My Zoara GIA Triple Excellent Experience

Stay tune for updates! ;)
Finally, my review has completed! Enjoy reading!

Update 23 July 2018
Update links.
Update video.

Update 23 July 2018
Update content.

Finally, I have the time to update some details about my experience with Zoara!

Now, the reason I bought this diamond is because I find that a lot of YouTube videos or comparison websites are usually comparing a super ideal with excellent proportions against a standard GIA Triple Excellent with not-too-good proportions, such as a diamond with 41.4 degree crown angle. Therefore, it makes me wonder, how does it fare if a super ideal is placed side-by-side against a standard GIA Triple Excllent with pretty decent proportions and pretty decent cut (meaning the arrows are pretty much well-aligned) without considering the Hearts precision? I won't be expecting I am getting a Hearts & Arrows diamond from Zoara, but with decent proportions and decent arrows, I am betting on the diamond to exhibit pretty decent Hearts as well.

Here, have a look at the diamond I bought:
https://www.zoara.com/diamonds/p_round_excellent_cut_e_vvs2#?p=8832676&a_aid=myengringexp

GIA 0.22ct E VVS2 - 6282249302

GIA Cert 6282249302

This diamond is actually recommended by Zoara's diamond consultant (Kevin). I just passed him my specs and my budget and this is the best result he can come out with. He has been very helpful and patient in assisting me. In fact, all of the consultants I dealt with are pretty high quality.

I requested for the performance images - Hearts, Arrows, ASET, and IdealScope... without much hope of expecting them to have it. And not to my surprise, Kevin told me that they do not have the ASET image (and thus I assume all other images as well). Well, no problem at all, as this is well within my expectation and the actual diamond image looks pretty okay. I proceed with my purchase and not too long after, another consultant (Gabriela) followed-up with me with an apology note, stating that they did have the images, and she attached the ASET, the Hearts, and the Arrows for me. No IdealScope though, but seriously, this really surprised me and I am thrilled!

ASET

Hearts

Arrows

As you can see, the ASET is not the best out there. However, it shows minimal light leakage and the contrast level is pretty good. As for the Hearts, it is obviously not Hearts & Arrows, but I would say this is a near Hearts & Arrows diamond. You can see that they are some bending tips at most of the hearts and some clefts in some of the hearts. For the arrows, there is some slight misalignment at the 12 o'clock position. Overall, this is a rather decent diamond that stands out of the crowd and it will be better than a lot of diamonds out there in the market. You may even notice some retailers will even try to sell these kind of diamonds as Hearts & Arrows diamond when it is actually not quite.

At this point, you may be wondering why do I even bother writing about this, shouldn't we focus on super ideals or Hearts & Arrows only? My answer is I am actually trying to share my findings about my curiosity with you, and I wanted to give standard GIA Triple Excellent a fairer overview and not blindly saying that we cannot get a decent diamond at a cheaper price. However, please note that my view is subjective, "decent" or not is really subject to individual.

All right, below are the Hearts I captured myself at home:

Hearts captured by me at home, hey looks pretty alright!

ASET (Amateur shot) - The white light below is from my phone screen and the plastic looking thing behind is actually cellophane tape which I use to tap the bottom of my diamond to the phone screen so that it can stand. Overall, looks pretty excellent!

Another try on the ASET. It looks slightly whitish beneath the table, most likely because of my iPad camera and also because the screen brightness. Overall, looks great!

The IdealScope - Looks very red. Great light return!

IdealScope Shot 2

Now, let's compare with my super ideal - 0.206ct E VS2 Black by Brian Gavin!

0.206ct E VS2 Black by Brian Gavin

Hearts - 0.206ct E VS2 Black by Brian Gavin

ASET - Shot 1

ASET Shot 2

IdealScope Shot 1

IdealScope Shot 2

IdealScope Shot 3

IdealScope Shot 4

All right, needless to say, the ASET looks perfect! However, the IdealScope seems to lose a bit to Zoara? Again, the slightly whitish table is probably attributed to brightness level. If you look at shot 2 and shot 4, they look rather decent. If you look again closely, the Zoara's table did look contain some very slight whitish as well, just that it is not as white as Brian Gavin's stone. If my memory serves me right, I did change the brightness level of the background when taking the pictures, so that is one variable to take into consideration. Another variable will be the auto mode on my iPad Pro 10.5 camera that I used to capture all these ASET and IdealScope images. It may be slightly different between shots. If you are curious how my IdealScope look at Brian Gavin's side, here it is:

0.206ct E VVS2 Black by Brian Gavin ASET

Now, as you can see, it is very much dependent on camera settings and the environment that we capture the stones. For Zoara, the ASET captured by the diamond supplier looks slightly worse that what I managed to capture. While for Brian Gavin, the IdealScope I captured looks slightly worse than what the diamond supplier managed to capture. One thing I know is that we do not have to be concern about the light return of both stones because they are both pretty excellent already. If you ask me, I would still stick with Brian Gavin for guarantee performance, but I would stick with Zoara for overall value for money stones - Stones that can perform and do not break the bank. These stones however, is quite hard to come by.

Now, enjoy the video below which shows a comparison between my Black by Brian Gavin vs my Zoara in my dark study room with my Galaxy Note 5 flash light moving on top of both diamonds horizontally. Video captured using iPad Pro 10.5.

Left - 0.206ct E VS2 Black by Brian Gavin.

Right - 0.22ct E VVS2 GIA Triple Excellent from Zoara.

And below are my screen captures on MoneyMatch, showing the transaction for both diamonds:

Zoara's stone at USD 453.55.

Brian Gavin's stone at USD 532.24.

