Best Engagement Rings
Based on In-Depth Reviews

Where to start when buying a ring

Set your budget

Forget the old two-or-three month salary rule. How much you spend on the ring won’t necessarily mean your betrothed-to-be will love it more. 

This supposed rule was actually a perfectly executed advertising campaign by De Beers, deemed by many as the world’s leading diamond company. In the 1980s, De Beers released two ads in the US that alluded to the salary rule. One read “Two months' salary showed the future Mrs. Smith what the future would be like." and the other “How can you make two months' salary last forever?” Another ad in Japan read “A diamond engagement ring: worth three months' salary.”

Here’s the truth: You don’t need to spend more than you can afford. Once you set your ideal budget, search for a high-quality gemstone within it following the four C’s: cut, clarity, color and carat.

Know your 4 C’s

Cut

Some confuse cut with a gemstone shape but the cut actually refers to a gemstone's proportions. The more precise they are, the better the gemstone’s facets will interact with light, resulting in the sought-after diamond sparkle. Even if a diamond has flawless clarity (another of the four C’s), it may still look dull if its cut is too shallow or deep.

How a diamond is cut directly affects a diamond’s brilliance, fire, and scintillation:

• Brilliance: how a diamond reflects white light to create a brightness

• Fire: colored flashed that sometimes happen when a diamond disperses light

• Scintillation: flashes between light and dark areas that cause a diamond to produce white sparkle.

The Gemological Institute of America’s (GIA) Diamond Cut Grading System grades cuts as poor, fair, good, very good, and excellent. The nonprofit research lab considers cut “the most complex and technically difficult to analyze” out of the four C’s. 

Clarity

Most mined diamonds have blemishes or inclusions, foreign material trapped within a mineral while that mineral forms. According to the GIA, “needles, clouds, fluids, and crystals are examples of inclusions typically found in natural gemstones.” 

Clarity simply refers to how noticeable, or not, these imperfections are. The GIA Clarity Scale considers the size, nature, position, color, and quantity of blemishes and inclusions. These are their clarity grades when observed under 10X:

• Flawless (FL): No visible inclusions or blemishes

• Internally Flawless (IF): Some visible blemishes but no inclusions

• Very, Very Slightly Included (VVS1 and VVS2): Slight inclusions but their difficult to see

• Very Slightly Included (VS1 and VS2): Some inclusions can be observed but are characterized as minor

• Slightly Included (SI1 and SI2) - Inclusions are noticeable

• Included (I1, I2, and I3) - Inclusions are obvious and may affect transparency and brilliance

Color

Diamonds range from brilliant white to pale yellow and are graded on a scale from D (colourless) to Z (light yellow). The less tinted a diamond is, the more light it will reflect and the more expensive it’ll be.

Carat

A gemstone’s carat refers to its weight. Typically, the bigger a gemstone’s carat size the higher its value because larger diamonds are rarer. According to the International Gem Society (IGS), only around one in a million diamonds weigh one carat, one in five million weigh two carats and one in 15 million weigh three carats.

Find out their favorite shape

Round

Round diamonds are possibly the most popular. A brilliant, or excellent, cut round diamond will have maximum light reflection capability, giving it more brilliance, fire, and scintillation than other shapes. 

Princess 

After the classic round shape, the princess follows as the most popular shape for engagement rings. It’s also known as the square-cut because of its four pointed corners, though some may have a slightly more rectangular shape. Out of all the square-shaped styles, these are the most similar to the round shape when it comes to brilliance.

Oval

The oval shape has similar shine to the round. Since they’re elongated, they may give the illusion of being bigger than they really are. This shape also has ideal brilliance and fire, similarly to the round shape.

Marquise

The marquise shape resembles an eye. It’s also sometimes known by some as the football shape. Just like the oval shape, it can also create an illusion of bigger size due to its large surface areas.

Pear

Also known as “the teardrop,” the pear shape is a combination of a round and a marquise. When cut correctly, they will shine just as much as round shaped stones.

Cushion

As the name suggests, the cushion shape is square, similar to the princess, but its corners are rounded—some may be a bit more rectangular.

Emerald

The emerald shape is rectangular with cut corners. Viewed from above, it features rectangular, rows of broad facets that resemble stairs which is why it's also known as the step cut. This shape has less brilliance and fire than others.

Asscher

Instead of having rounded corners like the cushion shape, the asscher is a square with cut corners that give it an octagonal look. It has a step-like appearance like the emerald. Unlike other shapes that have between 50 to 58 facets, the asscher has 74 facets which increases its brilliance.

