Are you dreaming of the moment where your partner pops the question?

My advice... be prepared!

Before you start engagement ring shopping you need to know the 'The Four C’s' and how to find the right diamond.

To help you out Cindabella has enlisted the gorgeous Kirstin and Victoria from TORY & KO. Jewellers, Wellington. 


Victoria Taylor and Kirstin O'Brien

They have put together this wonderful guide with all the information on the “Four C’s” for you to keep in mind when selecting your stunning new diamond engagement ring.

Colourless diamonds are the most desirable since they allow the most refraction of light (sparkle). The whiter a diamond's colour, the greater its value. To grade 'whiteness' or colourlessness, most jewellers refer to GIA's professional colour scale.



This begins with the highest rating of D for colourless, and travels down the alphabet to grade stones with traces of very faint or light yellowish or brownish colour. Diamonds graded G through to I show virtually no colour that is visible to the untrained eye. Think about what colour of precious metal you will use for your setting - if you like white gold, palladium or platinum, then we would suggest a higher grade colour for your diamond choice.

Note: Fancy coloured diamonds do not follow this rule. These diamonds, which are very rare and very expensive, can be any colour from pink, blue and green to bright yellow. These diamonds are more valuable for their colour.

Most diamonds contain some inner marks (called “inclusions”) that occur during the formation process or after in the cutting/polishing process. The visibility, number and size of these inclusions give the “clarity” rating of a diamond. Diamonds that have fewer inclusions create more brilliance and are therefore more highly sought-after (and priced). Diamonds are graded for clarity under 10x loupe magnification.



The following ratings and descriptions will give you an idea of what to look for.

F – Flawless: no internal or external flaws. Extremely rare.
IF – Internally Flawless: no internal flaws, but some surface flaws. Very rare.
VVS1-VVS2 – Very Very Slightly Included (two grades). Minute inclusions very difficult to detect under 10x magnification by a trained gemologist.
VS1-VS2 – Very Slightly Included (two grades). Minute inclusions seen with difficulty under 10x magnification.
SI1-SI2 – Slightly Included (two grades). Minute inclusions more easily detected under 10x magnification.
I1-I2-I3 – Included (three grades). Inclusions visible under 10x magnification as well as to the human eye. We do not recommend buying diamonds in these grades.

Remember that even though some diamonds may have inclusions, this does not make them any less beautiful to look at. Some people decide to choose a larger stone with a SI1-SI2 clarity, while others prefer to have a smaller stone with less inclusions (in the VVS1- VVS2 clarity rating). This is a personal choice and nobody looking at the stone (unless under a jeweller’s loupe) would ever notice the differences.

Cut is probably the most important quality factor and the most challenging of the four C’s to understand. A good cut gives a diamond its brilliance – the brightness that seems to come from the very heart of a diamond. The cut doesn’t actually refer to the shape of the diamond (eg: round, pear, princess, emerald shapes); rather, the angles and finish of a diamond are what determine its cut and ability to reflect light, which leads to brilliance.

When a diamond is well-cut, light enters through the table (top surface of the diamond) and travels to the pavilion (the bottom point of the diamond) where it reflects from one side to the other before reflecting back out of the diamond through the table to your eye. This is what gives a diamond its sparkly brilliance and why you can’t take your eyes off one when you wear it!



In a poorly cut diamond, the light that enters through the table reaches the facets (the flat surfaces of a diamond) and then 'leaks' out from the sides or bottom of the diamond rather than reflecting back through the table to your eye. Less light reflected back to the eye means a less sparkly stone.

Some common Diamond shapes chart

A carat is a unit of measurement used to weigh a diamond. One carat is equal to 200 milligrams, or 0.2 grams.



We love the story of where the term originated from: the word "carat" is taken from the carob seeds that people once used in ancient times to balance scales. These seeds are so alike in shape and weight that even today's sophisticated instruments cannot detect more than three one-thousandths of a difference between them!

Because large diamonds are found less commonly than small diamonds, the price of a diamond rises according to its size or carat.



Wow!! Thanks ladies, I'm sure we'll all be prepared for that special shopping trip now. xx

If you're in Wellington, pop in and see Victoria and Kirstin, their jewellery is AMAZING!!