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Gemstone Purchase Advice

T Jones

T Jones

Rough_Rock
Joined
Mar 15, 2025
Messages
7
I've been on the hunt for an oval blue sapphire for an engagement ring for a few months now and have been driving myself crazy when it comes to making the final selection. I am very new to all of this (first jewelry purchase) and I want to make sure I am making the right decision with such a major purchase.
My current budget for the gemstone is around $1500 (Grad student planning to upgrade the ring later on), but willing to push it to $2k for something really worth it, and I want to stay within the 1 - 2 ct range.
I have mainly looked through Natural Sapphire Company but willing to check out other sources if recommended.

Right now I have narrowed it down to 3 options:

Option 1:
1742257904431.png
1742257926829.png

Option 2:
1742257979975.png
1742258006250.png

and Option 3:
1742258048588.png
1742258112453.png

I know my partner likes a deep blue as opposed to something like a cornflower, but I don't want it to feel "lifeless".
I want to make sure I'm not selecting something that is obviously over priced or of poor quality, she has a really good eye for these things.
From my research I have been seeing that NSC has poorer quality cutting than other suppliers, would it be worth looking into having something recut after purchase or is that more of a hassle than its worth.

Sorry for the long post but I am getting pretty desperate. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
 
Welcome and congratulations on your upcoming engagement!

To get to the point, 1 and 3 are a no, and the reason isn't that they're from the NSC. Let me show you.

See that area here, in the middle?

1742259651713.png

1742259681801.png

That's a window. You can see right through the stone, the facets do not reflect light here. The stones are too shallow.

Furthermore...

1742259813151.png

1742259821483.png

The circled areas above are all the places where the stones display colourful flashes. The rest of them, aside from the windows, is so dark, it's practically black.

While it may seem from the photos that the stones are blue, just a very deep blue, the moment you set those stones in rings and put them on fingers, those windows are going to black out completely. It's how the blue behaves when it has skin for background. You'll need to shine a torch on the stone to be able to see any colour at all. And the colour flashes in both of these stones are simply not enough.

In short, with 1 and 3 you'll have a black stone in most cases, and very rarely something that has the occasional blue flashes.

2 looks better. It appears to have no window (although to properly evaluate you need to see a picture looking at it straight down), from the photo it seems to be a bit silky which helps with the colour distribution throughout the entire face of the stone. It is, however, not the most saturated.

If you want to focus on quality, go for colour saturation first and foremost.
 
Welcome to PS and congrats on your upcoming engagement!

I was just about to type out a long response, but it seems our @Avondale has covered everything. I will just say, if your partner is not really into the more medium, vivid blues (which is a good thing as far as price is concerned), then look more into royal blues... #'s 1 and 3 here are way too dark. I do believe they may be "lifeless" in person, as you mentioned wanting to avoid. Also, as Avondale pointed out, they're terribly windowed, which will cause a further loss of color and light. #2 is better, but I still think there's room for improvement in the one carat range and $2k budget. The cut is good, but the color is rather desaturated, and I also can't tell if I'm seeing silk or color zoning (or both), since the photo isn't very clear.
 
Since the previous post was getting bigger and I'm nowhere nearly done, we continue here. :mrgreen:

When you say your girlfriend isn't too fond of cornflower blue, do you mean the lighter, pastel blues? Because cornflower is, ummm... let's say that if you listen to vendors, you'll discover it covers a pretty wide range of colours.

I am going to use @mellowyellowgirl's rings as an example:

mellowyellowgirl said:
Excellent question and one I’d like an answer to!

This was sold to me as cornflower

IMG_7945.jpegIMG_3969.jpegIMG_3966.jpeg
IMG_3867.jpeg

This is a much blue budget friendly royal blue. It takes more light for it to look like this whereas the one above just looks great in random lighting

IMG_7985.jpeg
Click to expand...

Ring #1 is cornflower blue. About as close to trade ideal cornflower blue as you can get. As you can see, it is still a very saturated and eye catching blue.

Ring #2 is what most people would call royal blue. If ring #1 is still too light and bright for your girlfriend, then royal blue is the way to go.

You see, with blue sapphires tone is intrinsically connected to colour saturation. The most saturated blues are always darker. But if you want a stone that will be distinguishably blue all the time, you're treading a fine line of just enough colour saturation and not too dark a tone. It's on that fine line that the finest specimens exist, and their price usually reflects it.

If you want to aim for quality, you need to aim for that fine line.

And this is why I'm telling you to focus on the colour saturation. A saturated stone by default will be neither light in tone, nor pastel, so it should satisfy the desires for a deeper colour.

What you'll have to sacrifice in the process is size. To be honest, 8x6 and 9x7 sizes are closer to 2,5-3ct (when well cut and with sufficient depth). Since you're okay with a carat, maybe go down to 6x5, 7x5, but focus on a strong colour. You can always add finger coverage with the setting.
 