Radiant

The radiant shape is squared like the princess but with cut corners. After asscher, it has the most facets—70 facets—giving it increased brilliance. When viewed from above, it has a circular pattern giving it both square and round features.

Do they even want a diamond ring? Make sure to ask.

One of our fellow coworkers told us an engagement story that really speaks to how times have changed. A friend of hers got proposed to on top of Mount Kilimanjaro with a rock. Yes. A stone picked up from the dirt after a very long hike. Knowing her very well, her beau recognized that a stone from Kilimanjaro would be more meaningful than a beautifully cut sparkly engagement ring, because of the experience and memories it would forever represent. The woman, by the way, agreed.

We do know that some people dream of the day when they can flaunt a diamond ring to their family and friends. But stories like this one exemplify that the meaning placed on engagement rings throughout the years is not as standard or important to everybody. In fact, even the idea of a diamond being necessary for an engagement ring is entirely manufactured. 

Remember the DeBeers diamond cartel with the ads for how much you should spend? It turns out they’re also responsible for the notion of diamonds as the ultimate choice for engagement rings in the first place. The Depression, when DeBeers controlled 60 percent of rough diamond output, was disastrous for sales—especially since massive South African diamond mines were driving prices down. 

And so, in the late 1940s, the company hired ad agency N.W Ayers, and gave rise to what is possibly the most successful ad campaign ever created: “A diamond is forever.” By persuading wooers not only that diamonds were the number-one choice of real romance, but also that their size and expense was directly proportional to the measure of their love, DeBeers and Ayers were able to make the diamond engagement de rigeur. From being the choice of a mere 10 percent of couples right before WWII, by the end of the 20th century, 80 percent of engagement rings had diamonds. 

 So, before even starting to look for a ring, try to nonchalantly ask your significant other what their preferences are. There’s always also the possibility that they don’t want a ring at all or would rather it be stoneless, with a colored gemstone, or with a lab-grown diamond.

If they don’t want a ring but you’d still want to do something special, get them something else they’ve always wanted. Maybe plan a trip to a country where they've always wanted to go. One of our writers said she’d rather have her girlfriend, who's a software engineer, write a code she can interact with, like a mini game or app, that randomly pops the question while she’s using it. Certainly not all of us can do something as techy as that but you get it—a proposal should be creative, but most of all tailored to the person you love.

Maybe your partner is very traditional. But maybe they’re like our coworker’s friend who said yes to a rock that’s monetarily worthless but has unmatchable personal value. The point is, love goes beyond a gemstone placed on a metal setting and rings are not the only way to make an engagement special. Ask before making a decision. The whole point is securing that “Yes!” anyway.

Take your time

Once you're sure that first, they do want a ring, and second, the kind of ring they’d like, you’ll want to take a couple of weeks to compare options. Look at the selections from different stores and choose a number of rings you think could end up being the one. 

Be sure to compare not only their prices, but their specifications as well. To untrained eyes—and even more so through pictures online—there’s no way to fully ascertain a diamond’s quality and beauty. That’s where the four C’s come in and why it’s so important to compare each of these specifications between your picks.

Take into account the jewelry store’s service plans, guarantees, and return policies as well. In the long run, they could save you from spending more than you already will on the ring itself.

Conflict-free diamonds and the Kimberley process

Most online jewelry stores have a link at the bottom of their site with the words “conflict-free,” “sustainability,” “ethical” or something along those lines—if not at the bottom of the page, then probably somewhere in their About Us or FAQ. Within these links you’ll find a statement on how they have a zero-tolerance policy for conflict diamonds and how to prevent participating in this illegal trade, they adhere to the Kimberley Process (KP).

What is the Kimberley Process?

The Kimberley Process (KP) was established in 2003 after nongovernmental organizations shined a light on the illegal trade of rough diamonds, (i.e. diamonds that haven’t been cut or polished), from rebel-held territories. These diamonds were being used by rebel movements to finance armed conflicts against legitimate governments, thus the names conflict diamonds or blood diamonds.

The big question is: Can consumers fully trust that their diamond is not in any way linked to armed conflicts if it’s KP certified? We asked Brad Brooks-Rubin, managing director of the advocacy group Enough Project and its investigative partner The Sentry, Ex-Special Adviser for Conflict Diamonds for the U.S. Department of State, and Ex-Global Director of Development and Beneficiation for the Gemological Institute of America. His answer? “You can’t.” Also, if you’re concerned with other human-rights abuses beyond armed conflicts, such as the treatment of workers, the KP doesn't cover those at all.

