Pear Shaped Diamond Buying Guide

Written by guest blogger Alastair Smith

Pear shaped engagement rings are quite rare, but they’re a great choice for people who are looking for an alternative cut that will allow them to stand out from the more common engagement ring shapes out there.While pear shaped diamonds are more often used for earrings or pendants, they’re also a great choice for rings too – they offer excellent sparkle and can appear larger than other shapes at the same carat size. Pear diamonds are actually a combination of two different cuts – the sparkle-fest round brilliant at one end and the elegant marquise at the other – delivering the best of both! And pear shaped diamonds are right on trend, with celebrities including Margo Robbie and Cardi B receiving them.

Pear diamonds are also known as “teardrop diamonds”

Pear diamonds are also known by the slightly more romantic name ‘teardrop diamonds’. This name isn’t used so commonly anymore, but if you do hear it used, they’re talking about a pear diamond.

Pear diamonds are flattering

One of the best things about pear diamonds is how flattering they are to the finger, especially for people who have small hand or shorter fingers. Pear shaped engagement rings are almost always worn with the point facing towards the end of the finger. This can make a finger look longer and slimmer.   

Pear shaped diamond buying guide

Pear diamonds are beautiful, but can be tricky to buy. In fact, well-cut pear diamonds are rare.In this section we’re going to look at the 4 Cs for pear diamonds, plus give you some extra information too, to make sure you get the most beautiful pear shaped diamond possible.

Carat weight

We’ll start with the one ‘C’ that people tend to be most concerned about: carat.Many people are looking for a nice round number like 1 carat, 1.5, 2 carats etc, which is understandable. However, carat weights are actually quite arbitrary, and should be just one of the factors considered.You can see below the difference in visible size for pear diamonds at various carat weights:One can hopefully see that the visible increase in size between two carat weights can actually be much smaller than the increase in carat weight would suggest. So, a 0.9 carat pear diamond will actually look very similar to a 1 carat stone, and depending on the way that the diamond has been cut, may even look larger.

Clarity

Clarity is one of the areas that buyers  get  concerned about. Essentially, you want to make sure that there are no visible flaws in the stone. Apart from that, it shouldn’t be a big concern.One thing that does make a difference to the clarity grade that you choose is where in the stone the inclusions are located. If they’re under the table, then you want to ensure that they are not visible as pear diamonds have a large and open table that means that inclusions that wouldn’t be able to be seen on other shapes are visible on pears. A safe choice for clarity for pear diamonds is usually VS2, but each pear diamond should be examined on an individual basis.

Cut

While there’s no official ‘cut’ grade for pear diamonds, there is a shape that you should be looking for to ensure that your pear diamond looks great and sparkles beautifully.At the pointed end, the diamond should narrow at an even rate to the tip. You don’t want the diamond to carry extra weight and have a bulbous tip . This indicates the diamond cutter was trying to increase the carat weight of the stone at the expense of balance.The bottom of the stone should have an even curve, with a regular semi-circle and without boxiness. This ensure that the stone looks better, but also sparkles more.Lastly, an important consideration in symmetry is that the tip of the stone is in-line with the center of the rounded end ensuring that light is reflected evenly within the diamond & out through the top as brilliant sparkle.ColorUnless you are choosing a ‘fancy’ color, it’s likely that you want your diamond to look as white possible.   For pear diamonds, G color is a great compromise between white color and value. If you go lower than this, there’s the possibility that some yellowness may be visible, particularly at the pointed tip.If you go higher than this then you will be paying more than you needPlenty of famous women have donned pear-cut stunners over the years from Victoria Beckham to Jessica Simpson, and more recently, even Ariana Grande for a short stint.And not just on the fingers of celebrities! Jewelers say sales of pear-shaped rings have spiked recently. This is even though the pear-shaped silhouette has a reputation of being a little less mainstream. 2019 is quickly shaping up to be the year of the pear!