When we're talking small stones, check this one out:

cloud_less

Thread 'Found my dream Kashmir sapphire (tiny but mighty!)'

Hello Friends! It's been a hot minute since I posted on PS - and I'm back with the sapphire pinky ring of my CS girl dreams.
I've always been obsessed with Kashmir-origin sapphires. It all started with an antique store in my town before the age of the internet. Young me would go there and chat with the owner, who would tell the story of velvety, cornflower blue sapphires from the Kashmir mine, depleted a hundred years ago.

Truthfully, the current market price of these are insanely high, even those with poor quality are upcharge 10x. Working with my budget, balancing size, quality, and...
  • Love
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It's just an excellent example how a strong colour compensates tenfold for a smaller size.
 
Lots of excellent advice above to help you understand the product you are trying to buy better.

Maybe I'm jumping the gun but - my 2c is that I've noticed Brad from thegemtrader.com has had lovely sapphires (various colors) around this price-point in the last few months of inventory updates. This suggests to me that there is a decent chance he has a great quality blue oval. Just a fraction of his inventory is listed so you'd have to email him. The only ones he has listed are the wrong shapes/budget, but it's a sample of what he may have unlisted. The colors are not quite as beautiful as the Kashmir sapphire above, of course.

Gems: Ruby, Sapphire & 'S' Stones — The Gem Trader

www.thegemtrader.com www.thegemtrader.com
 
Last edited:
T Jones said:
I've been on the hunt for an oval blue sapphire for an engagement ring for a few months now and have been driving myself crazy when it comes to making the final selection. I am very new to all of this (first jewelry purchase) and I want to make sure I am making the right decision with such a major purchase.
My current budget for the gemstone is around $1500 (Grad student planning to upgrade the ring later on), but willing to push it to $2k for something really worth it, and I want to stay within the 1 - 2 ct range.
I have mainly looked through Natural Sapphire Company but willing to check out other sources if recommended.

Right now I have narrowed it down to 3 options:

Option 1:
1742257904431.png
1742257926829.png

Option 2:
1742257979975.png
1742258006250.png

and Option 3:
1742258048588.png
1742258112453.png

I know my partner likes a deep blue as opposed to something like a cornflower, but I don't want it to feel "lifeless".
I want to make sure I'm not selecting something that is obviously over priced or of poor quality, she has a really good eye for these things.
From my research I have been seeing that NSC has poorer quality cutting than other suppliers, would it be worth looking into having something recut after purchase or is that more of a hassle than its worth.

Sorry for the long post but I am getting pretty desperate. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

I'm sorry to be blunt, but two words...Too dark. Please look somewhere else.
 
Avondale said:
Welcome and congratulations on your upcoming engagement!

To get to the point, 1 and 3 are a no, and the reason isn't that they're from the NSC. Let me show you.

See that area here, in the middle?

1742259651713.png

1742259681801.png

That's a window. You can see right through the stone, the facets do not reflect light here. The stones are too shallow.

Furthermore...

1742259813151.png

1742259821483.png

The circled areas above are all the places where the stones display colourful flashes. The rest of them, aside from the windows, is so dark, it's practically black.

While it may seem from the photos that the stones are blue, just a very deep blue, the moment you set those stones in rings and put them on fingers, those windows are going to black out completely. It's how the blue behaves when it has skin for background. You'll need to shine a torch on the stone to be able to see any colour at all. And the colour flashes in both of these stones are simply not enough.

In short, with 1 and 3 you'll have a black stone in most cases, and very rarely something that has the occasional blue flashes.

2 looks better. It appears to have no window (although to properly evaluate you need to see a picture looking at it straight down), from the photo it seems to be a bit silky which helps with the colour distribution throughout the entire face of the stone. It is, however, not the most saturated.

If you want to focus on quality, go for colour saturation first and foremost.
Click to expand...

Thank you for that in depth response! I was concerned the stone would be too dark once it was on the finger as you pointed out but I think the window made me second guess it. I will be sure to keep those things in mind as I continue the search. Here is an still from the video that may offer a little more information on the gem, unfortunatly it doesnt seem like Gemfix offers a wide selection of photos.

Screenshot 2025-03-17 210547.png
 
Autumn in New England said:
Welcome to PS and congrats on your upcoming engagement!

I was just about to type out a long response, but it seems our @Avondale has covered everything. I will just say, if your partner is not really into the more medium, vivid blues (which is a good thing as far as price is concerned), then look more into royal blues... #'s 1 and 3 here are way too dark. I do believe they may be "lifeless" in person, as you mentioned wanting to avoid. Also, as Avondale pointed out, they're terribly windowed, which will cause a further loss of color and light. #2 is better, but I still think there's room for improvement in the one carat range and $2k budget. The cut is good, but the color is rather desaturated, and I also can't tell if I'm seeing silk or color zoning (or both), since the photo isn't very clear.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I posted another photo of option 2 from a video (slightly better quality but not the best. Is there another online seller you would recommend looking into? I haven't had much luck with the websites google seems to be pushing.
 
