Color Trends in Costume Jewelry Real Diamond click here

The fall fashion trends are ushering in another excellent season for costume jewelry and accessories. Rich colors and bold looks dominate the trend. Teal, amber and amethyst are the important colors with olivine and green used as neutrals. Topaz and peacock are also important and all indications are that rich color will continue into the spring season. Metals are seeing a return to gold, but silver is still stronger.

Bold Designs Dominate Fashion Jewelry Read   More here

Fashion jewelry thrives when bold designs are in vogue and that is very much the case this season. The high fashion look is popular in necklaces, earrings, and bracelets with natural components contributing to the designs. Wood is continuing its second season of popularity with shell important even in the fall line. But the rising star in natural materials is gemstone, which provides the beauty of natural semiprecious stones to the costume jewelry designs. This will definitely continue and accelerate in the spring line. Also popular in neckwear are 48 inch and 60 inch ropes that are worn extended or doubled. Jet is strong in holiday jewelry and estate looks (antique designs) are becoming fashionable in bridal jewelry.

Traditional Costume Jewelry and Accessories

While costume jewelry in bold designs and rich colors forge the way for leading fashion, there is a larger market that shouldn’t be ignored in more traditional and classic looks. Theme jewelry in pendants, earrings, and charm bracelets has an appeal that goes beyond fashion alone because it identifies with what the wearer cares about. In addition, traditional rhinestone, bridal jewelry, evening bags, and formal gloves have a classic look with timeless appeal. There is a major market for these items that will always be present even as fashion changes.

Accessory Trends

Sequins and buttons are very big in all accessories, especially in handbags and evening bags. Beyond these, the looks of the larger bags introduced by leading designers are the trendy styles of the season. These are the bags the stars are carrying, which goes a long ways towards popularizing the styles. In evening bags, large sequins and buttons are very much in vogue, but traditional looks seem to be carrying the day.

Sunglasses are definitely big and bold with aviators the runaway favorite. Retro looks are also excellent and colored frames with matching lenses are very popular.

Hats and Headwear

In millinery, dress hats are an important part of the market, with ladies hats the dominant player. The looks are very traditional with a new element of pre-made bands allowing for the versatility of custom designs. Casual hats, however, account for the major share of the market and no design in 2005 is more important than the rollup cowboy hat. While the design is not popular in every region of the country, the sheer number of sales makes it the number one hat of the year. This rugged look that is typically American has risen to such popularity that it becomes an important fashion statement. After cowboy hats, the three most fashionable designs are wide brim floppy hats, ladies fedoras, and newsboys. The entertainment field has played a major roll in popularizing these designs and the fashion looks continue into the fall season with felt, leather, wool, and leatherette used as the material for the fall versions.

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Pearls are an enduring classic of romantic beauty and sophistication suitable for almost any occasions or celebrations. Pearls may be worn with formal eveningwear, with a business suit, or casually with a sweater and jeans. The official June birthstone provides an ideal choice for brides, young women looking for a touch of elegance, or a cherished gift for birthday, Christmas, graduation, sweet-sixteen, anniversary, or just to say I love you.

Once rare and expensive, modern cultured pearls have become an affordable luxury. To choose consider six factors contribute to the value of a pearl: luster, nacre thickness, shape, surface texture, size, and color.

Luster- the Essence of Pearl Beauty

Pearls gain their unique beauty from the play of light reflecting through layers of fine crystalline nacre gradually deposited by an oyster. Nearly transparent nacre gives the deepest luster and the highest reflection. A high-quality pearl will have a brilliant even reflection with a fine warm glow or radiance. Lower quality pearls have a dull sheen.

High-quality Akoya saltwater pearls have a higher luster than South Sea or Tahitian pearls, which tend to have a softer, more diffuse reflection.

Color and Overtones

The dominant color of a pearl comes from the main reflection from the pearl surface. The deeper reflected light draws the inner color from the pearl, called the overtone.

Light colored pearls are available in shades of white, cream, and golden. White with pink or silver overtones are generally the most valuable. The most desirable dark colored pearls are black with green or blue overtones. Color matching is also important when buying pearl jewelry. Perfectly matched pearls in color and size are more valuable than poorly matched pearls.

Shape and Surface Texture

The highest quality pearls are perfectly round with smooth surface, very few surface imperfections, and even coloration. Lower quality pearls may be nearly round, or show more surface imperfections, such as wrinkles or large pits on the surface.

Pearl Size and Necklace Length

The pearls in a strand are measured in a range, such as 7-7.5mm. They are strung with the largest pearls at the center of the necklace and gradually smaller towards the clasp. Larger pearls are more valuable and they create a more dramatic look. High-quality pearls larger than 9 mm are scarce and very expensive.

