Quick and Easy Buying Guide

Carat weight: 1 carat = 200 milligrams = 6.5 mm diameter. Doubling weight doesn't double diameter.

Diamond clarity: FL/IF/VVS/VS = super expensive, near perfect. SI = best value if you can check a photo for obvious inclusions (defects).

 

Color: D-G = colorless, expensive, only if you have money to burn. H-J = best value. Can go lower in gold metal settings than white metal.

Cut: Better cut ratings let more light into a diamond, making it sparkle more. Very important property, don't skimp here.

Set a budget and minimum cut (Premium). Go J color for gold and I/H for white metals. Go searching for SI1/SI2 clarity diamonds at James Allen. Pick a diamond with small/no inclusions. Choose a ring setting and buy it risk-free (60-day returns).

1.44 Carat Princess Shape Diamond Actual Size

This page has a handy illustration showing you the apparent size of a 1.44 carat size princess shape diamond, when viewed in place on the hand of a woman. If you search around on the web to find the actual size of a 1.44 carat weight princess shape diamond, you may pick up that the numbers are slightly different across different sites - this is because the size (6.5 mm for this 1.44 carat diamond) depends on things like cut as well.

To give you more of an idea of what the picture is showing, the ring shown is a size six in the US sizing system, which is equivalent to an L 1/2 ring size in Britain or Australia. A good tip to follow is to use pictures like this one to initially narrow down your size range, and then to go into stores and actually try a few different sized princess shape diamond rings on, armed with this prior knowledge.

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Consider the ratio between the width and length of your finger - this ratio will affect how large and appropriate a diamond appears when it's slipped in a ring onto the hand. Some of my readers are men - if this is you and you're trying to calculate the right diamond size to buy for your partner, remember that the stonewill invariably look much larger on the hands of a woman, which are typically smaller.