Diamond stud earrings

This may not technically be the fourth step in your journey to choose your diamond stud earrings.

You may have a good idea of the shape of stones that you want to include. However, I wanted to list out the common diamond shapes that are used in stud earrings and the reasons why each might be chosen.

Round brilliant cut stud diamond earrings

It’s no surprise the king of engagement rings is also dominates when it comes to diamond stud earrings.

Due to its symmetrical shape the round brilliant captures the light spectacularly, providing a big return on sparkle and brilliance. They also tend to feature fewer flaws, and are less likely to get caught on clothing than their sharp-cornered counterparts.

Due to their rampant popularity loose round brilliant diamonds are readily available, and can easily fit anyone’s budget.

Princess Cut diamond stud earrings:

Second in popularity only to the round brilliant, princess cut diamond studs look elegant but modern.

Their brilliant cut means that their sparkle is second only to the brilliance found in a round brilliant. But, when compared carat for carat, princess diamonds are typically more affordable than round brilliant diamonds.

Other diamond shapes for stud earrings

While round brilliant and princess are definitely the top cuts for diamond stud earrings, asscher, marquise, emerald, and pear, are all also available, albeit a lot less common.

Due to their distinctive shapes it is very obvious when these fancy cuts are not matched properly and any little difference in proportion will show through. This makes it very difficult to find two diamonds that would make a suitable pair of diamond stud earrings.

It might benefit you to consider face shape when picking out a pair of diamond stud earrings.

Broader face shapes are complemented by elongated shapes like the emerald cut, pear cut, and marquise cut. These shapes lend an impression of length with their elegant proportions. More angular face shapes are flattered by symmetrical shapes like the brilliant round cut, princess cut, and the asscher cut.

Diamond stud earrings color

Diamond color is less important for a pair of stud earrings than an engagement ring. The diamonds in stud earrings are not going top be examined closely

As a reminder, diamond color is graded from D – Z:

D-E-F: ‘Colorless’ diamonds for stud earrings

The rarest and most expensive colors, apart from ‘fancy’ colors (more on those later), only around 1% of stones will be graded D or E. Although they are rare, most stores and websites will have a selection of colorless D or E graded stones.

All diamonds in the ‘colorless’ range will look completely white to anyone who isn’t a gemologist, even when examined extremely closely.

In fact, even a trained gemologist with years of experience examining diamonds under bright jewelers’ lights may have trouble distinguishing between and D and an E graded stone.

Stones graded F will show a tiny hint of color to a gemologist, but to the average person they would still appear absolutely colorless, even when examined at close range.

For diamond stud earrings, which are likely to be viewed from a distance, choosing a ‘colorless’ diamond means that you will be paying extra for quality that will not be able to be seen.

G-H-I: ‘Near colorless’ diamonds for stud earrings

Although known as ‘near colorless’, the difference between these stones and the colorless diamonds is very slight, especially when they are mounted into jewelry.

However, near colorless stones they do offer significantly more value that the colorless, so if you are looking for a high quality stone then the Near Colorless diamonds are a good compromise between excellent color and budget.

Beyond the individual preference for a whiter diamond, the color of a stone does not affect its brightness or sparkle.

Most experts agree that a G-I color grade appears colorless when mounted, so spending more for D-F color diamonds really isn’t necessary.

Diamond stud earrings clarity

Diamond clarity is a measure of how many inclusions a diamond has in it. It’s measured on the following scale:

The clarity requirements for diamond stud earrings can be significantly relaxed when compared to diamonds destined for engagement rings.

This is primarily due to the fact that the distance at which they are viewed is a lot farther than the distance at which someone eyes a sparkly new engagement ring.

Many of the diamonds that aren’t considered eye-clean for engagement rings are just that for diamond studs.

Small inclusions and even some external flaws will simply not be visible on an earring. There are incredible savings to be had by sticking around the VS2-SI2 ranges. Any grade SI2 and above has inclusions that are eye-clean, and therefore not visible to the naked eye.

On occasion an I1 grade can be perfectly acceptable and an excellent value, as long as its inclusions are on the outer edge, or easily concealed beneath a prong.

Diamond stud earrings carat weight

The first thing to when shopping for a pair of diamond stud earrings is that the ‘total carat weight’ listed by most retailers is the combined carat weight for the two studs combined, not individually.

As on average the viewing distance for earrings is much further away compared to engagement rings, size is usually the first thing that people notice. So it makes sense for you to prioritize carat weight when shopping for a pair of diamond stud earrings.

As clarity and color can be sacrificed slightly compared to when buying a diamond for an engagement ring, more budget can be made available for carat weight.

Diamond stud earrings certification

Certification is the process of assessing and grading a diamond against predetermined characteristics – the 4Cs of cut, color clarity and carat. Basically putting them through the NFL Scouting combine to see how they measure up.

This process is conducted by independent labs who then issue a ‘grading report’ detailing the 4Cs, which is then used by retailers to work out the price of a stone.

As we’ve covered, many jewelers don’t provide grading certificates for pre-set pairs of diamond studs.

However, if you are creating your own pair of stud earrings and starting with loose diamonds, you should definitely seek out a Gemological Institute of America (GIA) or American Gem Society (AGS) certificate to ensure that you are really getting what you’re paying for.

Unless it is very important to you for personal reasons pursuing certification for diamond stud earrings less than 1 carat really isn’t necessary. Due to each stud’s smaller size and relative low cost it just doesn’t make sense to grade them, and adds a further expense.