Diamonds are a girl’s best friend. But how many times have you taken an escort for a date with this best pal? Whether it’s your mother, friend from diamond merchant family, all-knowing cousin, there’s always someone you tag along. Reason? You are never sure if you are getting the real thing for the price you are paying.

Take heart girl. You’re not alone. Not many of us are confident enough to march to a jewellery store, pick up a piece of our choice, pay a month’s salary for it and walk out satisfied with a good buy. There’s always a niggling doubt in the back of our mind about being taken for a ride.

Counting Carats
Jewellery shopping is moving from being a special occasion purchase to a ‘no-reason-to-celebrate’ one. With the introduction of lightweight collections at lightweight prices by well-known brands, many of us can now afford to probably pick up a piece more often than earlier.

So you no longer need to consult mum or raid a bank to buy that pendant. But how do you ensure that you buy the right stuff at the right price? First, decide on a budget and what you really want out of it — it could be a small gold pendant, a coveted solitaire or a gold bracelet.

Now go window-shopping with determined purpose. Browsing around at several stores will give you an idea of what is available in your budget, the current designs and prices, etc. Once you’ve made a decision to buy, you need to find the right jeweller. Ask around for the name of some reputed jewellers in the city and then go check them out. You could talk to them and find out what they offer. “Don’t be afraid to ask questions and take your time looking for the right piece,” say experts from De Beers.
Now comes the trust factor, which is extremely important. When you finally plunge into your pockets, decide on a jeweller you can trust, says Saba Ali Khan, who designs precious and semi precious jewellery. Trust usually comes from speaking to people who have been buying from a particular jeweller, checking out the services offered by them or as designer and jewel enthusiast Naina Balsavar puts it, simply by intuition.

Knowing The Rock
Even if you’re on a budget, chasing a bargain could prove very costly. Instead, go in for a smaller piece. Avoid unbelievable discounts and shops that promise wholesale prices to retail customers. When buying gold, avoid shops that claim to sell gold at a lower rate than the prevailing one, says a leading city jeweller. Most reputed stores now offer a guarantee, certificate or a buy-back option, as a security offer to customers. “Insist on a bill wherever you buy the jewellery,” says Naina.

Always insist on a guarantee on the carat and weight from the store. It’s important as in the case of a faulty piece, you could always take it back to the store. Like in everything else, it pays to know your rocks and stones before you go on a bauble buying spree. If you are out to buy gold, Naina advises that you keep yourself aware of the current rate by checking the morning’s paper.

If it’s diamonds that you are going for, keep yourself aware of the four C’s — Cut, colour, carat and clarity. It also helps to learn that a carat is divided into 100 points. So, if a diamond is of 25 points, it is a quarter of a carat or 0.25 carats. Although your final choice will depend on your taste and budget, it is advisable to weigh the importance of each and then buy.

The Final Cut
“Don’t evaluate every stone in the piece unless of course you are going for a solitaire,” says Saba, “Instead, get a general idea of piece and check on the colour and quality. If it’s a solitaire, most jewellers suggest that you look at the cut, which determines the sparkle of the rock and the colour, which affects its brilliance. “Always check the prices in other shops before buying,” mentions Naina, who always tells her own customers to do so.

Little nuggets of knowledge like these go a long way in helping you decide whether the price is right or not and removing doubts from your mind.

E.g, jewellery pieces with semi-precious stones can often be expensive because of the high cost of the stones. “Few people know this,” says Saba, “for instance, a very high quality tourmaline would work out to be more expensive than low quality ruby.” It works the same way with diamonds. You may want a solitaire but because of budget constraints go in for a stone of lesser quality.

So once you know what goes into it, jewellery shopping isn’t really too much work. So go ahead, empty your bank and splurge!