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Brilliant Earth Lab Grown Vs Spence Diamonds

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chobo2

Rough_Rock
Joined
Dec 7, 2018
Messages
33
Hi

I went with my gf today to Spence and they showed us 2 diamonds in my price range

1. .64 H VS1 "Artisan diamond"

and

.55 H Si2 natural diamond.

My gf really liked the Artisan diamond better so now I am looking to see if $3,200 CDN + taxes is the best deal or if somewhere like Brilliant Earth can offer something equal or better for that price. The setting is about $350 CDN out of the total price.

I am wondering is there a difference between how these 2 companies make their diamonds?
 
Hi Chobo,

I'm not a diamond expert here or anything, just someone in the exact same boat as you and new to the forums. I'm also in Canada and just purchased a MMD from brilliant earth.

I looked up Spence artisan diamonds and by the looks and sounds of it, there is no difference between the BE MMD diamonds and the Spence Artisan one...

With that said, there is no way in my right mind I would purchase the Spence one for $2850. For that price you can find a much nicer and bigger stone on BE. My stone is a .71 and cost me $1360 CAD mind you it is a J colour. If I wanted a higher colour it would not have been an extraordinary amount higher. For the price you're looking at for diamond alone you can easily get around a 1ct with brilliant qualities.

With my diamond, and a customized hand made ring, my all in price is about $2500 with tax and shipping.
 
ManMadeandConfused said:
Hi Chobo,

I'm not a diamond expert here or anything, just someone in the exact same boat as you and new to the forums. I'm also in Canada and just purchased a MMD from brilliant earth.

I looked up Spence artisan diamonds and by the looks and sounds of it, there is no difference between the BE MMD diamonds and the Spence Artisan one...

With that said, there is no way in my right mind I would purchase the Spence one for $2850. For that price you can find a much nicer and bigger stone on BE. My stone is a .71 and cost me $1360 CAD mind you it is a J colour. If I wanted a higher colour it would not have been an extraordinary amount higher. For the price you're looking at for diamond alone you can easily get around a 1ct with brilliant qualities.

With my diamond, and a customized hand made ring, my all in price is about $2500 with tax and shipping.
Click to expand...

Well the 2850 was for natural diamond the $3,100 is the lab grown one, but yeah I found it expensive. Yea I am looking at smaller as 1ct is too big for my gfs hand and she would not want ti. I am looking at .65 and .70 range.

I probably will post a couple of them from BE and ask for advice. I am just waiting to hear back that if I return if I will get everything back(free shipping back and all the provincial taxes they collect)
 
Please do post up any you fancy on BE for us to review.

Do also look at August Vintage Inc.'s selection of MMDs!
 
Just a personal opinion...with your budget, a natural (not man made) diamond would be well within reach in the size range that your FI to be is comfortable with. I would let people here help you find the best value for your money, as cut is very, very important in regard to the final look of your stone, and if you ever want to upgrade in the future, natural diamonds from a vendor with a good upgrade policy will save you thousands of dollars in comparison to having a stone that is either man made or is from a vendor with a less generous upgrade policy. Most of the vendors people like here will ship to Canada, and my experience with customs is that you generally just have to pay the GST on what you buy. This is refundable if you end up returning an item as well.
 
chobo2 said:
These are the 2 I am looking at

https://www.brilliantearth.com/rings/cyorings/view_diamond/7156268/?sid=

https://www.brilliantearth.com/rings/cyorings/view_diamond/7156306/?sid=

Those are lab created

The front runner for natural is

https://www.bluenile.com/ca/build-y...AMONDS&track=viewDiamondDetails&action=newTab
Click to expand...
Run those through the HCA tool (under the Tools tab at the top of the forum) to get the HCA scores.

They should be under 2 to ensure the angles work well together.

FWIW the 36degree crowns are outside of the usual PS-recommended parameters but could potentially have lots of coloured fire, if I understand it correctly.

The Mined stone looks to have better angles.
 
cmd2014 said:
Just a personal opinion...with your budget, a natural (not man made) diamond would be well within reach in the size range that your FI to be is comfortable with. I would let people here help you find the best value for your money, as cut is very, very important in regard to the final look of your stone, and if you ever want to upgrade in the future, natural diamonds from a vendor with a good upgrade policy will save you thousands of dollars in comparison to having a stone that is either man made or is from a vendor with a less generous upgrade policy. Most of the vendors people like here will ship to Canada, and my experience with customs is that you generally just have to pay the GST on what you buy. This is refundable if you end up returning an item as well.
Click to expand...

FI?

I am sort of feeling more towards the natural dimaond I linked too, vs the lab diamond that I linked, but I am going choose the best 2(one lab and one natural) and my gf can choose.

The thing with most of the sites, they don't offer return shipping from Canada and I got to cover that and not sure if duty is returnable if they do charge it.

If you got some diamonds from other sites to recommend I am all ears. I checked the natural diamonds from BE and it seems more expensive.
 
chobo2 said:
FI?

I am sort of feeling more towards the natural dimaond I linked too, vs the lab diamond that I linked, but I am going choose the best 2(one lab and one natural) and my gf can choose.

The thing with most of the sites, they don't offer return shipping from Canada and I got to cover that and not sure if duty is returnable if they do charge it.

If you got some diamonds from other sites to recommend I am all ears. I checked the natural diamonds from BE and it seems more expensive.
Click to expand...


FI (fiancé)

Duty is returnable - there’s a form on the government of Canada website that you can print out and fill in. You mail it in with your receipt from having paid the duty and proof of return and they will mail you a cheque in a few weeks. It’s no big deal.

Return shipping is $100 for FedEx overnight from here to the US. It’s a lot, but not when you consider that places like Whiteflash offer unlimited upgrades of their nicest level stones so long as you spend a single dollar more. Honestly if you ever think you might upgrade, this will save you huge amounts of money. And you’ll get a really nice stone for a much better price than you’ll find on Blue Nile or in retail stores here. I wish I had known about them and some of the other online vendors here before I bought my ring.
 
chobo2 said:
FI?

I am sort of feeling more towards the natural dimaond I linked too, vs the lab diamond that I linked, but I am going choose the best 2(one lab and one natural) and my gf can choose.

The thing with most of the sites, they don't offer return shipping from Canada and I got to cover that and not sure if duty is returnable if they do charge it.

If you got some diamonds from other sites to recommend I am all ears. I checked the natural diamonds from BE and it seems more expensive.
Click to expand...

Another thing to keep in mind is that there is no way she preferred the .64 H VS2 because it was an Artisan diamond vs. natural diamond ... both are diamonds. If she liked the .64 H VS2 better, it was because of size, clarity, and/or cut ... maybe even it was on the high end of H. But there’s no way it was because it was an Artisan only.

I’m in Canada and JA and Whiteflash have provided all shipping costs, including for returns. Duty is returnable but a bit of a hassle ... it will be paid through the courier, like Fedex or UPS, so just ask them and they’ll give you instructions. I think there are instructions on the Canada border services website too ... there’s a form, of course.

Not all vendors will pay for all shipping, but lots will. When in doubt, just ask them. I think you have more options than you think. :dance:
 
This is a gorgeous .641 H eye-clean SI1 “a cut above” (ACA) super ideal cut natural diamond in your price range.

https://www.whiteflash.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut-loose-diamond-3981503.htm

This would also get you in with WF, and they have a fantastic trade-up policy where you get 100% credit for the price of your diamond on any new stone that costs at least $1 more (other places will have more restrictive policies, like upgrade to 2x your original cost, or none at all).
 
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