Help selecting a sapphire for an engagement ring

[ObiWanEye]

Hi everyone,

I hope this is the right place to post this. I'm looking to purchase a round blue sapphire engagement ring for my girlfriend (max budget for stone and ring is about $3500 USD), and have found that this is a lot harder than I thought! Picking out a decent sapphire is turning out to be a challenging task and I'm starting to stress out a bit. I'm especially worried about picking out the right tone/saturation of sapphire.

The sapphire on the ring in this setting is one that she kind of likes and is mostly what I have to go with right now:
https://www.jamesallen.com/gemstone....62-carat-side-stones-engagement-ring-1636572
She definitely doesn't want a really really dark one, though from my research I believe the one in this setting might be a little darker than is ideal. With the lighting they use to photograph these, the stone in this setting might look a lot worse in real life than it does in the photo, and lack sparkle.

As for the actual setting she wants, it will probably be something with platinum as the metal, and potentially some diamond side stones such as this setting:
https://www.jamesallen.com/engageme...tinum-tapered-pave-engagement-ring-item-58729

I've done a bunch of research and selected a few sapphires that I thought were good choices, but they all have something a little odd about them. They might also all be too light in tone. If anyone is willing to provide feedback I'd greatly appreciate it!

https://www.jamesallen.com/gemstones/blue-sapphire/1.10-carat-round-sku-23986
This one seems to have few imperfections, but there are some random blue spots that look like they are suspended in the stone. Is this normal? A result of heat treatment or some other type of treatment?

https://www.jamesallen.com/gemstones/blue-sapphire/1.11-carat-round-sku-25129
This one seems to have a good cut and color overall, but when I rotate the image it looks streaky and odd.

https://www.jamesallen.com/gemstones/blue-sapphire/1.06-carat-round-sku-23979
I think the color here is good, but it looks like there are a lot of surface imperfections that might detract from the stone's appeal. The ratio of the top/bottom part of the stone also looks pretty good in my opinion.

https://www.earthstreasury.com/product/1-32-carat-cornflower-blue-montana-sapphire-heated/#
I really like this sapphire and the color (my personal favorite of all of them), but this is on the lower end of darkness that I think she would like.

https://www.gemsny.com/loose-sapphires/1.13-Carat-Round-Sapphire-SU40646RD/
This one looks to have a good color, albeit a little murky, and the certificate makes it look like the cut isn't the greatest from the side view.

Thanks again for anyone who troubled through to read this, and any advice you have would be appreciated!

 

[lovedogs]

I would avoid James Allen for colored stones. They are good for diamonds, but their gems aren't great. What shape stone does she want, or is she flexible about that? Is there a size you are hoping for?

Edit, the Earth's treasury looks good, but we can find you other options as well. Look at gemfix from the trusted vendor list.

 

[ObiWanEye]

Thanks lovedogs! i will check gemfix out. Was just going through the trusted vendor list now.

I'm fairly confident she wants a round stone. She's made comments before about not like halo settings, so I don't think she'll like oval.

Edit:
Here are a few from gemfix with my thoughts on them:

https://gemfix.com/gems/sapphire-blue-11-1298
Great color, but potentially too short? It's only 3.5 mm (56% depth/width ratio)

https://gemfix.com/gems/sapphire-blue-11-1313
I wonder if this might be too dark?

Also, side question: I've seen a lot of stones with a Portuguese cut. Is that superior to a round brilliant cut for sapphires?

 

[voce]

An oval shape doesn't mean you have to go with a halo setting. Most sapphires are cut as ovals or cushions. Round sapphires carry a price premium because the cutter has to waste some material when cutting the gemstone into round cuts. If she wants a bigger size, then I think a near-round oval would be the smart choice. You can put an oval into a solitaire setting or a 3-stone setting, but I guess you would have to find a smaller matching pair of gemstones for the side stones in a 3-stone setting.

Also, if you're certain about platinum, be sure to budget $1000 to $1500 (depending on if there will be diamonds or no in the setting) for the ring setting, so no more than $2000 to $2500 for the sapphire itself.

