 |
| Well Happy Birthday to me!💟🎉 |
For my birthday I got a set of the huge white gemstones I covet, namely a 4-carat brilliant-cut diamond eternity ring and matching 4-carat diamond stud earrings🤥 ... well to be truthful, not exactly diamond gemstones, but white sapphires. Remember my motto? First a dreamer, then a realistic!
Diamonds would cost a fortune, about $110,000+ for the diamond ring and around $33,000 for the stud earrings. Frankly, it's a foolish sum of money for a regular person to spend.
Although there are distinct differences in shine between diamonds and other white gemstones (a/k/a diamond alternatives) such as white sapphire and moissanite, the latter two are gorgeous substitutes for the wildly more expensive diamonds, so a gal won't have to hock her home nor do without her sparkle! |
| Photo: Italo Jewelry |
The only reason to not buy a diamond is its greater expense IMHO. The big stones over 2 carats put too many zeros on a credit card which would send many of us into debt! In comparison to diamonds, white sapphire and moissanite gemstones are cheap, especially for a big size. All 3 white gemstones (diamonds, white sapphires, and moissanites) have a lovely sparkle, yet they sparkle differently.
In terms of brilliance (white sparkle) and fire (color sparkle), a diamond outshines white sapphires and has warmer flashes of light (a/k/a glitter; shine) than both white sapphires and moissanite which both have a cooler tone. Brilliant-cut diamonds have a rainbow of shine. White sapphires have a grey or silvery sparkle. Compared to diamonds, moissanite, too, has a cool, bluish brilliance and compared to white sapphires, more fire.
 |
Don't buy a ring gemstone below an 8 in hardness if on a budget as you might have to replace it. |
Moissanite's high refractive index (how light bends and passes through a stone) will make it sparkle across a room like no other gemstone, so if you're looking for a huge wow factor (like flashing people across a room😄), you can't go wrong with moissanite.
Like diamonds, diamond alternatives can be either natural (white sapphire) or lab-grown (white sapphire and moissanite). There are enough white sapphires in nature to mine whereas moissanite is so rare that all moissanite in jewelry is lab-grown. Since white sapphires can be either natural or lab-grown, the seller is required to state which one you're buying. My birthday ring and stud earrings are lab-grown white sapphires, which doesn't bother me as I know what I'm getting for less money. Lab-grown gemstones are chemically and physically identical to the gemstones created in nature. They are less costly due to lower demand and production costs.
