What Is A ‘Generic’ Super Ideal Cut Diamond?

Q:

Liz,

Would you mind giving me your opinion of online distributer Brilliance.com? When they indicate “Super Ideal Cut” how do they determine that?

Also, I am looking at an emerald cut 1.60ct E VS1 which looks very clear at 10X, but the specs say “strong fluorescence” …how would that affect the appearance of an E color stone?

Thanks,

Mick

A:

Hello Mick,

This generic diamond information tells you virtually nothing about the diamond you are evaluating. There is nothing here that can determine if a diamond is cut well or not.

It appears that Brilliance.com uses ‘super ideal cut’ loosely for all diamond shapes. What they have determined as criteria for their cutting standards is not made public. I can say that Brilliance.com does not have any diamond images or HD videos of their diamonds making the assessment process impossible for you.

For what it is worth, I did ask their online rep for more information on their ‘super-ideal cut’ and their response was:

Hello. That is our Master Gemologist overall grading of these loose diamonds. He uses the combined analysis of light reflecting properties in each stone to determine overall brilliance. Here is link to read more on our Cut Grade: https://www.brilliance.com/education/diamonds/cut

Based on the above, Brilliance has their in-house gemologist assess a diamond’s cut. This may seem fine at first, but remember that Brilliance doesn’t have all the diamonds listed in their search tool actually in-house. This means that the gemologist is making a very generic assumption of the cut quality of the diamond based on numbers found on a given lab report. As I’ve said many times before, evaluating a diamond using just the lab report is, especially for any fancy cut diamond (non round), akin to buying blind.

How exactly they come to a ‘super-ideal cut grade’ conclusion on stones that are not physically in their possession or without advanced light performance information is a mystery. I wouldn’t put my full faith in this.

Further to this, Brilliance doesn’t even let you look at the corresponding lab report that the diamond comes with. You have to submit your contact details and then wait 2 business days for your request to be granted. This is a major inconvenience and one that I wouldn’t waste my time with. I’m surprised they are still getting customers with this very outdated way of selling.

Brilliance.com requires contact information in order to view the lab report for your chosen diamond. You must also wait up to 2 business days to receive your information.

As you are looking for an emerald that is about 1.62ct for $9K, I plugged your criteria into ODBA’s The Diamond Genie and found this beautiful 1.62ct E VS1 for $8,055.00.

It’s a beautiful GIA graded emerald with strong blue fluorescence. About a third of all diamonds have some form of natural fluorescence. In this case, the diamond doesn’t show any milky or cloudy qualities that can very rarely affect the transparency of the diamond. The emerald has a great length/width ratio of 1.31 and is perfectly eye-clean. More importantly, it shows great white light reflection and beautiful dark contrast patterning.

As you can see, Zoara.com not only has the actual magnified diamond image of this emerald for you to see, but it also lets you see the corresponding GIA report with one easy ‘click’. This is the way diamond shopping should be; ethical, transparent, and convenient. I fully recommend this emerald for you.

Please let me know what you think and if you have any questions! I hope this helped!

Kind Regards,

Liz

Q:

Dear Liz,

Thanks for all your help! It’s very much appreciated!

Mick