The Right Metal for Your Engagement Ring

If you’ve started engagement ring shopping, or “engagement ring browsing”, its precursor, then you know your options are basically infinite. No longer are your choices relegated to yellow gold or white gold for your solitaire. Now, you can have any configuration you’d like, including aforementioned solitaire. And it doesn’t even have to be a diamond. It doesn’t even need to have a gemstone at all. However, most engagement rings do still require some metal. And that’s the fun part. Choosing the right metal for your engagement ring can change the entire feel of its design. Check it out:

Both of these Uneek halo engagement rings are gorgeous, modern halo style engagement rings. But using rose gold for the halo metal gives the bottom ring a totally different look, one that’s more feminine, but also more eclectic. If the ring was entirely rose gold it would skew warmer, more vintage. So the feel of your ring is very much dependent not eh metal choice. White gold and platinum are classic, yet modern. Yellow gold is decidedly vintage. Rose gold can go either way depending on the style of the ring. But all design options aside, which metal is best for your diamond? Which will make your rock shine? Here are a few tips.

Platinum: Choose platinum when you want a turn of the century antique look. Platinum’s patina looks perfect on rings from the Edwardian – Art Deco eras, and works beautifully with both Old European and Rose cut diamonds. It’s also lovely as a backdrop to gemstone accented rings, especially emeralds. You can use this combination of gemstones (namely emeralds) and platinum to make a yellow-tinged diamond look magnificently colorless.

White Gold: White gold is almost universally flattering to diamond colors. It can make a light fancy yellow diamond appear more vibrant (especially when paired with a 22kt yellow gold basket), it can tone down any fluorescence in a white diamond, and it is a versatile metal for diamonds that fall squarely in the average color grade. Because white gold is the most popular engagement ring metal right now, it’s readily available in a ton of designs that can complement a cloudy stone, a small one, or one whose cut is less than ideal. It’s the safe choice, a classic look, and patently a good friend to most diamonds. The only time to avoid white gold (and platinum) would be with a yellow stone that’s too pale to skew fancy yellow.

Yellow Gold: Yellow gold is the semi-yellow diamond’s best friend. It can use a bezel setting to make a light yellow diamond look fancy, or it can make an l color look warm, inviting and lit by candle light. It’s a gorgeous metal for fair complexions and blondes, and gives any ring a vintage look.

Rose Gold: Rose gold is perfect for blue-tinged diamonds. The warmth of the pink gold contrasts nicely with those diamonds, and it also looks impeccable with bright white diamonds. A diamond of exceptional color, but iffy clarity looks perfect in pink. Of course if the diamond is D, Flawless, it will almost always be set in platinum so as not to detract at all from the diamond (or cast any ambient color on the stone.) But back to pink. It looks equally smashing with brown diamonds of any intensity, creating a warm and rich look thats very popular. It also looks beautiful with pink diamonds and pink sapphires, and lends extra femininity to any engagement ring.