Salt and pepper diamonds are cheaper alternatives to traditional diamonds as they are thought of as being less ‘beautiful’, but where can you buy them in the United States?
There are plenty of jewelers who offer salt and pepper diamonds across the United States – in fact, many mainstream jewelers have them as an option. A few randomly-picked names include Point No Point Studio, Alexis Russell, Gemone Diamond, and Chinchar Maloney.
Read on to learn more about salt and pepper diamonds, how they occur, and what they’re worth.
An Alternative To Tradition
When you walk into a jewelry store looking for an engagement ring, you’re ideally looking for the most brightly-sparkling diamond there, right? You want the perfect ring that lights up the room, boasting a considerably-large diamond that shines with brilliance.
However, there’s an alternative to that traditional line of thinking, and it’s called a salt and pepper diamond. Now, you’re probably thinking, “Why would I want a diamond that doesn’t sparkle,” but there’s a little more to it than that.
Salt and pepper diamonds are dramatically unique from one to the next, with no two diamonds having the exact same coloration or patterning. You see, a salt and pepper diamond is so named for the distribution of inclusions scattered within the stone, giving the appearance of peppering.
These inclusions are the result of microscopic flaws occurring within the stone as it develops over the course of tens of millions of years. Of course, they’re also possibly the result of forced flaws occurring as a lab-grown diamond is developed, which takes just ten days.
Regardless of the nature of its conception, a salt and pepper diamond is quite literally littered with these inclusions, which differ from stone to stone. The intense heat and pressure that forms the diamond also give way to these inclusions occurring, and you’re left with a salt and pepper diamond.
The end result is a stone that doesn’t reflect light so well, therefore it doesn’t sparkle. However, it bears the exact same composition and hardness as a regular diamond, and it can be cut in the exact same way – it’s just the coloration that differs.
And, as a result of that discoloration, a salt and pepper diamond becomes a much cheaper alternative to a regular, sparkling diamond. In fact, a 1-carat example will be several times cheaper than a standard diamond, making it a much more affordable alternative.
Time To Go Shopping
So, now that I’ve convinced you to buy one, where in the United States can you shop for a salt and pepper diamond? Thankfully, most mainstream jewelers should offer salt and pepper diamonds on an as-and-when basis, but what if you want a more independent retailer?
We ran a quick search and looked for some independent jewelers in the United States that were offering salt and pepper diamonds. Firstly, we found Point No Point Studio, a jeweler trading out of Washington State that offers a diverse line of salt and pepper diamond rings.
Point No Point offers attractive salt and pepper diamond rings for as little as two thousand dollars, but they also sell cut, loose diamonds. Their scale slides all the way up to around eight thousand dollars, and that will get you a remarkable, 2.5-carat diamond engagement ring.
Next, we found Alexis Russell, a New York-based jeweler that offers extensive customization options when it comes to crafting a salt and pepper diamond ring. With Alexis Russell, you can pick the setting, style, gold, and the cut of the diamond you’re most interested in.
We ran through a few mock-ups, and the most expensive option we could design was a little under four thousand dollars in total cost. However, at the most basic end of the scale, we’d be paying around two thousand dollars for a salt and pepper diamond ring from Alexis Russell.
Finally, we came across Gemone Diamonds, an Oregon-founded jeweler that offered a remarkably diverse range of salt and pepper diamonds. They boasted a broad scale, starting at just forty dollars for a tiny, loose salt and pepper diamond.
Bizarrely, Gemone Diamonds also offers collections of diamonds – quite literally a handful of salt and pepper stones of all shapes and sizes. You can purchase around 40-carats worth of diamonds from Gemone for around seven thousand dollars.
So, there you go – there are plenty of options out there, it’s just up to you which you’d prefer to shop with. Ultimately, you can’t go wrong with a salt and pepper diamond, unless you’re looking for awe-inspiring brilliance.