Precious Metals

Noa Fine Jewelry is made of only 14k or 18k gold, or platinum - each combines durability with beauty.

Why only 14k and 18k gold?

Pure gold (24k) is an extremely soft metal, making it unsuitable for fine jewelry. That’s why, despite its beauty, the ideal choice is 14k or 18k gold, containing pure gold (58.3% in 14k and 75% in 18k) mixed with carefully selected harder alloys. Lower karat gold (10k or even 9k) contains small portions of gold (41.7% in 10k and 37.5% in 9k), making the metal lack the beautiful gold appeal. This makes 14k or 18k gold the sweet spot to optimize for both beauty and durability for fine jewelry, where 18k contains more gold, making it more expensive and less durable than 14k.

What’s the difference between platinum and white gold?

White gold is an alloy composed of gold mixed with white metals like silver, palladium, or nickel. Even with these white metals, it appears slightly yellow on its own. The bright white, mirror-like finish is thanks to rhodium plating, which also improves durability and resistance to tarnishing - but it doesn’t last forever and requires occasional replating and higher maintenance than yellow gold or platinum.

Platinum is exceptional for its durability, and its natural brilliant white luster that seems similar to rhodium-plated white gold, except that platinum doesn’t require any plating or replating. Platinum is also extremely strong and durable, making it exceptionally resistant to scratching and tarnishing, and requiring only minimal maintenance. With all its benefits, it’s also more rare and more expensive than gold.

Why not silver?

Silver is the way to go when the preference is low costs rather than high standards. Silver is a soft metal and it’s extremely easy to scratch, break, bend, and tarnish. In jewelry made with soft metals like silver, there’s a trade off between elegance and durability. Since we don’t want to choose between elegance and durability in fine jewelry, silver isn’t used in Noa Fine Jewelry to ensure all pieces are both elegant and durable.

Why not gold-filled or gold-plated?

These are other metals with only a thin layer of gold around them, and this layer is extremely easily and quickly removed. The exposed metals lack the shine and other qualities we look for in fine jewelry. They also tarnish very quickly in a way that no cleaning or polishing would fix.

My personal favorite is 14k yellow gold, not just because I love how it looks (I definitely do!) - it’s also sure to keep its look since it bears the natural color of gold and doesn’t require plating or replating like white gold, and it’s harder and more durable than 18k without sacrificing gold’s natural beauty. The other extremely durable choice would be platinum, but gold is more affordable.

Diamonds

Natural vs. lab-grown

Oftentimes, natural stones are just better than lab-grown, either in their appearance or durability, or both. Not so with diamonds. You might prefer natural to lab-grown, but you (or even the most experienced of jewelers or gemologists) won’t be able to tell them apart without special equipment.

Natural and lab-grown diamonds are identical not only optically, but also chemically and physically. Diamonds are 58 times harder than any other material on earth, whether they're natural or lab-grown. They also get certified in the same way by the most reputable gemological laboratories, like the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), and evaluated by all the same characteristics through the same grading process. The only difference is one grew underneath the earth and another in a lab, which makes lab-grown diamonds much more affordable.

Noa Fine Jewelry sources only the highest-standards, conflict-free diamonds, both lab-grown and natural. What does it mean for diamonds to be of the highest standards? Let’s break it down.

Cut

This is not about a diamond’s shape (round, oval, cushion, etc), but how a diamond interacts with light or sparkles. Cut also describes the overall design of a diamond, including the arrangement and proportions of the diamond’s facets. A masterfully-cut diamond - every diamond at Noa Fine Jewelry - has crisp and well-aligned facets that give it strong brilliance (brightness), fire, and scintillation.

Below you can see how light travels through the diamonds according to the depth of their cut: too deep or too shallow, and the light reflection goes downward towards your skin. Optimally cut diamonds are the ones that reflect light beautifully and have the diamond’s desired brilliance.

Noa Fine Jewelry features only optimally cut diamonds, so you don’t miss out on your diamonds’ sparkles.

Clarity

Because all diamonds - lab-grown and natural - are formed under intense heat and pressure, virtually all diamonds have internal features (called inclusions) and surface features (called blemishes). The clarity of a diamond is based on the size, position, visibility and number of these inclusions or blemishes.

The GIA clarity grading scale goes from Flawless to Imperfect as follows:

• FL (Flawless) and IF (internally flawless) diamonds are extremely rare and not commonly available.
• VS (very slightly included) and VVS (very, very slightly included) diamonds seem flawless even under magnification. This is the highest quality that is generally available.
• SI (slightly included) diamonds have inclusions that can be noticeable to the unaided eye and interfere with the diamond’s brilliance and reflection of light.
• I (included or imperfect) diamonds have even more visible inclusions, which damage not only the diamond’s brilliance but can also affect durability and increase the risk of chipping.

Noa Fine Jewelry diamonds’ clarity is always VS and above.

Color

Aside from the exception of fancy color diamonds - such as pinks and blues, or even yellows if it's a stronger yellow than the Z on the scale below - the less color, the higher the quality of the diamond. The industry standard’s color-grading scale for diamonds is the GIA D-to-Z Color Scale, going from D for colorless (highest quality) to Z for light yellow or brown hues (lowest quality). The reason that GIA started the scale with D is simply that they wanted to avoid confusion with previous scales.

Noa Fine Jewelry diamonds are only between D-H.

Carat

Carat, or weight, determines only the value (and cost) of a diamond, not the quality like the 3 Cs above, so any carat is fair game at Noa Fine Jewelry. Of course, the heavier the diamond, the pricier it gets.

Fun fact: the term carat weight comes from carob seeds and has been in use since the 1500s. Carat is used globally and defined as 200 milligrams.

More soon . . .

Come back soon for more information on diamond shapes, and other gemstones like sapphires, opals, and pearls!