Monthly Archives: July 2017

  1. Top 5 Best-Selling Moissanite Engagement Rings by Charles & Colvard

    Top 5 Best-Selling Moissanite Engagement Rings by Charles & Colvard

    You’ve found the love of your life and now you need to find an engagement ring she’ll love too!

    Choosing the right ring can be a daunting task, but we’ve pulled together a few of our best-selling engagement rings to help steer you in the right direction. It’s no shock that our Forever One Round Moissanite Six Prong Solitaire is at number 1, since it is a timeless, classic beauty, but there are some more unique engagement ring designs that are popping up in the Top 5. Read on to learn about Charles & Colvard's most popular engagement rings featuring stunning moissanite in various styles.

    Don’t forget ladies, it’s okay to give your man a little nudge as to what you like!

    Our 5 Best-Selling Engagement Rings

    Round Forever One Moissanite Solitaire

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  2. What is a Radiant Cut and Why is it so Popular for Engagement Rings?

    What is a Radiant Cut and Why is it so Popular for Engagement Rings?

    If you’re looking for something unique, radiant cuts are the perfect choice. In 1977, Henry Grossbard developed the radiant cut by combining the elegant “step-cut” used for emeralds with the “brilliant cut” used for rounds. 

    The Radiant Cut

    With its facets and an elongated shape, radiant cuts have revolutionized the jewelry industry’s view of square and rectangular cut stones. Because of the faceting required for a square or rectangular stone, they lacked the brilliance and fire of the oval or pear. It would take extraordinary craftsmanship and years of experimentation before

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  3. Understanding Gemstone Brilliance and What Makes Moissanite Out-Sparkle Other Gems

    Understanding Gemstone Brilliance and What Makes Moissanite Out-Sparkle Other Gems

    What is gemstone brilliance?

    Your gemstone’s sparkle, or brilliance, is an optical property affected by its brilliance refractive index or BRI. When talking about brilliance in gemstones, we are referring to the light refracting in the interior of the stone, not the light reflecting off its surface. Brilliance is one of three terms used to describe the appearance of a gemstone as it reflects light. The other two are fire and luster. You can read more about a gemstone’s fire in this blog post.

    What makes moissanite more brilliant than other gems?

    The refractive index of gemstones is determined by directing light into the gemstone and then measuring the speed light reflects or refracts off its facets. The numerical result is

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  4. Gemstone Fire: What Is Moissanite's Fire & How It Compares to Other Gems

    Gemstone Fire: What Is Moissanite's Fire & How It Compares to Other Gems

    What is gemstone fire?

    When light hits your gemstone and reflects, you see a sparkle and a prism of colors. These colors are known as fire. The gemological term for this is dispersion.

    What gives a gemstone its fire?

    A gemstone’s fire is determined by a gemological property called dispersion. When pure white light enters a non-opaque object such as a gemstone, it breaks into different wavelengths of light that are refracted by its internal facets. These spectral colors are the rainbow-like effect you see when you look at a gemstone.

    Does fire affect price of a gem?

    Yes, indirectly, a gemstone’s fire does affect the price of the stone because it shows the viewer how well the stone is cut. When properly cut, a gemstone will emit maximum fire and brilliance. If the stone is cut too shallow or deep, light will leak

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  5. 5 Tips for Cleaning and Taking Care of Your Fine Jewelry

    5 Tips for Cleaning and Taking Care of Your Fine Jewelry

    When you purchase a piece of fine jewelry, you expect it to last a lifetime. And, it should. We’ve been in the gemstone business for more than 20 years and we’ve asked our resident expert Don O’Connell, chief operating officer and senior vice president of supply chain, to provide some helpful tips on how to take care of your fine jewelry.

    Tips to making your jewelry and gemstones last a lifetime:

    1. When in doubt, take it off. 

    Fine jewelry, especially engagement and wedding rings, are designed for everyday wear. Moissanite, for example is measured at 9.25 on the MOHs hardness scale, which means it will resist scratching and daily wear and tear. In comparison, the hardest mineral on earth, diamond, is measured at a 10 on the MOHs hardness scale. Some gemstones, like emeralds and sapphires, are more susceptible to damage, while certain metals are softer than others. 

    Like softer gemstones, certain malleable

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