Skepticism surrounds the KP

The KP was once viewed as an innovative step against systematic human-rights violations in the diamond industry. Over the past decade, however, it's been put under increasing scrutiny by experts who consider it in desperate need of reform.

“When it was developed 20 years ago, … it really was ahead of its time,” admitted Brooks-Rubin. However, he thinks that the KP has failed overall to accomplish its core purpose. He believes “the structure [of the KP] is there, it's just that the implementation is poor and that's been the case for a long time. … It’s just a matter of the will to make sure that it does work and that’s what we haven’t seen.”

Brooks-Rubin thinks the KP is not “addressing the real issue.” Rather than focusing on producing a certificate for every diamond export, the KP should require that members identify “the real risks at a broad level” such as “environmental, labor, human rights, [and] corruption … and then [develop] ways that companies and governments can try to address those specific risks,” he said.

Desperate calls to redefine what constitutes a conflict diamond 

Global Witness was one of the first advocacy groups to expose the issue of blood diamonds back in 1998. The group helped establish and participated in the KP until 2011, when they decided to step away after the KP authorized diamond exports from Marange, Zimbabwe. Apparently, mines in that area had been seized by the Zimbabwean Army, killing around 200 miners. Despite the violence, since conflict diamonds specifically refer to diamonds traded to fund rebel movements and that situation involved the country’s legitimate army, the KP’s guidelines didn’t apply.

Global Witness has continued to express concerns regarding the KP’s definition of what constitutes a conflict diamond and the system’s general ineffectiveness. “Consumers buying diamonds with a KP certificate who believe the scheme provides assurance their diamond has not funded human rights abuses are labouring under illusions,” says the organization.

IMPACT, another advocacy group and participant of the KP, followed Global Witness’ steps and left in 2017—six years after Global Witness—because of the same issues. According to a Financial Times article, executive director of IMPACT Joanne Lebert thinks “[t]here’s no meaningful assurance that a diamond is conflict-free. The public is under the wrong impression that the problem is solved.”

Even members of the World Diamond Council (WDC), the group representative of the diamond industry, have expressed concern regarding the issue. In 2019, Stephane Fischler, President of the WDC, spoke in the United Nations General Assembly’s 73rd Session asking to expand the definition of what conflict diamonds are since the KP “has not been successful in addressing other types of mineral-related conflict, and in particular systemic violence in the mining areas.”

The KP doesn’t protect polished diamonds

Beyond the KP’s limited definition of what constitutes a conflict diamond, another point of criticism lies in the fact that the system does not apply at all to polished diamonds, the ones being sold directly to consumers. As Brooks-Rubin explained that once diamonds are “cut and polished, [the KP] stops applying.”

He insists that if people are concerned not only about a diamond’s origin but how it’s traded through the supply chain, “the KP only ever really takes you so far. … If a diamond is cut in a factory with bad conditions, or there's corruption or crime involved in how that diamond moves after [it leaves a mine], the KP has never had the idea that it still applies to those diamonds.”

In hope of addressing this issue, the WDC designed a System of Warranties which gives sellers the option of attaching a conflict-free guarantee to the invoices of polished diamonds and jewelry containing diamonds. However, this is a “voluntary system of industry self-regulation.” 

Although Brooks-Rubin believes the WDC deserves credit for designing the System of Warranties, he insists it’s not the solution since “there's no real evidence that governments have ever audited a company and said: ‘Show me your warranties and how you know the information is valid’.”

Calls for reform continue unanswered

Though the KP’s 2019 Plenary Meeting included a proposal to broaden the definition of conflict diamonds to include additional human-rights abuses, delegates couldn't reach an agreement and the lax definition remains.

At this point, the situation is so out of hand in some regions that Russia has called to  lift Central Republic of Africa’s (CAR) ban from the KP—which has been in place since 2013. Russia's reasoning is that, even with the ban in place, conflict diamonds from CAR are smuggled into the international diamond trade. If the ban is lifted, there would be no need to smuggle diamonds and the country could profit economically from the legal trade.

Brooks-Rubin considers Russia’s request the ultimate admission that the KP has failed. “If the KP does that, to me, it's the final step to say the KP should be terminate. … It's an admission of failure, because what should happen is that when those [smuggled] diamonds get to … wherever they go next in the supply chain they should be stopped and the KP is failing to achieve that,” he reasoned.

