You’re getting engaged? Congratulations!
Start your exciting journey here with us at Kimjoux, and let us help you find the perfect symbol of your love. An engagement ring is your stylish ‘wear anywhere’ companion for life, but what to pick? Let us guide you in the right direction and work together to create the perfect ring for you.
STYLE
We just love seeing how individual our customers personal styles are. Just like our faces, our hands are unique to us, and just like we can enhance the features of our face, certain cuts of gemstones and styles of ring will compliment your individual style.
Of course, there are perceptions about what is ‘on trend’ and what is a ‘classic’ or enduring designs. The most important thing for us is finding the gemstone to suit your taste and create a ring that you will treasure forever.
Creating stylish, timeless rings that perfectly complement their wearer is our thing. Keep reading the rest of our ultimate guide below…
DIAMOND'S COLOUR
Just like different colours of metal suit different people, with diamonds it’s no different.
It’s true, white is the most popular choice, but don’t look past other options in your search for the perfect stone. We can source yellow diamonds, champagne diamonds and various other colours and tints for you to contemplate. Fascinated and want to know more? Read more about Colour Diamonds in our blog post here . And you can now make an in-person appointment to to see us HERE.
GEMSTONES
We know, diamonds aren’t for everyone. We can show you other exciting options like Ruby or Sapphire (traditional blue and every other colour you can think of), the possibilities are endless. Importantly, for everyday wear we also think about durability as well as beauty in our approach to finding you a ring to last a lifetime. Phew, there’s a lot to consider!
Let us guide you through the process
LET’S BEGIN
While fashions in ring design come and go, we aim to design a ring for you that will last a lifetime and symbolise this special moment in your life. The perfect ring for you is going to be a balance of your tastes in style and colour. Different metal types suit different skin tones, but there is also a lot to consider when looking for the perfect stone or setting. For us at Kimjoux it’s about creating exactly the right design and finding the right gemstone for you.
Where to begin when looking for your perfect ring? It can be a little daunting with so much to consider, which is why we’ve created this ultimate guide to help.
The 4 Cs
Most of us have heard the expression ‘the 4 Cs’: Carat weight, Cut, Clarity, and Colour. Buying a diamond is usually a balancing act, and depends on what you personally want from the stone. In our experience, whilst all 4 Cs are important, Cut is the factor that effects a diamond the most. We want to find you a stone full of ‘fire’ and ‘life’, with optimum proportions, polish and symmetry.
The Cut
There are many different styles of diamond cut, and the cut you choose depends very much on the style of ring you want to create. Some cuts are associated with a modern look and clean lines such as Emerald, Princess and Ascher cuts. Some cuts are chosen to create an antique look, like a Mine, Rose or Old European cut. The majority of diamonds sold are round ‘Brilliant’ cut diamond as this is the optimum cut to display the main diamond properties we want to enhance: it’s return of ‘sparkly’ white light to the eye and its splitting of light in to the spectral flashes of colour we see. Different cuts of diamond lend themselves to different styles of setting but this can be balanced out with how you want the ring to look.
Know what to look out for
The first thing we do after assessing a diamond by eye for colour, is look at it with a jeweller’s eye glass (a loupe). What are we looking for? Well, we’re looking for a few things, some visual clues that will tell us more about that particular stone. We look to see how many, what types and what size and colour any inclusions are and to look for signs of any treatment. A small, light coloured inclusion on the girdle or edge of a stone will have far less visual impact than a dark inclusion right in the middle of the table and both subsequently affect the value of the stone differently.
In an ideal cut stone, we want the perfect balance of ‘fire’ and ‘brilliance’ (so colour flashes and white light refracted back to the eye from inside the diamond), inclusions and poor cut can limit these optical factors and can cause the stone may look lifeless and dull.
Many diamonds come with a laboratory certificate, and this, provided its from a reputable laboratory, is a guarantee of the stone’s credentials. This is different to a ‘Laboratory grown diamond’ which is a diamond produced by scientists. It’s not synthetic, the properties are the same as those of a natural diamond, but it is man made.
Coloured Diamonds
So, maybe you don’t want a traditional white diamond but you still want all the amazing hardness, lustre and durability properties of diamond? Coloured diamond might be for you! Did you know diamonds come in all kinds of colours?
The iconic photograph of Marylin Monroe in “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend” makes many people believe it is all white diamonds but in fact, the largest, centre diamond on that necklace is a yellow diamond.
There’s been a surge in popularity in recent years for yellow diamonds, a rise in favour for shades of brown like champagne, cognac and chocolate and of course, pink diamond remains a popular (and comparatively costly) investment, especially with the current closure of the Australian Argyle mine where 80% of the world’s pink diamonds originate.
Depth of colour is most often what we look for when buying coloured diamonds. These colours are graded on scales depending on their varying intensity. Coloured diamonds are greatly affected by their cut just like colourless diamonds, and cuts like Radiant, Cushion and Pear cut can sometimes enhance the appearance of the colour of the stone and so will be a more frequent cut for these stones. Inclusions in coloured diamond are not always deemed as important they are in colourless diamonds but a lively cut will make all the difference and can enhance how the colour is perceived. Make an appointment to for a personal consultation.
Coloured Gemstones
Trend led design has seen a resurgence in the popularity of coloured gemstones for engagement rings.
The whole world has seen the Duchess of Cambridge’s incredible Sapphire! Sapphires are fantastic for engagement rings because they come in most colours and shades you can think of.
Spinel is also a great option for a coloured stone engagement ring and come in an attractive range of colours.
Did you know there is a Spinel in the crown jewels that was mistaken for a Ruby for decades?
Rubies and Sapphires are both ‘hard’ stones (9 on MOHs scale of hardness compared to diamond at 10) and here, when it comes to coloured gems and their durability, is where it gets important to understand their properties. We need to think about practicality as well as prettiness! Different gemstones have different hardness, toughness and stability. Everyone knows diamond is the hardest gemstone, and can only be cut by other diamond (or these days a laser!) but the scale of hardness is not linear and a gemstone with a hardness of 7 will be comparatively much less durable for everyday wear than one with a hardness of say, 9.
We also need to think about durability. Some stones are ‘hard’ but can be brittle, with poor toughness like emeralds, especially when they are heavily included. Some stones have what we call ‘perfect cleavage’ which means their atomic structure is weak in a particular direction and they will cleave (break perfectly) in this direction if they are knocked. That’s why we’d recommend stones like emerald and tanzanite are kept for special occasion jewels and not worn on an everyday basis.
Treatment or No Treatment?
Some stones, including diamonds, will have been subject to treatment (see our blog on Treatment). It’s really important to discuss this with your jeweller as while some treatments are permanent and widely accepted with in the jewellery trade, some treatments are not as durable and must be disclosed if the ring were ever subject to any repair in a workshop because they can be ruined or destroyed by heat from a jeweller’s torch or cleaning fluids. We’d always recommend discussing this before you purchase any stone.
When you make an appointment to see us, we’ll talk with you about why you are creating this ring, it’s symbolism to you, and aim to give you the most personal service we can provide.
Ultimately, we want the very best ring for you regardless of your budget, which is why now you’ve read our guide we suggest you get in touch to start the process.
Here, we have given you the key information to consider when buying the centre gemstone for your engagement ring. In our next blog post, we will focus on the design. Stay tuned!
In the meantime, browse our bespoke creations and see our award-winning modern classic ring designs here
Kimjoux
