Hello,
We purchased a lab diamond from James Allen. The 4Cs and proportions check out, but we learned about HPHT vs CVD after the fact.
Here are some screenshots. I can send you the link through email but don’t want to post for privacy reasons since it’s already been purchased. It’s graded D, VVS2 by IGI. We used your cut estimator and it has ideal proportions, so hopefully it’s a sparkle bomb. The live chat rep says it’s likely an HPHT, but the cert doesn’t say so we’re not sure if it’s HPHT or CVD.
We haven’t seen it in person yet as it’s being set, but wondering if we did good or picked a dud. It reflects a lot of colors as you can see in the screenshots: lots of blue (even neon-looking blue like cyan), yellow, and even pink. To me, it looks like a white diamond, but I’m not good at seeing blue, yellow, brown, or gray hues. Does it look like it has a blue or gray nuance to you? I’m also wondering if you see any strain lines or fuzziness, or if you think it will have phosphorescence.
Fingers crossed that we picked a good one. We can always exchange but that would be a hassle. Thank you so much for your help! I’ve read nearly every page on your site.
Thanks, I’m glad you found my site useful! It looks good to me. I don’t see any blue hue in the side view pictures. I think it’s HPHT too, there doesn’t appear to be any strain.
You can’t tell phosphorescence from this photography. However, I don’t think phosphorescence is something to worry about. If it’s present, it’s weak and temporary with a short half-life. In real life, how many times do you go from full sunlight directly into a dark room to even be able to observe it? It doesn’t affect optical qualities (i.e. doesn’t affect how a diamond performs). The Hope diamond is one of the most famous diamonds in the world and it phosphoresces red. I think it’s a marketing scare tactic because there is nothing left to try to differentiate.
I assume the 4th photo you shared is the best one from the video showing the arrows? I think that’s fine.
Thank you so much! This definitely gives me some reassurance. I really just want it to sparkle like crazy and not have too much color since it will be set in a rose gold band (I know we could have gone lower in color in hindsight).
One final question, I noticed the arrows aren’t all perfectly black when lined up shown in your example here: https://www.diamondscreener.com/education/a-simple-guide-to-buying-a-round-diamond/
When rotated, they each turn black. But straight on, at least two aren’t black at the same time. This could be due to the 360 rotation maybe?
Here are the results using your cut estimator: https://imgur.com/a/S0kpTCW It falls ON the line for AGS Ideal and within the lines for GIA EX.
According to James Allen, it has an ideal cut, excellent symmetry, excellent polish, and 1.01 L/W ratio. Hopefully all of this is an indicator that it will be the sparkle bomb we hoped for.
Do you have any thoughts on the cut/arrows? Again, thank you so much for the helpful resources and guidance!