To be fair, the rate when I bought my Zoara is better (RM 1 = USD 0.2566) compared to the time I bought my Black by Brian Gavin (RM 1 = USD 0.2346) Also, I had a RM 25 voucher to apply on Zoara's stone. Nonetheless, the price is still cheaper, the stone is slightly bigger, and the clarity is 2 grades higher. The performance? In the video, both looks great, with Zoara showing more bold flashes and Brian Gavin showing more glittering facets. This is because the Zoara has bolder arrows. Bold arrows gives bold flashes. If I remember correctly, at some point of the video, I did make the light source to move slightly slower on top of each diamonds respectively. The result did make the diamonds to look better.

Now, what about Hearts & Arrows or super ideal? There is a subtle difference if you ask me. When I pull the light source away from both diamonds, I can see that the Black by Brian Gavin shows small spark at the edge of the diamond. The question whether it is worth it or not, is entirely up to individual. Before I answer that question, I have to say personally, I am a fan of Hearts & Arrows (if not I won't be writing this blog). The higher quality in terms of precision makes me feel that I bought something worthwhile. It is an art, and it is about workmanship. If you want consistency, you can hardly go wrong with Black by Brian Gavin. However, now, when it comes to price, Zoara is very value for money in this case if we take into consideration the 4Cs alone. There is really no right or wrong answer no matter which side you choose.

The only thing I can advise is that if you are buying from Zoara is that always check out the proportions first! The pavilion angle, the crown angle, and the table size percentage are important. For example, a 41.4 degree pavilion angle is 99% guaranteed to leak light, a 35.5 crown angle is risky enough, and a 36 degree crown angle is an almost guaranteed light leaking angle. If there is an actual diamond image, it may speed up your choosing process as well. However, if there is only certificate, do not go ahead and buy blindly, instead, talk to their friendly sales consultant and request for the actual diamond image (must have), the actual diamond video (if any), and the other performance images (if any). In fact, you can leave the diamond choosing work on the shoulder's of the sales consultant, just give them the proportion range you are looking for, together with the 4Cs and your budget.

Now, the hiccup.

The hiccup I faced when I purchase from Zoara is that initially, they provided me with an Hong Kong account number for me to remit the amount in USD (by default). This is definitely not recommend as MoneyMatch will have a surcharge for transferring a foreign currency that is different from the destination's country local currency. For this, you can simply request for Zoara's US account in USA. By this way, you can prevent the unnecessary surcharge.

Now, the next hiccup, while MoneyMatch has successfuly transmit the amount to their partner to proceed with the payment, but there is no way for them to attach the order id for their partner. Because of this, the shipment has been delayed. FYI, I successfully transferred the money on the 3rd of April 2017 but I only received my diamond on the 12th of April 2017. Overall, considering this is an overseas purchase, some may think it was already fast enough, but given the fact that diamonds from other vendors like Brian Gavin Diamonds and WhiteFlash can ship even faster, I would say this was slower than expected. However, I have to stress that the fault is not with Zoara, instead, I would say MoneyMatch should have passed the order id as the remark to their partner. Zoara had explicitly stated that need that order id in order to map back the purchase. If not, you can also pass Zoara the payment slip and they will do the necessary. But then again, the payment slip was from MoneyMatch's partner and MoneyMatch will not provide it unless you ask for it. So, please always remember to ask for the partner's payment slip if you ever transfer to Zoara via MoneyMatch. It will be something like this:

Payment slip from MoneyMatch's partner.

Pass this payment slip to Zoara's sales consultant along with your order id, and they will do the necessary. My diamond was shipped from Hong Kong, so it actually took only 1 day to arrive via Fedex International Priority, which is very reliable.

Now, the packaging. Have a look:

Secure packaging.

Very presentable box. Huge!

Nicely done inside as well, by the way, the box can be magnetically locked.

Appraisal letter and GIA cert within the rectangular envelope.

A round loose diamond box within the LED ring box!

Some introduction to GIA.

Some introduction to fluorescence.

The GIA dossier/cert.

Receipt.

Appraisal letter, in case needs to buy insurance perhaps?

Oh what's this?

This is actually a cushion to hold the engagement ring once you have set the loose diamond on a ring setting. You can then put back this cushion into the LED ring box earlier! How thoughtful!

To conclude, my Zoara experience is definitely fantastic. Yes, we need to find harder to get the right stones, but the savings may be worthwhile. Also, they are one of the cheapest online diamond seller and usually, it can be cheaper than local ones as well, provided the local vendors do not do any promotions. But even if they did do promotions, the higher the carat weight goes, Zoara can still be cheaper. Is Zoara the cheapest? Not exactly, not always. They are other similar online vendors that are running on multiple listing service as well. But overall, they are one of the cheapest. If you ever find a GIA graded diamond online, there is a chance that Zoara carries the same stone and you will then be able to make price comparison. If you wish to find out the price, please email me at myengringexp at gmail dot com.

To illustrate on what I have said, refer to the two links below:
https://www.jamesallen.com/loose-diamonds/round-cut/0.30-carat-f-color-vs2-clarity-excellent-cut-sku-5294972 - USD 840

https://www.zoara.com/diamonds/p_round_excellent_cut_f_vs2#?p=9291618&a_aid=myengringexp - USD 694

They are actually the same diamond, but one costs USD 840 while the other costs USD 694. I am not sure whether James Allen includes shipment or not, but I know Zoara has not include the shipping price for Malaysia, which is a nett USD 30. So, let's add that in. Now, it is USD 840 vs. USD 724. See, still cheaper!

Okay, that's all for now, I will update the links later. ;)http://whiteflash.com?a_aid=myengringexp