The Maison Pavé guide
How to choose a diamond
you’ll keep.
Choosing a diamond sounds harder than it is. A few principles do most of the work, and once you have them the decision becomes less about grades on a certificate and more about what you actually want to wear. This guide covers how we think about diamonds at Maison Pavé, starting with why we work in lab-grown.
Our choice
Why we work in
lab-grown diamonds.
Every diamond we set is lab-grown. It is a real diamond, the same crystal as one drawn from the ground, grown instead over a few weeks under the same heat and pressure that forms one over billions of years. The result is identical to the eye, to a jeweller’s loupe, and to the instruments that grade it. What changes is the price and the origin, both in your favour.
Identical carbon, identical hardness. A diamond in every sense, not an imitation.
Often a fraction of the price, so the same budget buys more stone or a finer grade.
Created without mining, with an origin you can trace from the start.
Lab-grown and mined
The same diamond,
two beginnings.
Grown in a laboratory
A few weeks
A small diamond seed is placed in a chamber and grown with carbon under intense heat and pressure, the same conditions found deep in the earth. What emerges is pure crystalline carbon, then cut and polished exactly as any other diamond.
Formed in the earth
A billion years
A natural diamond forms over one to three billion years far below the surface, then is brought up and mined. It is the same chemistry as the lab, only slower, older, and much harder to trace back to its source.
The fundamentals
The 4Cs, and what
actually matters.
Cut, colour, clarity and carat are the four measures that set a diamond’s quality and its price. They do not matter equally in practice. Here is where to spend your attention, and where you can relax.
Cut
The one that matters most
Cut is how precisely a diamond is faceted, not its shape, and it decides how much light the stone throws back. A well cut diamond sparkles even in low light. A poorly cut one looks flat however good its other grades.
Look forExcellent or Very Good. This is the one place not to economise.
Colour
Less is more
Colour runs from D, completely colourless, to Z, warmly tinted. Across the higher grades the difference is usually invisible to the naked eye, especially once the stone is set in metal.
Look forG to I for the best balance of white and value. In yellow or rose gold, J still reads clean.
Clarity
Flaws you will never see
Nearly every diamond holds tiny inclusions from the way it formed. Clarity grades how visible they are, and the good news is that most are invisible without magnification.
Look forVS2 or SI1 are eye-clean in most stones, undetectable without a loupe, and strong value.
Carat
Size is not the whole story
Carat is weight, not size, so two stones of equal carat can look quite different depending on cut and shape. Prices also jump at the round magic weights such as 1.00ct and 1.50ct, so a 0.90ct or 1.45ct can save meaningfully with no visible loss.
Look forBalance carat against the setting and the hand. A well cut 0.80ct can outshine a dull 1.20ct.
A personal choice
Choosing a
shape.
Shape is the most visible decision you will make and the most personal. None is better than another. The right one is the shape you keep returning to.
The classic, and the most brilliant cut there is. The most studied of all, and flattering on any hand.
Elegant and elongating on the finger. Nearly the sparkle of a round, with a softer, more romantic outline.
Vintage in feel, with soft rounded corners and a warm, glowing sparkle full of character.
Architectural and understated. A step cut that rewards a clean, high-clarity stone over pure sparkle.
Graceful and distinctive. Lovely as a solitaire or a pendant, worn with the point facing outward.
Modern and geometric. A square cut with strong brilliance, at home in contemporary settings.
Proof
Independently
certified.
Every diamond we source above one carat comes with complimentary IGI certification, supplied with your order. IGI is an internationally recognised laboratory, and the certificate confirms the 4Cs and identifies the stone as lab-grown, so what you are told is exactly what you own.
For stones under one carat, we are happy to arrange independent IGI certification on request, at an additional cost.
Tell us what you are drawn to and we will talk it through with you, stone and setting, before anything is decided.