Is there anything consumers can do?

Although the KP says “99.8% of the world’s diamonds come from conflict-free sources,” there’s currently no unfailing way to certify either the accuracy of conflict-free claims or that blood diamonds aren’t being smuggled at some point into the supply chain. And the fact remains that, with the KP’s current definition of conflict-free being what it is, other human-right abuses are completely left out of the scope. 

Brooks-Rubin encourages consumers to do their research and find companies that go beyond simply adhering to the KP. If “a jeweler tells you that your diamonds are clean [only] because of the KP, that’s not accurate and there's no way that they can be sure” the diamonds are not linked to human rights violations, Brooks-Rubin emphasized.

He acknowledges there are companies with “more robust systems in place” and “stronger efforts to ensure that they're buying from better sources and have a better level of tracing in place.” Some companies have indeed been trying to implement tracking technologies for their diamonds but these efforts are still far from the industry standard.

Most importantly, he encourages consumers to question companies in order to get them to pay attention. “I’ve been to many diamond industry meetings … and we would say, ‘This is an important issue to the American people.’ And they would basically look at us and say, ‘No, it's not’,” he contemplated. He considers that the industry as a whole won’t care, ever, if it thinks that consumers “just want a diamond that looks pretty and has the right quality characteristics.”

Moreover, he urges consumers to keep in mind that human-rights violations may exist with all their purchases. “It's not just your jewelry, it's any purchase … We have an impact across the world,” he pondered.

Beyond conflict-free: lab-grown diamonds, recycled gemstones, and diamond alternatives

People concerned with sustainability and not willing to compromise their beliefs might want to keep away from mined gemstones until the Kimberley Process is reformed to address not only diamonds traded by rebel movements, but also human-rights abuses and even ecological impacts. Alternatives to traditional mined diamonds include:

Lab-grown diamonds

First thing you should know: a lab-grown diamond is a diamond, both chemically and physically. The only difference between a mined diamond and a lab-grown diamond is that one is forged deep within the Earth’s mantle and the other in a lab with specialized equipment that heats up to 1,400F or more. Both gemstones are chemically identical since lab diamonds are grown from small pieces of natural mined diamonds known as “diamond seeds.” Lab-grown diamonds can cost up to 40 percent less than natural diamonds.

For industry experts, the main issue with lab-grown diamonds seems to be how rare and valuable one is over the other. When Tiffany & Co.’s CEO Alessandro Bogliolo was asked if the company would ever sell lab-grown diamonds he answered, “No. It’s something that by definition has no rarity. To celebrate one of your special moments you want something very, very, very special.” 

Of course, this claim to rarity is actually a very common myth. Diamonds are some of the most prevalent gems in existence, with some recent estimates putting the number at around a quadrillion tons, albeit under the Earth’s surface. And, similarly to a car, they automatically lose value once they leave the store. 

Tom Gelb, co-founder of the Diamond Durability Laboratory and a consultant to the diamond industry, told The New York Times that it’s a fraud from an economic standpoint to compare both diamonds because “the value of synthetic diamonds will drop as production costs fall. It is a gem’s rarity, … that maintains its value.”

Recycled gemstones

A recycled or reclaimed gemstone is one that has been removed from vintage jewelry and repurposed for a new piece. There's always the possibility that a recycled gemstone might not be completely conflict-free since there’s no way of knowing the conditions in which it was mined, but you won't be buying yet another gemstone from a somewhat shady trade.

Moissanite: A diamond alternative

Originally discovered in 1893 inside a meteor crater in Arizona, moissanite is rarely found in nature. According to the American Gem Society, “[i]ts occurrence in nature is extremely rare and has only been found in upper mantle rock and meteorites.”

Of all the diamond alternatives available, moissanite comes closest to diamonds physically and chemically. To the untrained eye, it’s easy to mistake one for the other.

Moissanite is the second hardest gemstone after diamonds, scoring a 9.25 on the Mohs Scale of Hardness—diamonds score a 10. This score makes moissanite very durable and resistant to scratching and chipping. In terms of sparkle, moissanite has a higher refractive index than diamonds—2.65 and 2.4, correspondingly. This means that both are excellent at reflecting light but their sparkle differs. A diamond tends to emit a white sparkle while moissanite is more colorful, almost like a disco ball effect.