When diamonds are being cut, they are cut to minimize waste, and sometimes to save time - not always to sparkle as beautifully as possible. The cut of your diamond is the single most important factor in ensuring beautiful sparkle and radiance. All of our diamonds receive excellent cutting grades (with the exception of antique diamonds, which are more perfectly imperfect…and we also love). We also analyze the more technical measurements of the stone and view the diamond in person to make sure it’s truly the best of the best.

This is a big one. Lab-grown diamonds can have particular issues that aren’t present in mined diamonds. As more growers enter the market, many are prioritizing quantity over quality, and their diamonds are…not ideal. When lab-grown diamonds are grown too quickly, or by inexperienced growers, they can take on a brown undertone instead of the natural yellow undertone, and can have growth strain lines. We check every lab-grown diamond to make sure that there are no such issues with the growth process affecting its beauty.

Diamond certificates are usually reliable when it comes to color and clarity, but not always. Diamonds are graded by humans, and that means there’s always a little subjectivity in the grading. We make sure that your diamond is as white and clear as it should be, so that you don’t overpay for a stone that’s graded as a F but really looks like an G, for instance. Diamond certificates also don’t measure issues stemming from improper growth, like brown undertones, so it’s doubly important that lab-grown diamonds are all hand-inspected by an expert.

A diamond graded at VS clarity should be completely eye clean, which means it has no inclusions that are visible with the naked eye. This is rare, but it can happen that a diamond will be graded as a VS but have a visible inclusion. (We see this most frequently with larger emerald cuts, if you’re curious.) We double check to make sure you’re getting a completely eye clean stone. We also make sure the inclusions present in your stone aren’t near the surface or the girdle of the diamond where they could create a crack or a chip down the line.

Elongated diamonds like ovals and emerald cuts have a range of “ratios” or levels of elongation - basically, how wide or skinny the diamond is. The correct ratio range varies for each elongated cut, and we have our personal favorites. We only choose ratios that fall within the optimal range so they are well-proportioned and sparkle beautifully.

Elongated fancy shapes, particularly ovals, have a break in the faceting pattern in the center of the stone that is shaped like a bow tie. This is impossible to eliminate with a standard faceting pattern - it’s the nature of the cut. However, we inspect your diamond in person to make sure that the bow tie is minimal without a dark shadow.