Blue Nile Review

Quality of the Blue Nile Signature Round diamond

Blue Nile Signature Round diamonds are marketed as “Hearts & Arrows” diamonds that also meet certain proportion requirements. For more information about proportions, please refer to the prosumer level 1 tutorials. The first thing to note is that a Blue Nile Signature Round is not a type of proprietary cut such as the Leo diamond; it is a brand. Blue Nile’s Signature diamonds are simply typical 57 facet modern brilliant cut round diamonds that are hand selected for their optical symmetry and light performance.



Hearts & ArrowsTable of Proportions







The images above are taken from Blue Nile’s own website. The image on the left represents what Blue Nile markets as a typical Blue Nile Signature Round diamond and resembles an image of a diamond seen under a Hearts & Arrows viewer.



However, Blue Nile does not normally provide pictures of your actual diamond in Hearts & Arrows viewer, idealscope, or ASET images. What they do provide is an additional GCAL certificate. Although the GCAL certificate may seem a bit difficult to understand, despite lacking clarity, there is some value to having a GCAL report. Aside from providing some information regarding optical symmetry and light performance, GCAL independently checks the diamond to see if it matches the GIA report, an important first step in verifying diamonds. On the GCAL certificate, the first useful bit of information can be seen in a photograph made through a microscope at 10x magnification. Below are photomicrographs of 2 Blue Nile Signature diamonds that I randomly selected. Both diamonds are around 1ct GVS2.



Enlarged Photomicrograph

Photomicrograph 2



The important thing to note is the images of the bottom (pavilion) because the flat table reduces the effect of any tilt in the diamond in photography. It is clear that the second diamond has a hearts view that resembles more of what Blue Nile advertises as typical from their signature range. From my experience, I have seen stones in their signature range that resemble much more closely to perfect hearts & arrows than these examples.



The GCAL report also provides some information about the light performance of the diamond in the Optical Brilliance Analysis and Optical Symmetry Analysis.



Optical Brilliance Analysis



In the above image of the first diamond, the areas of blue are the areas where there is leakage, this image is useful for noting the contrast pattern near the edge of the diamond where some leakage can be expected.



Optical Symmetry Analysis



The Optical Symmetry Analysis is in some ways redundant, as the information could have been gleaned from the photomicrograph and the brilliance analysis. However, the extent of the light leakage can be observed and the optical symmetry of the arrows is slightly clearer than in the photomicrograph. Do NOT confuse this image with that of an ASET.



Brilliance 2

Symmetry 2



Here are the same images from the second diamond. As you can see, there is more leakage under the table in the second stone. This demonstrates the fact that better optical symmetry does not necessarily mean better light performance; they are separate issues.



Price

The biggest advantage of buying from an online vendor is price. The profit margins for Blue Nile is public information as it is a publically traded US company. Their gross margin is 18% and their net margin is 2%. These numbers are to be taken as a reference only as they include all other aspects of running a business.



For non-signature round diamonds, Blue Nile’s business model works by compiling a large number of smaller vendor’s inventories into their virtual diamond database. The prices listed represent a mark-up on the smaller vendor’s stone of about 18%. Blue Nile actually owns their signature round diamonds and therefore the mark-ups for these are higher. However, it is not uncommon to find signature stones to be cheaper than some non-signature stones as Blue Nile does not control the prices of non-signature stones. In general, Blue Nile is priced very competitively as a diamond retailer.



Information Provided

Apart from the information provided on signature round diamonds, do not expect Blue Nile to be able to provide you with any other information than the GIA diamond certificate or AGS diamond certificate. As Blue Nile does not inspect the stone themselves on non-signature stones, all they can do is ask the jeweller that actually has the stone in possession to make a general comment about the stone in question.



Ease of Searching for a Diamond

Blue Nile has a very quick, intuitive, and responsive search engine which seems to set the standard for other online vendors. It is very easy and quick to access the GIA diamond certificate for each diamond. Critical information about the table, depth, girdle thickness, fluorescence, and measurements are not immediately available and it would be nice to see them allow you to customise the information displayed in the search window rather than having to mouse-over the view button to see such information.
Search
I would also like to see them take the lead to implement the ability to filter diamonds by the girdle thickness, crown angles, and pavilion angles. Blue Nile also has a mobile app that is quite useful. One caveat is that you cannot apply advanced filtering options on the mobile app.



Value Adding Company Policies

Blue Nile offers pretty standard free shipping by courier. They also have a 30-day return policy, which is average at best. If you’re in China, the 30-day period starts from the day you order and you will lose a 20% reservation fee. It is the responsibility of the customer to insure the return package.



Blue Nile also provides an upgrade program for diamonds purchased after 1 January 2011. The biggest downfall of this upgrade program is that the upgrade must be at least 100% greater in price than the original diamond. Blue Nile also does NOT offer any buy-back policy.



Conclusion

The Blue Nile Signature Round range are diamonds that already have the highest approvals from GIA and AGS, most if not all of them can subjectively be called beautiful diamonds and that was never in doubt in this review.



Objectively, there are diamonds in the Blue Nile Signature Round diamonds that meet my prosumer requirements for both light performance and optical symmetry. However, these are rare and there is not easy way to look for them except for navigating each one’s GCAL report. I would recommend purchasing from Blue Nile if they are the cheapest solution for you and if you have found a diamond that displays excellent light performance and optical symmetry.



I would only recommend purchasing a non-signature diamond from Blue Nile if you have decided that optical symmetry is not important to you. However, choosing a diamond from Blue Nile requires you to be stricter in terms of choosing proportions for light performance.



I would NOT recommend purchasing a non-signature round from Blue Nile if you are dead set on a diamond with excellent optical symmetry or have high expectations in terms of light performance and have a goal of minimising light leakage. I would also not recommend purchasing from Blue Nile if you are uncomfortable with the procedures for returning a diamond to them, if you plan to use their trade-in policy, or if you view your diamond as money for a rainy day.



If you what I have mentioned does not concern you and you have the time and enjoy the process of personally searching for that needle in a haystack, it may be quite rewarding for you to search for a non-signature stone that also has decent light performance and optical symmetry. Otherwise, Blue Nile also serves as a great benchmark for negotiating with other vendors. In general, if you find a stone that is, say 20% cheaper than a comparable stone on Blue Nile, then you should exercise additional caution when making your purchase.