The smallest looking diamonds cuts are the asscher, princess and cushion cuts. Because of their square length-to-width ratio, these diamond shapes all have a small diameter and surface area relative to their carat weight.
With 13% less face-up area than a round, an asscher-cut diamond shows the smallest face-up area of the fancy cuts.
An ideal cut diamond is a round, brilliant, or princess cut diamond that is cut to ideal proportions and angles and has excellent polish and symmetry ratings. An ideal cut diamond reflects almost all the light that enters it, and is among the rarest cuts.
Try these diamond shapes for small hands or short fingers:
Pear, marquise, and oval-shaped diamonds are flattering on hands as they create the illusion of a longer, slender finger. These diamonds have larger surface areas than other diamond shapes, so they look bigger than diamonds of the same carat weight.
The most brilliant, or sparkliest, diamond cut is the round brilliant cut. Round brilliant diamonds are cut to have 58 facets (including the culet), allowing light to enter the diamond and reflect off of every facet to create a beautiful sparkle.
Which diamond cut has the least sparkle? Baguette is the worst diamond shape in terms of brilliance. This shape makes a diamond sparkle less, even if it has an ideal cut.
Because of its elongated shape and weight distribution toward the top of the stone, ovals will appear larger than round diamonds of the same carat weight. This fact is backed up by the overall surface area of the diamond on display. Ovals come out about 10% bigger than round cut diamonds of a similar carat weight.
The better the cut, the more light the diamond will reflect, and the larger it will look. "Make sure that your diamond is very well cut," Kwiat says. "A well-cut diamond with proper angles and facets will not only be beautiful and brilliant but look larger.
Poorly cut diamonds won't reflect as much light, giving the diamond less brilliance and fire. Some of the light will reflect out of the bottom of the stone, which is unseen when a diamond is set in a ring. Poorly cut diamonds may have light or dark patches that make the diamond look dull and lackluster.
Petite Hands & Diamond Size
If your hands are small, we recommend diamonds ranging between . 5 and 1.0 carats.
1. Asprey Cut. At first glance, the rare diamond cut “Aspret Cut” might seem similar to the square shaped “Cushion Cut”, however – its cutting characteristics are special and are like no other. The Asprey Cut was designed by one of the world's most renowned diamond cutter, Gabi Tolkowsky.
A VS1 diamond has slightly fewer and smaller inclusions than a VS2 diamond. In other words, a VS1 diamond is slightly better than a VS2 diamond.
Super ideal cut diamonds have cuts with an extremely high degree of precision and angles that give them superior performance. The cut quality of a super ideal cut diamond goes above and beyond that of the GIA's "Excellent" and AGS's "Ideal" grades. It also means that the diamond will sell at a premium.
One of the designs that won't flatter the center stone is a multistone or 3-stone design with big sized sidestones. Personally, I think the sidestones make the center diamond appear smaller due to their blended look. This takes the limelight away from the main diamond.
What are the least expensive/most affordable diamond Cuts? Carat-per-carat, emerald and Asscher cuts are the least expensive. Because they are step-cut, there is less waste when these diamonds are cut off of the rough stone, which is going to cost the same no matter how it gets cut.
According to Landau, there's no such thing as too big a diamond—but she knows they're not for everyone. "It's so personal and it ultimately comes down to your lifestyle," she says. "To some, a 5-carat ring is so big it looks fake. For others, there's no limit."
White diamonds are given a color grade of D (colorless) to Z (light yellow). Tiffany only accepts engagement diamonds in the “colorless” and “near colorless” range on a diamond color scale. For engagement diamonds, Tiffany only accepts D, E, F, G, H and I color diamonds.
A perfect diamond would be completely colorless. The GIA color scale ranges from D for colorless diamonds to Z for diamonds with an obvious yellow or brown hue. It might be difficult to tell the difference between a G diamond and an H diamond, but the difference between a D grade and S grade would be obvious.
Non-round fancy-shaped diamonds, such as princess, emerald, pear, and Asscher are less popular than rounds, but offer an array of beautiful style options. Plus, these distinctive shapes often cost less than rounds of the same carat weight, allowing you to make the most of your budget.
Statistically, a round diamond cut sparkles the most out of all diamond shapes. It's the diamond's ability to reflect light within exact proportions. All brilliant fancy shapes can give excellent sparkle if the round diamond isn't for you.
Large stone diamonds are considered to be diamonds that are at or above a weight of three carats. These big diamonds are often used as center stones on engagement rings.
Round brilliant cut diamonds are easily the most expensive diamond shape. In part, that's because round is the most popular diamond shape. More than half of all the diamonds sold today are round diamonds. This incredible popularity means that diamond miners and retailers can charge more for such an in-demand shape.
Are Oval Diamonds Too Trendy? There are so many factors that influence whether or not an engagement ring is trendy, but the shape of the diamond isn't one of them. Albeit popular, the actual oval shape isn't what makes a ring trendy, but rather the style setting it is in and the color gold or platinum it is set in.
This is because ovals often have greater surface areas than round diamonds of the same weight. For example, the average 1 carat oval diamond's surface is 10% larger than the average 1 carat round. This means that you can get a diamond that looks larger, for a lower price.
As a diamond's carat weight increases, the appearance of color also becomes more obvious. Generally speaking, I color diamonds will look white to most people even in larger carat weights. Again, color sensitivity is a personal preference.