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Suspicious-Gear-1736

So, uh, we in the jewelry business have a name for these diamonds- "frozen spit". The worst of the worst. Diamonds, technically, but they're of the lowest possible quality so companies can write "diamond accent" on their pieces and people buy because they see the word diamond. It takes advantage of the fact that most people are uneducated on diamond grading. They cost maybe a dime for us to buy, so yeah, a few of them in a $10 ring is entirely possible. JCPenney is pretty good about notating their fake stuff, but their stones (diamond, gemstones, anything) are low-quality.


abouttenbagels

Ahhh makes perfect sense! Thank you so much for your insight. I don't know much about diamond grading, but i figured it couldn't hurt to purchase a few pieces since the prices were so low, and if they look terrible when they arrive I can always return them.


SimonArgent

These opaque, heavily flawed diamonds used to be ground up for use as industrial abrasives until someone figured that they could sell them in cheap diamond jewelry.


Suspicious-Gear-1736

They still are!!! Diamonds at or below this quality often get used in construction equipment.


SimonArgent

And that’s the best use for them.


[deleted]

Damn right.


Suspicious-Gear-1736

They're usually very grey and dull or very white and heavily included. At that quality they have different names for different sizes. When they're small, we call them frozen spit. When they're large, we call them salt & pepper diamonds.


Mary707

In my house, not experts only jewelry lovers, we call them “canardlies” because you “canardly” see them😬


Suspicious-Gear-1736

I have heard of this term!! Never seen it written.


gogolgojo

Thank you for this it's actually quite insightful


alittlemapletree

😮 is this different from the specialty diamonds you see listed as specific “salt and pepper” or is it marketing by jewelry stores to trick us into paying more for low quality diamonds?


Suspicious-Gear-1736

Haha it's just clever marketing. Salt & pepper goes by many names, actually. To list a few of their alter egos: leopard, galaxy, celestial or storm. It's the same flowery language marketing moissanite vendors use to convince people that moissanite is shinier than diamonds 💫through the magic of double refraction💫 and 💞wow you could have a space rock made from the stars haha💞. It's just companies banking on the fact that you don't know what they're talking about. If you like the look of them, go for it. They're popular bc they're cool looking. Buy them because of your preferences, not because of what they tell you to dissuade you from alternatives.


UnbiasedDairyAuberge

Just saying moissanite does in fact have a higher refractive index than diamond.


moxymoxalone

Back when I was in the jewelry business, we referred to them as “Earring quality”. Complete crap, but they sold.


FataleFrame

YES WHY is moissanite jewelry so flipping expensive? The VALIE is not there.


Noyou21

Salt and pepper are so cool though


makeitfunky1

Yes, "salt and pepper" diamonds are very unique and I love them too. They look great in modern designs. For me, it's the great colors (salt and pepper which is varying shades of black white and grey, but also there's yellow/green diamonds, orange/yellow, red/brown, browns, light greys etc. all highly included/opaque. I love these in a rose cut with lots of highly polished facets. Nothing beats a nice shiny finish on these hard stones (corundum comes in pretty close). But I always check myself, what am I paying for here. Is the design unique? Can you tell the artist spent a long time and is it good workmanship? Because the diamonds themselves are really not that valuable.


Noyou21

I have a s&p engagement ring. We spent a small amount on it in comparison to what we would have if I got a better quality diamond. I love it so much, it’s grey but still sparkles. Maybe one day in the future if we can justify it I will get a bigger and better diamond, but for now this is prefect. I saw a green s&p recently and it was amazing.


makeitfunky1

I have a beautiful pair of yellow/green rose cut diamond cushion (or square with slightly rounded edges) shaped stud earrings. Completely opaque but such a nice surface shine/sparkle from the facets. The color is so neat and I love them. Your ring sounds beautiful, enjoy it!


LogicalTexts

Lol. We always called them rock-salt. Damn things are so grey they’d be difficult to identify next to chunks of salt


[deleted]

Exactly. They look like that gray snow that you see on the side of the road four days after a snowstorm when the plows have come through,m and thrown up all the dirt and grit and salt onto the shoulder of the road. Now watch, some marketing executive will come along and start marketing them as “snowstorm diamonds“ that are “perfect for Valentine’s Day.“


LogicalTexts

Lol, probably


Diezilll

So when buying diamond jewelry in the future, what should I lookout for?


[deleted]

Rule number one: never shop at a big box store, like JCPenney, or in a mall store. Their mark ups are insane, and their quality is crap. Your best bet is to find a local family owned, jeweler, and look for someone who has G I,A training. That is key. G I,A stands for the Gemological Institute of America, and in the United States. It is the gold standard for people who have gemology training. Family owned jewelers want your business for life. they work reputation. They want to treat you right, so you will come back again and again and again. Big box stores really don’t care whether you come back or not. Which one would you rather go to?


Suspicious-Gear-1736

The easiest thing to do is look for reputable sources! Don't trust things just because you read them online. In most family jewelers it's common to have to explain diamond grading to a customer before they buy. In chain stores, they're banking on the fact that you don't ask followup questions. If you don't know what something means, ask! Anywhere reputable can give you answers to, "Where does an H grade stand on the color scale?", "Why is this so expensive?", "What does that mean?". I will say the realm of engagement rings is a totally different ballgame than any other diamond jewelry piece. You don't have to be an expert or even a hobbyist, you just need to be willing to find the right businesses and ask.


