White Sapphire Vs Diamond - Which One Should You Buy?

Jewelry is something very personal and says a great deal about your style, personality and preference. Also one’s taste in jewelry is innate and what may appeal to one may not necessarily please the other. One good thing is that since there are so many options available in jewelry ranging from diamonds, colored gemstones, pearls, beads and metals, that one has a vast selection of options to choose from.

One thing however is for certain, most women invariably opt for the dazzling diamonds (a diamond ring is something that can but always sweep a woman off her feet), for no matter what, they simply never seem to get enough of these dazzling beauties that are rightly called a woman’s best friend. But there has also always been a substantial tilt towards colored gemstones as well, with women vying to accumulate these vibrant colored gemstones in their personal jewelry collection. Sapphires for one have always remained a favorite with women and they seem to be in love with the magnificent blue hue of these stones. Especially sapphire rings have become much coveted as engagement rings since Princess Diana’s famous sapphire engagement ring.

If one is asked to choose between these two stones, the glittering diamond or the sensuous sapphire, you’re sure to get a fair number voting for both these stones. While diamonds score high due to their dazzle and shimmer, sapphires make up for their brilliant color that is simply breathtaking. Most often women who prefer vibrant colors and love to incorporate that in their jewelry prefer sapphires while ladies who enjoy the breathtaking shimmer of diamonds will have it no other way but this. The selection depends entirely on one’s personal liking and taste in jewelry.

Apart from their look and color there is not much else to differentiate between diamonds and sapphires. In fact both these stones are very hard in nature. Though diamonds are the hardest mineral, sapphires score only second to diamonds in hardness. One can say that both of these stones are equally sturdy and durable in nature.

The ideal combination of jewelry of course would be diamonds and sapphires set together in a single piece of jewelry which is sure to be a heady mix of color as well as glitter. But yes, if left to decide between these two stones, personal liking is sure to rule the one’s decision.

By - Angara.com

It may be interesting to quote as we move on with our discussion that before synthetic gems came into vogue and cubic zirconia was developed, white sapphire was substituted for diamonds in jewelry.

But as per experts natural White Sapphire has always been a beautiful gemstone but comparing it with Diamonds will not be very fair thing because diamond is unmatchable for its sparkling brilliance. This said, we might add that market is flooded with many colorless gems that resemble a Diamond. So, whenever buying jewelry always double-check. You can also take the help of the trained gemologist, who can easily tell if you are getting the real thing or not.

Technically, you can note that diamonds have that sparkling brilliance thanks to their high refractive index (RI) and dispersion of 2.4 and 0.04 respectively. The stone that comes the nearest to diamond on this scale is colorless Zircon with RI ranging between 1.77 and 1.98 and dispersion of 0.039 (almost equal to diamonds 0.04). As for white sapphire, the refractive index is somewhat in the same range as zircon at 1.76 to 1.77 but its dispersion is pretty low at 0.018. So, if you what to check out the manifestation of these technical details look at the diamond in natural daylight. You can easily see the color of rainbow around the diamond while in case of white sapphire you will only see white light.

Now these details show that, Zircon is the stone closest to diamond but still people may prefer white sapphire. This is so because Zircon has a problem that isits hardness. Gemologists usually refer to Friedrich Mohs scale to measure the hardness of minerals. According to this scale, stone are marked in grades 1 to 10 and stones that cannot be scratched by any other stone like diamond is graded 10 while sapphire that can be scratched only by diamond is graded 9 and so on. As for Zircon, it has about the same hardness as Tanzanite (7) and can only scratch a few other gems but it can be scratched easily.

So, as we have discussed that sapphire is the sturdiest stone just after diamond so it may be the next best option. Besides this it is also a fact that white sapphires are a brilliant and beautiful natural gem, which can be the best option for durable for jewelry. So, as we conclude, white sapphires can be a good option if the budget does not allow for a Diamond and yet you still want a natural gemstone.