Q&A: Help Finding a Natural or Lab Grown Round Diamond for a Platinum Pave Setting for Around $4,000 Budget

Hi there!

First of all, thank you for providing this service! I’ve learned a lot just browsing around the site, and all the material has been very instructive.

I’m interested in purchasing an engagement ring for my SO, and I wanted to ask a rather generic question about “eye-cleanliness”. I’ve been browsing James Allen’s massive diamond inventory and I’ve come across a few “types” of diamonds with inclusions that seem fairly negligible, but I’m just not sure what kinds of inclusions are the most marginal. Some “types” I’ve seen are:

1. Slight grey speckling scattered throughout – www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/1.17-carat-f-color-si1-clarity-ideal-cut-sku-9834064?a_aid=dmnd1357

2. Larger “streak” inclusion located at the edge of the stone, reflecting off some facets – www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/1.14-carat-f-color-si1-clarity-ideal-cut-sku-10144132?a_aid=dmnd1357
3. “Streak” that doesn’t seem to reflect off too many center facets – www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/1.13-carat-e-color-si1-clarity-ideal-cut-sku-10143372?a_aid=dmnd1357
4. Small but dark central inclusion (+ a long streak on the side) – www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/1.16-carat-e-color-si2-clarity-ideal-cut-sku-9836023?a_aid=dmnd1357

Are these stones decent choices, or are there other obvious flaws/inclusions that I’m missing? And how would you rank the “eye-cleanliness” of them?

If possible, I’d also like a second opinion on these two diamonds, which seem rather similar visually:

www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/1.00-carat-j-color-si2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-11773917?a_aid=dmnd1357
www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/1.10-carat-j-color-si2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-10840447?a_aid=dmnd1357

Both are fairly clean-looking to me in terms of large inclusions, but also appear somewhat “hazy” in the shots: is this something I should be wary of, or is the haziness negligible?

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I think I’ve narrowed my options down to the two below:

www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/1.10-carat-j-color-si2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-7483497?a_aid=dmnd1357
www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/1.02-carat-j-color-si2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-7313272?a_aid=dmnd1357

Also, I was hoping to pair these with a pave style ring; would that be too ambitious given that they’re both graded J? Styles I’m interested in are:

Platinum Cathedral Pavé Crown Diamond Engagement Ring
Platinum Pavé Knife Edge Lotus Basket Engagement Ring

I was thinking to budget a maximum of $4,000 for the stone itself. Going under 1ct is fine: I’ll keep your recommendation in mind and continue looking then. Thanks!

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Seems to me like if I go under 1ct, 0.8 seems to be the next reasonable step down: they’re almost $1,000 less than 0.9+. That being the case, would any of these be good?

www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.80-carat-f-color-vs2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-11662642?a_aid=dmnd1357 – clean and good colour rating, but center cut seems fairly bad.

www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.86-carat-i-color-vs2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-10683266?a_aid=dmnd1357 – much better looking cut, also slightly larger at a reasonable price increase imho.

www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.80-carat-i-color-vvs2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-9820413?a_aid=dmnd1357 – very affordable, seems very clean.

www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.80-carat-i-color-vvs1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-11365563?a_aid=dmnd1357 – similar to 3, but looks a little “off”; can’t really tell why though.

www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.80-carat-d-color-si1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-11459135?a_aid=dmnd1357 – very high colour rating, seems decently clean as well, similar price to 1.

Thank you for the feedback and the alternatives! After some consideration I decided to go with www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.82-carat-i-color-vs1-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-11434163?a_aid=dmnd1357.