The classic and most common pearl necklace length is the 17-19 inch princess. It is a good choice for a first pearl necklace because it can be worn with many things.

Decide Pearl Types

There are four types of pearls:

Classic Akoya Pearls
Large Exotic Black Tahitian Pearls
Large Golden or White South Sea Pearls
Inexpensive Decorative Freshwater Pearls
The above four types of pearls are all cultured pearls. Akoya, Tahitian and South Sea pearls grow in ocean saltwater so they are also called saltwater pearls.

Akoya pearls are the most popular type for their appealing high luster, luxury and affordability.

Decide Pearl Quality Real Diamond care click here

Pearls usually have four grades: A, AA, AAA, and AAA+ quality. AAA and AAA+ quality are the highest quality.

AAA and AAA+ quality pearls are the most desired pearls for gifts. They have high luster and very clean surface skins.

AA quality pearls have medium luster and slight to medium surface imperfection. They are ideal gifts for someone who will be happy to own a piece of fine pearl jewelry.

A quality pearls have low luster and medium to heavy blemishes. They are not popular for gifts due to their low quality.

Decide where to buy pearls

You can buy pearls from retail stores, online shops or online auctions. When shop for pearls, it is recommended to buy pearls from these places: stores that grade pearls carefully; stores that provide certificate and offer money back guarantees.
 

6 Handy Tips on Buying The Right Diamond

by: Kelvin Ong

1. Learn about diamonds Sometimes, I just can’t help myself but to keep on emphasizing this to anyone who wants to buy a diamond online: LEARN SOMETHING ABOUT DIAMONDS! Sorry, I don’t mean to shout. But in reality, many people are still very ignorant about diamond. Believe it a not, there are jewelers who are unable to differentiate a diamond cut from a diamond shape. Everyone is so hyped up about the carat weight and has totally forgotten about the other 3 characteristics of a diamond. It won’t take you years or months to learn something about diamond. There are plenty of articles and information on the 4C of a diamond. Spend some useful time in the library or internet and learn about diamonds. Who knows, you may become an expert in diamonds. 2. Prioritize the 4 characteristics There are much more about diamonds than just the 4Cs. But at the end of the day, the 4Cs are still the major factors influencing the quality and price of a diamond. Before you start prioritizing the 4Cs, you got to know what your girl actually likes about a diamond. If she like big one, go for a diamond with big carat weight but with poorer quality in terms of color, cut or clarity. If she likes the brilliance of a diamond and doesn’t mind the size, choose one with excellent cut and clarity. Whichever the case is, prioritizing the 4Cs will give you a better idea of what diamonds will suit her taste as well as your budget. 3. Do a price research With your list, do some price research at some of the online jewelry stores (Here are some of the top online jewelry stores). Based on your list, you should have a rough estimate of the market price of the diamond you are looking for. If the price is out of your budget, try going for a grade lower than your expectation and you may eventually find one that suits you well. 4. Do some background research on the jewelry stores If you have been doing researching, you would have come across information on cubic zirconium diamonds. These synthetic diamonds are D-color graded, flawless and cut to perfection. In short, a CZ diamond is a ‘perfect’ diamond. It is brilliant, flawless and yet cheap. Their prices do not increase exponentially with their quality unlike diamonds. And there are also some natural diamonds which have undergone treatments to reduce its blemishes thus enhanced its appearance. It is still a low grade diamond and dishonest dealers may try to pass it off as a good graded diamond and sell you at a higher price. Real Diamond click here So, before you start swiping your hard-earned money away, do some research about the jeweler as well. Ask your family, relatives or friend who have purchased from the dealer. Online forum is a good place to ask around and there are plenty of sites that provide reviews on jewelry store online. Give the jewelry store a call, talk to their staffs and decide for yourself if you are comfortable with the store. 5. Always ask for a money back guarantee There are risks in very form of transactions, so do buying diamonds. Protect yourself and minimize any risks by making sure that the store has the complete details about their return policy. It should include information about the validity period, what to do if you wish to return your purchase and their address. As a rule of thumb, online stores should offer you no less than 21 days return policy. In fact, most of them have a return policy of 30 days. Real Diamond click here 6. Choose jewelers who provide grading reports Certified diamonds will come along with a grading report by reputable gemology organizations such as GIA or AGS. Some online jewelry stores certified their diamond by in-house gemologists and they may be using different grading standards from GIA or AGS, while others may not provide the grading reports. Diamonds from top online jewelry stores generally comes accompanied with a grading report. After you have purchased your diamond, you should get it appraised again with the grading report by a trained gemologist. The grading report will be very helpful in ascertaining whether the diamond you have bought is up to the specifications shown on the report.