I think all are too dark, but the gemfix one is the only reasonable option (imo). the others are simply unattractive (sorry, just need to be honest).

If your gf doesn't want too dark i totally get it, but the ones you listed will be SO dark once set. Almost black. And the ones from NSC will be lifeless
 
lovedogs said:
I think all are too dark, but the gemfix one is the only reasonable option (imo). the others are simply unattractive (sorry, just need to be honest).

If your gf doesn't want too dark i totally get it, but the ones you listed will be SO dark once set. Almost black. And the ones from NSC will be lifeless
Click to expand...

No need to apologize! I'd much rather get an honest opinion from you all than have her disappointed and waste money.
 
What do you think of this guy? With the 30% off, it'd be under $1,700. It's your preferred oval, just over 1 carat (1.02ct), and well-cut. I think the color could be a vivid royal blue, but not overly dark. It does have some slight color zoning and a couple of goodies in there, but I don't think they'd be decipherable at eye level.

www.africagems.com

1.02 Carat Gemmy Blue Sapphire Gemstone, Oval Shape, 7.3 x 5.3 mm, Royal Blue Color

Seller of high quality loose gemstones, diamonds, jewelry, findings and mountings
www.africagems.com www.africagems.com
 
I also really like this one, despite that tiny crystal at around the 4 o'clock mark (or is it schmutz... you'd have to ask). But you're set on an oval, right?

www.africagems.com

Blue Sapphire - Round Cut - 1.12 Carat - 5.8mm Size

This beautiful genuine 1.12 Carat Blue Sapphire Round Cut Gemstone, 5.8mm in size by AfricaGems, displays a vivid rich royal blue color, excellent cut clarity and life. A beautiful gem in a highly desired color shade of color, shape and size, very bright and lively. A top quality gemstone in all...
www.africagems.com www.africagems.com
 
Thanks @Autumn in New England there are some beautiful options here. Just at quick browse there are about 4 that are heavy contenders And yes, she is pretty set on an oval or pear shape. I am also looking at couple options from Earth's Treasury, has anyone had experience with this site?
 
T Jones said:
Thanks @Autumn in New England there are some beautiful options here. Just at quick browse there are about 4 that are heavy contenders And yes, she is pretty set on an oval or pear shape. I am also looking at couple options from Earth's Treasury, has anyone had experience with this site?
Click to expand...

That 1.02ct oval, if the photo is accurate, looks like it may tick all of your boxes while staying on budget (with the discount). I would inquire soon, if you're interested... things don't seem to last long once posted here. If you do, ask for more photos/videos. Marc is good about sending them over. I wouldn't rely on that one listing photo. Also, Marc offers FREE returns, which I think is awesome. Are you in the US?

Yes, Earth's Treasury is reputable. I have not purchased from them, but many here have.
 
Thanks, will email them tonight. I was looking for the 30% discount code but I'm only offered the 15% off site wide one. Not sure if I'm just looking in the wrong place or what.
 
T Jones said:
Thanks, will email them tonight. I was looking for the 30% discount code but I'm only offered the 15% off site wide one. Not sure if I'm just looking in the wrong place or what.
Click to expand...

Oh shoot, it expired. Let me see if I have another. In the meantime, go ahead and inquire. Worst case scenario, the 15% will take you down to $2,050... a little over budget, but not too bad. Also, I want to mention that this oval is rather spready without being so shallow as to create a window. A 7.3 x 5.3mm oval at just 1 carat is nice! The cutter did a good job.
 
T Jones said:
Thank you!! that's amazing and will make a big difference. :)
Click to expand...

I asked Ella to delete it now (since the code is unique to me), so make sure you have it written down! Good luck with whatever you decide to do... be sure to come on back and give us an update!!
 
Way too dark!
 
T Jones said:
I know my partner likes a deep blue as opposed to something like a cornflower, but I don't want it to feel "lifeless".
Click to expand...

Would this royal blue be deep enough in color for her? If so, he just started a 20% off sale that would bring the price of the stone down to $2076. The coupon code and sale details are on the main store page.
www.finewatergems.com

1.73 ct Blue Sapphire

1.73 ct Blue Sapphire
www.finewatergems.com
 
@T Jones I should've mentioned this earlier, but the coupon code I gave you expires 4/1. Again, happy hunting!
 
Would the OP consider the custom cutting route?

DK :))
 
MichaelEoval.jpg You might try custom cut. I had this cut by MichealE some years ago, unheated
 
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