Make Your Diamond Look Larger

When shopping for an engagement ring or other diamond and gold jewelry, you'll find there are many ways to make diamond appear larger. A diamond's cut, shape, and setting all have impact on apparent size. So, when choosing a diamond, use these five techniques if you want to buy a diamond engagement ring that looks larger than its true carat weight.

1. Consider Fancy Diamond Shapes

Fancy shaped diamonds usually look larger than round diamonds of equal weight.
Especially look for diamonds with elongated shapes, such as marquise, oval and pear shaped diamonds.

2. Choose a Pavé Setting

The Pavé setting looks like a continuous surface of diamonds, but it is actually made up of small diamonds set side by side into little holes with their surfaces nearly level with the setting. Tiny beads crafted from the surrounding metal hold the diamonds in place.
It is difficult to distinguish the individual stones, so a Pavé setting makes one think the ring has more -- and larger -- diamonds than it really does. Rings with intricate Pavé settings can be expensive, so it may be less costly to buy larger diamond.

3. Consider an Illusion Setting

An illusion setting is a diamond mounted to a mirror-like plate before being set into the band, making it look larger, with more brilliance. The downside of an illusion setting is that it is more difficult to repair.

4. Choose a Ring with Side Stones

Small diamonds set into the band on either side of a center stone won't necessarily make the main diamond look bigger, but can give a ring more overall brilliance. So consider buying a ring with side stones.

5. Select a Bezel Set Diamond

Choose a diamond in a bezel setting, where a rim totally encircles the stone. White gold or platinum will blend with and enhance a white diamond, making it appear larger. A yellow gold bezel setting can throw a yellowish tint back onto the diamond.

6. Shallow cut diamonds look larger, but with a penalty

It's tempting to buy a ring set with diamonds that are cut shallow -- not as deep as they should be. Shallow cut diamonds appear larger than the same size stones with a more proportional cut, but what's gained in size is lost in brilliance.
Light traveling through a shallow cut tends to go out the back instead of bouncing off of the sides of the stone and back into your vision.

Read about diamond cuts before you buy a diamond engagement ring or other diamond jewelry if you want to get the best value for your money.

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