go out of fashion. However, when buying a white gold engagement ring with any jewel, there are 'Four Cs' that should be considered to ensure that the stone you select is the best one for your bride-to-be's finger. This article details all you need to know about a gem's cut, clarity, colour, and carat weight so that you can purchase the best engagement ring on the market.

Cut

The cut of a gemstone is the only feature not determined by nature and therefore it is prone to having faults. Cut is what enables light to traverse through the jewel and refract, creating the sparkle frequently called brilliance. Prior to being cut, the stone is worth a lot less compared to its price after the process. The angles and facets made during the cutting process have a large impact on its quality. A gem's cut also determines its shape, so when shopping for a white gold engagement ring, be sure to look at a variety of cuts to establish the ones you prefer.

Clarity

Most natural gemstones have flaws that can dramatically affect their price. While flawless jewels are a rare and extremely valuable commodity, it is its flaws that differentiate it from every other one. Flaws can be found both on the inside and the outside of the stone. Inside flaws are called inclusions and outside flaws are referred to as blemishes. The more inclusions and blemishes a stone has, the less expensive it will be.

Colour

Gemstones come in a wide array of colours. In the case of diamonds, most are a shade of light to brownish yellow, while the most coveted and rare of diamonds hold no colour whatsoever. These are the most expensive because they let in the most light. Gemmologists rank a diamond's colour value on a scale from D to Z, where D is the most transparent. When combined with yellow gold ring bands, the shades are hard to detect because they are similar to the colour of the metal. However, in a white gold engagement ring the contrast is starker so be sure to examine the colour of your jewel thoroughly prior to making a purchase.

Carat Weight

Size does matter in evaluating the worth of a precious stone. For diamonds, the weight is measured in carats, with one carat equaling two hundred milligrams. However, the more carats, the harder the diamond is to cut and set in the ring. Try and find a happy medium between size and style for your white gold engagement ring. Generally speaking, engagement rings contain stones ranging anywhere between half a carat and 1 carat.

What You Need to Know About Pink Sapphire Engagement Rings

Pink sapphire engagement rings have become more commonly available since new deposits were found in Madagascar in the late 1990s. Up until then, these sapphire engagement rings were considered exceptionally rare, as the gems were only found in two locations around the world: Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

These stones have the usual inclusions typically found in corundum. Eye-clean stones are available on the market, but the majority of these have had their clarity augmented by heat treatment. Because the gems are so rare, pink sapphire engagement rings often weigh only half a carat or one carat.

Colour Variations

The gemstones vary in colour ranging from pale hues to vividly dark ones. Right now, the most coveted pink sapphire engagement rings have highly saturated purplish red hues with a medium tone. They attain their shade from the slight traces of chromium on the interior of the crystal during the formation process. Very high chromium concentrations will create a ruby. If the trace element titanium is also included in the crystal structure, the sapphire will have a more purplish hue.

Heat Treatments

Many of the sapphires from Madagascar are subjected to modest heat treatments to reduce their purplish secondary colours. The heat treatment protocols employed are very different from those given to their blue and yellow counterparts. Blue and yellow sapphires are heated at tremendous temperatures (up to 1800º C) for 3-10 days, often along with colour and clarity enhancing additives. Madagascar pinks, on the other hand, are heated at temperatures far lower (about 400º C) for only a few hours. This milder process does not alter the internal makeup of the gemstone, making treatment rather difficult to discern for expert gemmologists. The stones can be heated for as little as five minutes at low temperatures with no internal inclusions affected, whereas the high heat temperatures given to blues and yellows affect the inclusions drastically.

Detecting Treatments

Although some success in detecting treatment in pinks has been achieved by advancements in technology to detect trace element changes within the gem, the equipment is pricey and beyond the funding of the average jewellery lab. It is also still a new science and in many cases it can be very difficult to determine if a pink sapphire from Madagascar has been heated. Even the most respected professional laboratories have been known to disagree when evaluating the same gemstones, and therefore it is hard to assess accurate value in certain pink sapphire engagement rings.

Buyers entering the market should have a budget and adhere to it in order to make their purchase as reasonable as possible.