Depending on how much time you are willing to spend to educate yourself in this search, I suggest instead of James Allen you can also look at the Natural Sapphire Company's offerings. They do have a lot of sapphires with terrible cuts, and they are kind of priced high, but they do have a huge sapphire inventory that you can look through to figure out what you do and don't want in your final selection (e.g. windowing, color intensity).

 

[lovedogs]

@voce I strongly suggest not having OP look at NSC. They have lots of inventory, but they are so overpriced and horribly cut that I don't think they provide a reasonable baseline of color or intensity options. Just IMHO though!

 

[voce]

@voce I strongly suggest not having OP look at NSC. They have lots of inventory, but they are so overpriced and horribly cut that I don't think they provide a reasonable baseline of color or intensity options. Just IMHO though!

@lovedogs @ObiWanEye
Lovedogs is correct about overpricing and cutting in the NSC's inventory. I am not recommending to buy from NSC, but to look at their inventory to educate oneself about why those sapphires are faulty. Then one would know how to appreciate other vendors' sapphires . FWIW I think NSC allowed me to educate myself considerably about sapphires.
The sapphire in my avatar is actually from NSC. I picked out the best for my budget out of 300ish sapphires in the filtered list that they gave me. Still probably overpaid for it, but I did want to buy untreated sapphire, and most vendors will price those high anyway.

To go pick a sapphire without the self-education, please go with a vendor such as Gemfix, Yvonne Raley, Finewater Gems, or Litnon. An example: https://www.litnon.com/index.php?page=viewgem&id=9941

 

[ObiWanEye]

Thank you so much everyone for your help and recommendations on vendors to use. I had definitely got a feeling that the quality of some of the JamesAllen and NSC were a bit suspect, but you're right that they can be very useful for identifying things I like about the gems.

I think she'd be open to cushion cuts as long as they were more round square than round rectangle. She also definitely doesn't want a giant stone or anything like that, I was thinking around 6 mm or so in diameter (so something like 0.8-1.3 ct depending on the cut), which I think might help keep the cost down a bit.

I really like the gem you linked from Litnon, voce! Looks really great!

I found a couple on gemfix too, and will probably evaluate some of the other vendors (and cuts) later.

https://gemfix.com/gems/sapphire-blue-11-1298

https://gemfix.com/gems/sapphire-montana-12-108
I really like the color on the one above, but there's a noticeable inclusion in the video and I am wondering how much that would overall detract from the stone. Would something like that be obvious in every day wear?

https://gemfix.com/gems/sapphire-montana-12-898
This one also looks good but again has a spot right in the middle. Without seeing the stone up close it feels hard to determine if these would be annoyingly noticeable or not!

 

[lovedogs]

@ObiWanEye gemfix is a good vendor, and if you asked about those 2 with inclusions they might be able to help you figure out which (or if neither) are "eye clean". Things that look noticible in the pics aren't always visible in real life, so when in doubt I'd ask.

 

[Bron357]

Just throwing in my 5 cents.
Sapphires often have colour zoning, that is the “bands” of different hues you are seeing in some stones. Sapphires can also have inclusions perhaps what those little dark spots were.
Most sapphires are heated, unheated is usually more expensive all other things being equal.
Colour is subjective and wide ranging. Gems tend to “darken” once set, less available light coming in, so keep that in mind. Montana sapphires can go a bit grey in low light.
Sometimes you need to see a stone in person to be sure so it is best if the vendor has a return period if it doesn’t appeal once you see it in real life. Photos and videos can be optimized.
And check / compare mm sizes. A gem can be “heavy” ie carat weight but look “small for its weight” if it has a fat under belly.
And most “round gem” settings can be modified to fit a gem that isn’t a perfect round ie a slight cushion or slightly oval.

 

[ObiWanEye]

Thank you for the advice Bron357. I have definitely been looking at the sizes (I've seen a lot of very wide gems with only 3 mm of height) that I don't think will work very well. Having a good side view shot of the gem has been very helpful.