What is Astor by Blue Nile?
Astor by Blue Nile is, as mentioned above, Blue Nile’s exclusive collection of diamonds cut for optimal brilliance. Previously, Blue Nile sold its premium diamonds as “Blue Nile Signature diamonds.” The Astor collection essentially replaces Blue Nile’s Signature collection and uses the same strict criteria regarding cut quality. Currently, the Astor collection includes diamonds in three shapes: the round brilliant cut, cushion cut and princess cut.
If you’re using Blue Nile to search for diamonds, you can narrow your selection to display Astor diamonds by choosing the “Astor Ideal” option in Blue Nile’s sliding cut quality selector.
Blue Nile introduced the Astor range to make it easier for their customers to find exceptionally well-cut diamonds. About one out of every 1,000 diamonds in Blue Nile’s inventory is classified as Astor Ideal, meaning only a tiny percent of diamonds are picked for the collection.
From a quality perspective, Astor Ideal diamonds differ from the other diamonds in Blue Nile’s collection in several ways:
- Brilliance. To be classified as Astor Ideal, diamonds need to have specific dimensions that allow for maximum light performance. This gives them a stronger and more visible level of brilliance than diamonds classified as having a very good or ideal cut.
- Proportions. Many diamonds are classified as having an ideal or excellent cut despite having proportions that are slightly suboptimal. The Astor range filters out any diamonds that are too shallow, deep, wide or narrow.
- Symmetry. The Astor Ideal collection only includes diamonds that have perfectly aligned and symmetrical facets — one of several quality factors that contributes to light reflection and optimal brilliance.
- Certification. Diamonds in the Astor collection are graded by two entities — GemEx Systems (GemEx) and the GIA.
Finally, Astor diamonds are registered with Gemprint — a fingerprint-like system for diamonds that can often help with insurance costs.
Why you should trust us
To help you with the diamond buying process we lean on our expertise and experience. The author of this article, our CEO, Mike Fried has over 20 years of experience in the diamond industry. Mike started from the bottom, sorting and evaluating hundreds of thousands of diamonds to learn every facet (pun intended) of diamond quality and value. Mike followed that up by spending years buying and selling diamonds on the wholesale market as well as selling tens of millions of dollars worth of diamonds to diamond retailers.
Bottom Line Recommendation:
Blue Nile is one of our top recommendations for buying diamonds online thanks to their massive inventory, competitive prices and excellent customer service. While their Astor collection isn’t for everyone, it’s worth considering if you’re looking for an exceptionally well-cut diamond.
Blue Nile’s Astor collection, often marketed as Astor by Blue Nile™, consists of diamonds cut to maximize brilliance. The collection includes some beautiful, very well-cut diamonds and is worth considering if you’re looking for the very best.
You can view the Astor collection online here by selecting “Astor ideal” when searching for loose diamonds with Blue Nile.
Other options worth considering for exceptionally well-cut diamonds include James Allen’s True Hearts collection and Brian Gavin Diamonds. For personalized help, you can also contact us to talk directly to our diamond experts.
”Cut quality is the factor that fuels a diamond’s fire, sparkle and brilliance. The allure and beauty of a particular diamond depends more on cut quality than anything else.” Gemological Institute of America (GIA)
Deal Alert: Get 25% off sitewide at James Allen
Astor by Blue Nile Review
If you’ve read our review of Hearts on Fire diamonds you’ll be aware that, in general, we’re not fans of branded diamonds. Most of the time, branded diamonds exist to support a higher profit margin and offer poor value for money.
Astor by Blue Nile is a little different. Instead of creating a gimmicky special cut to market their diamonds, Blue Nile are simply selecting the highest quality diamonds in their huge inventory and differentiating them from the rest of their selection.
The idea behind this is excellent — make it faster and easier for customers searching for a very well-cut diamond to find it without having to spend hours searching and reading GIA reports.
We like it for several reasons:
First, Blue Nile is an excellent diamond vendor, and a huge part of their appeal is their absolutely massive inventory. As we’ve covered in our Blue Nile review, Blue Nile’s business model allows them to maintain a huge inventory on very low margins.
By searching for Astor by Blue Nile diamonds, you’re essentially skipping the process of having to screen diamonds for quality on your own. Every diamond in the collection has an exceptional level of cut quality, meaning you can shop with total confidence that you’re getting the best.
Second, Blue Nile’s criteria for selecting diamonds for its Astor collection is very strict, meaning the diamonds that are available definitely live up to the standards you’d expect for a high quality, premium collection.
For example, this 1.08 carat, H color, VS2 clarity, Astor ideal round brilliant cut diamond has an absolutely stunning appearance.
This 1.01 carat, H color, VS1 clarity diamond also has a stunning cut that provides unmatched brilliance.
To put into perspective how selective Blue Nile are for Astor diamonds, consider the following — at the time of publishing this guide, Blue Nile’s inventory includes more than 99,000 ideal round diamonds and just under 200 Astor ideal round diamonds.
Third, the certification provided with Astor diamonds is excellent. As we’ve covered in our guide to diamond certification, the GIA is the diamond industry’s most well-respected grading entity, and the reports are highly accurate and reliable.
| Astor by Blue Nile | Regular Blue Nile Inventory |
| Exceptionally well-cut diamonds consisting of the top 0.1% of Blue Nile’s inventory. | Full inventory of Blue Nile diamonds, ranging from “Good” to “Ideal” in cut quality. |
| Limited to round, princess and cushion cut diamonds only. | Available in 10 different diamond shapes, including all of the most popular options. |
| Slight price premium compared to ideal cut diamonds. Generally, about 25 to 30% more expensive than similar ideal cut stones. | Generally more affordable than diamonds in the Astor collection, although price can vary based on cut quality, shape and other factors. |
| All diamonds come with a GIA certificate, as well as a light performance certificate from GemEx. | All diamonds come with a GIA certificate only. |
| A good option if you’re looking for a diamond with exceptional cut quality and don’t mind paying a premium. | A better option if you’re looking for a diamond that looks attractive but offers optimal value for money. |
Conclusion
Although Blue Nile’s Astor collection isn’t our top recommendation for most people looking to buy a diamond, it’s an option that’s worth considering if you’re searching for an extremely well-cut diamond and can find it at the right price.
The key advantage of the Astor collection is that it lets you look straight at the very best of the best — the highest quality diamonds in Blue Nile’s extremely large inventory.
As with other collections of diamonds with extremely high cut quality, you’ll pay a premium for an Astor collection diamond compared to an ideal or excellent cut diamond from the standard Blue Nile inventory. However, if you’re looking for the best from Blue Nile’s massive range, this small premium is often worth it.
What we love about them:
- No questions asked returns within 30 days of shipment. James Allen will send you a paid shipping label to return the ring.
- Lifetime Warranty
- Free International Shipping
- Free prong tightening, repolishing, rhodium plating and cleaning every 6 months
- Provide insurance appraisals
- One free resizing within 60 days of purchase
- Free ring inscriptions
- Best-in-class high quality imagery of all diamonds in stock
- 24/7 Customer Service
- Best-in-class packaging
What we love about them:
- No questions asked returns within 30 days of shipment. Blue Nile will send you a paid shipping label to return the ring.
- Lifetime Warranty
- Free Shipping
- Free prong tightening, repolishing, rhodium plating and cleaning every 6 months
- Provide insurance appraisal
- One free resizing within the first year of purchase
- High quality images of about half of their diamonds
- 24/7 Customer Service
- 100% credit towards future upgrades (must be at least double in value)
- Best in class fulfillment
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