Giving a woman an engagement ring is not the only or even the best way to express one's love, devotion, and appreciation, but it is certainly one way to warm her heart. If you are planning to join the men who buy their "special lady" a diamond ring for engagement, you will want to pay close attention to the following advice. This is not something you want to get wrong. Not only are you about to part with a substantial amount of money, but you are also about to purchase an object that will be a permanent symbol of the most important relationship of your life.

Diamond ring is that its stone is not as brilliant as those of other shapes such as the round and princess because of its open, or step, design, which is very simple and has larger facets and longer lines than other cuts. Because of this, buying a diamond of the highest color and clarity that the buyer possibly can is very important.

There are universally agreed rules on buying diamonds. Follow them and you should avoid the pitfalls.

First, a geology lesson: diamond jewelry is 99.95% pure crystallised carbon and can be extremely old - one to three billion years old, in fact. They are the hardest naturally occurring substance known and are formed beneath the Earth's surface when crystals of diamond occur in volcano feed-pipes.
 
When volcanoes erode down, they release diamonds from their feed-pipes into layers of gravel which are later mined. However, due to the relative rarity of this natural process, diamond mines are found in just a handful of sites around the world. In rough form, diamonds are shipped to the world's cutting centers to be shaped and polished before being set as jewelry. It is the hardness, brilliance and sparkle that emerge during this process that transforms them into a girl's best friend.

Now for a quick history lesson, as you may be curious to know where the fashion jewelry began. Legend dictates that in 1477, a lovestruck Austrian, Archduke Maximilian, came up with a gem of an idea: why not give Mary of Burgundy a diamond ring to celebrate their imminent engagement? He placed it on the third finger of her left hand - the finger believed by ancient Egyptians to have a vein that led straight to the heart. It is not known whether the marriage was a success, but you don't need to worry about that.