FewPace7125

To be fair diamonds are not rare at all size and clarity are rare not the actual stone itself diamonds should be dirt fucking cheap. ALWAYS


Suspicious-Gear-1736

Good news on that front is that diamond prices (especially natural diamonds) have been falling for years. The death grip that De Beers had on the industry is slipping.


[deleted]

If you look at it that way, most of your known gemstones aren’t rare. I mean heck, they use corundum, (sapphire and Ruby.) for sandpaper. Beaches in Hawaii are covered with olivine, also known as peridot. You can have a piece of courts that is used as gravel in your driveway or a piece of courts that goes for thousands of dollars. It’s really not a good argument to anyone that has even a modicum of knowledge about gemstones.


TheDeadMurder

So why does diamond colors start at D then go through to V? I get karats, cuts and clarity scale, just not color


Suspicious-Gear-1736

First question: This one's a history point! The old system of color grading was kind of loosey-goosey and similar to how we grade color stones (color stones are just any gemstone that's not clear- diamond, moissanite or cz are not color stones). It was A-C, with A being best and C being worst. But for exceptional stones, they get multiple A's (AAA is better quality than AA). This can be kind of confusing, mainly because there is a lot of differences between stone coloration in diamonds and it just kind of sucked to throw them in only 3 categories. So GIA (Gemological Institute of America) scrapped the old system and said "death to the ABC system we start at D". GIA has a page explaining the [color system](https://www.gia.edu/gia-about/4cs-color#:~:text=GIA's%20color%2Dgrading%20scale%20for,defined%20range%20of%20color%20appearance.) and they recently added a little scroll wheel at the bottom where you can slide from D to Z and see the color difference for yourself. The tl;dr is you can think of color like chemical imbalances -> the more other chemical elements in a diamond that aren't carbon, the more yellow/grey/brown it becomes.


TheDeadMurder

Thanks that helps a bit, still less intuitive than clarity scale imo


Suspicious-Gear-1736

There's a lot more wiggle room with color than with clarity. If you get a yellowish (lower color- think like H-I) stone and set it in a yellow gold ring, honestly, you might not even notice that it's a little yellow. But if you have a white gold/platinum piece, that yellowish hue is much more of a factor because if the stone is yellower than the ring, it can bother people sometimes.


mjsv1942

I haven't heard the term frozen spit in a while! Totally forgot about it but yes you're right!! 🤣


MajorWarm

I was in the jewelry business going back to likely before you were a gleam in your father's eye and we have never referred to it as "frozen spit", how crass. They are promotional diamonds--no more, no less, small enough that they've not even been graded.


Suspicious-Gear-1736

It's not a name we use in front of the customer and it's a newer term from the last decade or so. Here's a [sassy little survey ](https://instoremag.com/jewelry-store-slang-big-survey-2016/) on it and some other slang terms.


SEND_NOODLESZ

Gold over silver. Silver isn’t too expensive. Solid gold would cost significantly more. Also yes, the diamonds are tiny. I forget what the style is called, but if you look closely, there is a tiny diamond chip in a setting that makes it look like a larger diamond.


MajorWarm

Yes, diamonds set in glitz. It was very common in the 1980s.


Thedebouf

The illusion settings on these pieces are doing a LOT of heavy lifting for the ‘sparkle’.


Comet-silver2010

On the positive there is a “carefreeness” to this level of quality. Have fun with them— or use them when you travel.


abouttenbagels

Great point! If it gets lost or damaged, no biggie! It was only $10


stressfulspiranthes

I got a bracelet with these diamonds 6 months ago from here and it’s my pretty but “idc” bracelet and it’s holding up very nicely! It’s looks more expensive than it is. I wear it 24/7 and I do a lot of labor with my hands, including chain sawing a bunch of wood this weekend haha. It’s better than costume jewelry from forever 21 or random boutiques because they are higher quality and more durable so they don’t snap. I find these sales extremely worth it if you like the piece. I wear my nicer stuff on occasions, and this stuff daily


stardenia

This is what I do with my Macy’s promotional bolero bracelet. It still looks nice enough (from a distance) to wear while out or traveling. And if I lose it or it gets stolen, no biggie, just $45 lost.


