Stress-Free Engagement Ring Shopping

It’s difficult enough for most men to put their commitment issues aside and finally work up the courage to propose, but the thought of spending a fortune on an engagement ring is sometimes all it takes to scare them into permanent bachelorhood! (The average price range for very good diamonds run from a low as $1,000 for a 1/2 carat to $14,500 for a 1 carat D-FL) Add to that the fact that few men are jewelry-savvy and you have a recipe for high stress!

In a recent survey of 1,200 men and women by the NPD Group, 75% of the men confessed they knew very little about buying jewelry. Combine their lack of know-how and the threat of bankruptcy and it’s surprising that so many couples are still getting married.

To allay these two primary issues, we’d like to offer some helpful tips to purchasing one of the most significant items some men will ever buy, as well as some guidelines to keeping costs within reach.  

1. Start by setting a realistic budget—everyone has different financial priorities when deciding how much to spend to show their love. It's a fairly common guideline to spend two month's salary on the ring, but that doesn’t have to be true for you. Make sure to save some money for a honeymoon and down payment for a home!
2. Build your knowledge of what’s available in settings, stones, and variables like color and cut—whatever you decide to spend for the ring, there are particular jewelry shopping basics you should follow, like taking your time and doing the necessary research.
3. Get some clues about your fiancée’s tastes—go browsing as a couple, look together at magazine ads, or ask her friends and family. Observe the kind of jewelry she wears or peak inside her jewelry box. Today most gals are wearing white gold or platinum.

After you’ve done your homework, it’s time to take a look at Russian Brilliants®. For a fraction of what you’d pay for a diamond, you can purchase a Russian Brilliants® simulated diamond and get everything you wanted and more.

Diamond simulants are so called because they simulate the appearance of diamonds without the atomic structure and chemical composition of a natural diamond.

Russian Brilliants® is a laboratory-grown stone that was originally developed in Russia and used for their satellite optics program. 
Russian Brilliants® are hand-cut. R.B's take on the optical properties of a natural diamond. Some jewelers have difficulty distinguishing between Russian Brilliants® and a natural diamond.

Each Russian Brilliant® stone is hand-faceted and polished like a natural diamond. Most natural diamonds contain minute traces of non-crystallized carbon and internal stress fractures, which absorb the light and reduce the beauty of the stone. Russian Brilliants offers maximum light refraction fire and brilliance that mimic a white, colorless, flawless natural diamond—for less than 2% of the cost.

Russian Brilliants® loose stones sell for $220 per carat and are available in all shapes, including round, princess, asscher, heart, pear, emerald, radiant, trillion, marquise and flanders. Russian Brilliants® can be special cut. Example: Trapezoid, kite and old mine/rose cuts.

Russian Brilliants® has a written lifetime guarantee not to fog or cloud and is considered the best diamond simulant by many gemologists. Now aren’t you glad you can impress your fiancée and not have to break the bank!

“ I could have not asked for a more beautiful sparkling engagement ring! We are very pleased, and I wanted to tell you that each and every day I look down at my "brilliant" and marvel at how amazing it looks. I thank you for your exquisite craftsmanship, and excellent personal customer service! We are now getting ready to order the matching wedding band.  Thank you!”                                  J. D. Galloway, NJ

“ You are truly a jewelry psychologist. You walk me through the engagement ring buying process. You helped me make the right decision. My wife absolutely loves it.. Incredible.”   
                                                                           N. J. Smithville, TX