Diamond studs?

[Schhhteeevie]

Hello, I have a budget of £150 but would like to get my sister something special for her 40th

It’s not a lot I know but can anyone recommend some small diamond studs or something special?

Etsy has some lovely jewellery. I'd probably avoid diamonds as they are super expensive but you could get some nice semi precious stone earrings for £150

You can but they will be very small

www.abelini.com/earrings/stud-earrings

Pandora are advertising diamonds

Diamond studs are very expensive. I recently bought 0.5ct pair and they were 650stg. I feel I've more value from my cubic zirconia studs.
Would you consider Monica Vinander? I got a diamond bracelet for my 40th as a gift from there and it is lovely. Subtle and simple but I love it. They always have sales and deals too as well has earrings, rings etc.

The diamonds will be tiny even if lab grown.

You could look at moissanite as an alternative. Super sparkly.

Be careful on Etsy - it's not what it was and there is a lot of cheap tat being sold as the real thing often with stolen pictures. You really have to look for the genuine makers. I no longer list there.

Have you had a look at Folksy? All UK sellers and they are much stricter on the type of products they allow to be sold.

I have a nice pair from TruDiamonds.
Lab grown and platinum plated. Think they were around the £120 mark.

Monica Vinader. Good quality and affordable .

@LadyPoison I’ve never heard of moissanite before, is it a gemstone? I’m looking to buy some diamond like studs for my dd. Where is the best place to buy?

Yes moissanite is a gem stone. It does occur naturally but is very very rare and in trace amounts so all the stones available are lab grown. It's close to diamond in hardness so it's becoming very popular in engagement rings.

I wear it instead of diamond in my ear studs. I'm too afraid of losing one to spend the money on a good pair of real ones and these are a perfect substitute.

With the big brands like Pandora and Monica Vinador what you are paying for is the name. The jewellery itself has little intrinsic value.

Looks like I was beaten to it!😂

Would you consider second hand? Jewellery shops that sell second hand would offer loads better value than the knew price as for a start there is no VAT to pay.

This are De Beers lab-grown diamonds: from a composition point of view (and look) they are exactly the same as naturally-occurring diamonds: lightboxjewelry.com/collections/all?gclid=Cj0KCQjwgYSTBhDKARIsAB8Kuks7zA22N-9mvuFbdZbgX2p4QnS6vptcXBz9EsgNSL8w8wGyZ2Uka5kaAlMqEALw_wcB&sort=price-ascending

QVC have some lovely jewellery in real silver or gold.

For £150 there is loads of choice and you can return items (even earrings) if the recipient doesn't like them.

Super jeweller is your best bet.

www.superjeweler.com/details/index/342/1-3-carat-diamond-stud-earrings-in-14-karat-yellow-gold.html?grpId=166

can’t beat them on price if you don’t mind 14k gold

They pay duty and taxes if order over £50 too, or maybe £30

Those prices are incredible.

It always pays to read the site carefully. The prices here reflect the quality and you need to read carefully to see what you are getting. In their favour they do actually give the colour and clarity details which a lot of places don't.

K/L is going to have a very yellowish tinge to it. Very noticeable if you opt for white gold, a bit less so in yellow gold.

The clarity at I3 is the very lowest grade gem quality diamond. It's going to be full of inclusions (marks and flaws) and some of them will be visible to the naked eye.

Also although the webpage says it's 1/3ct which is quite a decent size, that's the combined weight of both stones so they'll be a lot smaller than you might expect - probably about 1.5/1.6 mm each. It varies a bit with the cut.

It's very much buyer beware with diamonds.

I take your points, but for less than 150 quid you can’t really go wrong. For a decent rock on a ring you’d want the best clarity you could afford, but tiny earrings it’s not so much an issue

Could anyone recommend a good place to buy moissonite studs?

I can buy those quality diamonds at that size for £5 each. They'll be paying much less for them than that.

@LadyPoison would you mind dropping a link to your folksy profile? I’ve long felt Etsy has been sadly flooded with Chinese tat, so am always on the look out for originals.

btw - what are your thoughts on clogau?

Have you heard of Hot Diamonds? It’s silver and diamond jewellery. The diamond is used as an accent rather than the main feature but the jewellery is lovely - simple, elegant, and robust. I have a few pieces, some over 20 years old, and they still look great.

hotdiamonds.co.uk/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw06OTBhC_ARIsAAU1yOXl_fYDNbHaG6CU8PGP5jYegNiD6M_fSvC3E8tULqpyVC1UT25v7pcaAj9_EALw_wcB

I don't want to be a stick in the mud, but if I was your sister (which I acceptI am not), I would be terrified of them getting lost and would appreciate some cheap earring and something else.

@EdgeOfSeventeenAndThreeQuarter Of course - may be this evening.

I love Clogau! My husband has bought me quite a few pieces in the past. They have some wonderful designs. However when you cut to the chase it is mass produced jewellery and the mere fact that they will never say how much of the gold is "Welsh Gold" implies to me that it is a trace amount at best. It is very expensive for what it actually is.

It's the same for Hot Diamonds as well to be honest. Virtually no intrinsic value and mass produced in its thousands.

Both have clever sophisticated marketing campaigns behind them and do very well out of them. If you like the style and are happy to pay the prices they ask then great. They are genuine silver, gold and diamonds.

@StarlightLady - there's a reason why my "diamond studs" are either moissanite or cheap CZ! Inevitably I'll end up losing one so the CZ set in silver from Sainsbury's are my daily wear. Very few people can tell the difference (at least in the smaller sizes anyway) and to be honest who looks that closely at someone's stud earrings?

Another vote for Diamonique from QVC. I have several pairs set in gold and they are 25+ years old and still look as good as they did on the day they arrived.

I stopped buying real diamond earrings after I lost yet another one of a pair, I have three single clear diamond earrings and one purple diamond earring that I intend to have reworked into another piece of jewellery at some point. I'm just clumsy with my earnings.

Moissanite is also a good suggestion to it's much more expensive than Diamonique, for the look of real diamonds at affordable prices I don't think Diamonique can be beaten.

www.qvcuk.com/Diamonique-1ct-Halo-Stud-Earrings-9ct-Gold.product.347871.html?sc=SRCH