Ann Louise Jewellers review

Ann Louise Jewellers understand the importance of 4C’s; in their education section they mention that “Understanding these variables will help you get a better sense of what you personally value in a diamond.”

As you probably know, the biggest determinant of the cost of a diamond ring is the diamond itself and Ann Louise Jewellers offers a range of carat weight from; 0.01 carat all the way up to over 2 carats. This is a good range of carat weight where you can choose a carat that fits your taste and budget.

Carat weight is generally the biggest determinant of its price, but the factor that determines how much a diamond sparkles is the ‘cut’. Diamond cut is a measure of how well the diamond has been formed and it is essential that a diamond has good proportions to reflect light; otherwise it will be dull, lifeless and unimpressive. If a diamond is too tall or too shallow, it won’t reflect much light and therefore won’t sparkle.

Understanding the cut quality of a diamond is absolutely essential to be able to understand whether it will sparkle. If you don’t know the cut quality then you may very well be wasting your money.

In the education section of their site, Ann Louise clearly explain the importance of cut:

“Not to be confused with shape (i.e. round, oval, princess), the cut of a diamond affects the brilliance, fire and scintillation; in other words, how much a diamond glitters.”

Despite knowing the importance of cut quality, Ann Louise Jewellers don’t show diamond cut grade for the diamonds on their website, even in their diamond specification section for each stone.

This means that despite knowing that diamond cut is the one important factor in determining how much a diamond sparkles, they don’t give customers this information!

When I asked Ann Louise Jewellers about this on their email, they said: “We try to upload as much of the clarity and cut information we can onto our website, however we may not have the diamond cut grading on each individual product’s page.”

Ann Louise Jewellers don’t allow you to choose clarity and colour in their product filter but they show it in their product details.

Many of the diamonds in rings on the Ann Louise Jewellers website are ‘I’ clarity:

I clarity is at the bottom of the diamond clarity scale:

Diamonds that have been graded I have significant flaws which can usually be seen:

We don’t usually recommend that diamonds with a clarity grade lower than VS2 are purchased, although some SI1 diamonds can sometimes be acceptable.

Overall, the lack of cut quality information (which means you don’t know whether a diamond will sparkle) and the low clarity means that Ann Louise is offering lower quality diamonds than we can recommend, unlike our recommended retailers like James Allen.

Ann Louise Jewellers diamond grading labs

‘Certification’, also known as ‘grading’; is when a diamond is assessed for Cut, Colour, Clarity and Carat weight, with these recorded on a certificate which is totally unique for each diamond. A diamond certificate acts like a passport which tells you all about your diamond’s credentials and should give you piece of mind that you are actually buying what you think you are buying.

Diamonds which score higher in their grading report are generally more expensive – an F colour diamond will be pricier than an H colour, if everything is the same.

It’s important therefore that diamond grading levels can be trusted – you don’t want to pay more for an F colour diamond if it is actually an H. This is why independent diamond testing labs are important. An independent testing lab doesn’t have any incentive to say that a diamond is higher quality than it is, as they don’t make any more money if they do.

In fact, if they bump up diamond quality grades, it may mean people trust them less, which might mean they make less money.

Retailers DO have an incentive to increase diamond quality scores, as it will mean that they can sell a diamond for a higher price. For this reason, I recommend that you always look for a diamond which has been graded by an independent authority – my usually recommendation is the GIA because they have the strictest standards, so you will be sure that you are getting the quality that you are paying for.

Ann Louise Jewellers does carry some GIA certified diamonds in their stock and they do have a GIA certified diamond specialist at their head office to inspect their diamonds to ensure quality control.

It seems therefore that if you request a GIA-graded diamond, one can be sourced. However, the majority of Ann Louise’s diamonds are not GIA certified.