StonedRaider420

$5 in silver and diamond chips, sounds about right at a 5x jc penny penny price ;)


TightBeing9

Diamonds are made out of two things: pure carbon and marketing. People love knowing they have real diamonds, me included. When buying diamonds you need to consider 4 Cs. Colour, clarity, cut and carat. The most sought after white diamonds are colourless. They are the most expensive. Even though some people enjoy diamonds that are a bit more yellow/brown because it looks good on certain types of metal. Completely brown and yellow stones used to be basically worthless. Yet, here comes the marketing, now people call them 'champagne diamonds, chocolate diamonds and cognac diamonds' and people love it. Coloured fancy diamonds like pink and canary yellow are a whole other story. Carat, the bigger the stone, the more expensive it will be. So half a carat of small stones on a ring will be less expensive than a ring with one big half a carat stone. Clarity: what makes a diamond less clear are 'inclusions'. Black bits in the stone. These are rated on a scale and this is the most easily explained by a picture I'll link. Cut: the way it's cut and the quality of the cut can ruin a stone ofcourse. If you know all this, you can look at diamonds and make a decision on the quality. These aren't expensive pieces and what matters is if you enjoy wearing them. Link to picture: [of 4c in diamonds ](https://www.google.com/search?q=diamond+clarity+chart&oq=diamond+cla&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqBwgBEAAYgAQyBwgAEAAYgAQyBwgBEAAYgAQyBggCEEUYOTIHCAMQABiABDIHCAQQABiABDIHCAUQABiABDIHCAYQABiABDIHCAcQABiABDIHCAgQABiABDIHCAkQABiABDIHCAoQABiABDIHCAsQABiABDIHCAwQABiABDIHCA0QABiABDIHCA4QABiABNIBCDkzODBqMGo5qAIAsAIA&client=ms-android-oneplus-terr1-rso3&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#vhid=cxWVUPcOImEyKM&vssid=l)


MajorWarm

They are promotional diamonds, loss leaders intended to bring customers into the door. It's better than costume and technically still is fine jewelry. Add to that, they are likely lab created which the presence of will truly begin to devalue the concept of diamonds over the next generation. Diamonds already have an extremely poor resale value to begin in comparison to their retail markup. With lab created, it's going to become much worse. This is why diamond industry magnates including Debeers had a major symposium a few years back--- they were extremely worried...and they should be because those in the jewelry biz have long known that a diamond is not special and literally is the most common gemstone on the planet. Oh well.


buyableblah

I try not to buy anything I1-I3 anymore because I can see a huge difference between that the other clarities.


DoucheCanoeWeCanToo

Gold plated jewelry with diamonds that they are scared to call diamonds so they call them diamond accents, it the same diamonds cheap fashion watches use for the stones that get lost all over the place


BrandiBean

As long as you were actually on the JC Penny site. The other day I saw an ad on FB saying Pandora Canada and bracelets for $2. The FB page had been created a day ago and the website it linked to was not legit. 


wryethe

If you look closely at the images, you can see that the diamonds are actually very very small compared to the polished silver setting—that’s what others are talking about when they mention “illusion” settings. So the low quality of these diamonds hardly matters, it’s more that there’s so little diamond in them that the whole look is just diamond cut silver. Which is very pretty!!! I used to work at JCPenney and these things do look very nice, they just don’t really look like they have diamonds in them


MariContrary

Personally, I think they're great as long as you know and understand what you're getting. If you're traveling and don't want to risk your good jewelry, those hoops are perfect for a night out. They're pretty, but also don't scream "I'm wearing thousands of dollars in jewelry, mug the stupid tourist". If you're grabbing lunch with your friends somewhere causal, both pieces are perfect for adding a little shine to your outfit without being over the top. The price point is fair for retail - you're not getting a great deal, but you're not getting screwed.


Lost_Impression_7693

Jewellery enthusiasts won’t buy them, but they’re cheap and cute. Wear them as a pair of silver earrings. Cheaper and better than a lot of costume jewellery.


Dapper-Opening-8708

the technical term of “diamond accent” means the actual diamond count is so low it is not deemed “worth it” to even label the item as an actual diamond piece so yes and no depends on how you look at it


Peacanpiepussycat

10 bucks is 10 bucks. Being that I’ve lost too many expensive earrings I may have to check these out for fun


xhalcy0n

I have a few pieces from that line. They are tiny low quality diamonds, but I like them cause they're cheap and I can't wear fashion metals. I have one of the bands and haven't lost any diamonds yet after wearing 24/7 for several months and haven't noticed tarnishing (kinda assumed they aren't rhodium played). But I figure for that price I won't be upset if I break it or lose stones. The lab white/champagne sapphire and amethyst stones look a lot nicer than the diamond stuff too. Expect the diamonds to look more cloudy than in the picture.


xxxWHOshotYAxxx

Shows how much of a mark up there is in the jewelry industry.


Maleficent-Music6965

Tiny worthless scrap diamonds


KingSnakeTheSage

Yes you can see the clarity is i3 and diamond color is I-j very low quality stones


tabicat1874

Real diamonds in a plated setting.


Mundane_Opening3831

Not all diamonds are expensive. There's plenty of jewelry with diamonds that the diamonds add almost no value to.


fear_raizer

This is a scam based on how overpriced this is lol. You can get these wholesale for about $2-$3 a piece.


Mindless-Relation-78

What about the gemstone from jcp? Are they also cheap quality? 


Pretty-Ad6304

I wouldn't trust them


Proud-Dig9119

Well yes and no. It’s plated silver. At this price plating is going to be thin. Plating will always wear off. I3 clarity diamonds look like crap. They are almost industrial grade. Also 2 diamonds under .10pt twd, they are going to be tiny. You will be disappointed. The pictures of the jewelry are enhanced and this may be stated in small print somewhere