The Ultimate Guide to Buying a Jade Engagement Ring: What You Need to Know
Over the last 15 years, we’ve advised hundreds of clients in their purchase of their engagement ring, the majority of them being jade, rather than diamonds.
For most, an engagement ring is the first high-value, emotionally significant purchase they make in their lives; understandably many questions arise.
Here is a list of the most frequently asked questions that we’ve encountered. We hope it will aid you in the decision-making process for this incredibly important milestone in your life.
1. How do I know if I’m buying good jade?
There are generally two categories of factors that influence the value of jade — purity and quality.
Purity refers to how untreated the piece of jade is. At Choo Yilin, we use only Type A jadeite. What this means is that it is 100% natural — no heat, no polymers, and no colour has been added. Less than 5% of the world’s jade is Type A.
Quality — of colour, translucency, tightness of grain, and clarity — are also key factors that determine the desirability of jade. Together, these factors affect the look of the jade, and determine its value.
The jade cabochons that we use for the Choo Yilin engagement rings have the highest purity and quality factors, based on the chart’s descriptions.
2. How large should the size of my jade be?
Just like a traditional diamond engagement ring, this is a completely personal choice. You’ve probably seen diamonds that range from 0.2 carats all the way to 10 carats. They face up between 3.5mm to 14mm.
Similarly, with jade, it’s the same. Over the years, we’ve created pieces using 3.5mm to 10mm jade cabochons. Because we like to dress our jade up with our signature halo of diamonds, they often face up between 6 mm to 16 mm.
For most of our clients, we’ve found the sweet spot to be approximately a 4.5mm - 5mm jade cabochon, with a face up of 10-12mm with the halo of diamonds. This size allows for a luxurious finger coverage while allowing the wearer to wear it daily, comfortably.
3. What colour of jade should I choose?
This really comes down to the individual.
Jade, as you might already know, comes in an array of colours. Ice jade, lavender, and imperial green are traditionally the most sought after colours, but the modern jade consumer tends to prefer softer, pastel colours because they blend so seamlessly with all skin colours and wardrobe preferences.
4. What metal should I be choosing?
We highly recommend working with 18KT gold, an approximate of 75% of pure gold.
We explain a little more about the different kinds of percentages of gold here, alongside how to identify it in the piece that you’re buying.
5. Does this mean the colour I want is dependent on the metal I choose?
The colour of the metal will typically be either white, yellow, or rose. It’s a completely personal and aesthetic choice. There is no correlation between the colour of the metal used and the purity of gold content. This article explains more.
At Choo Yilin, our ready-to-wear engagement rings are mainly 18KT white gold or rose gold, as we’ve found this to complement the jade cabochons best. We have also used 18KT yellow gold for customised pieces.
6. What design should I choose?
This is often the most emotional aspect of the decision-making process, and there is no right or wrong answer.
At Choo Yilin, we draw inspiration from historically or culturally significant stories, and we translate those stories into wearable, precious art on your fingers.
On a functional level, we ensure that the engagement ring designs are suited for everyday wear, and are versatile to match most wardrobe choices.
The two Choo Yilin rings that we created with this in mind are the Warisan Diadem Ring and the Warisan Renda Ring.
7. How much should I budget for the engagement ring?
We’ve often shared that just like diamond rings, jade rings have a tremendous price range as well. The simple answer to this complex question is: an amount that you’re comfortable with.
For some context, at Choo Yilin, our engagement rings start from under $3,000 USD. For customised work, it will start at around $9,000 USD.
8. I don’t know my partner’s ring size? What should I do?
These are some methods that can be used to determine ring size:
Method 1: Measure the internal diameter of a ring your partner has in her trousseau and google “ X mm→ US ring size”.
Method 2: Use a piece of string or dental floss, and a ruler. Simply wrap the string or floss around the thickest part of the finger the ring will be worn on, and either cut or mark the string. Then measure it with the ruler. Google “X mm→ US ring size”.
Method 3: If you’re shopping at a jeweller for another piece of jewellery, you can ask them to have your ring size measured in US sizing.
Method 4: If you want the ring to be a surprise, you can purchase the ring at any size, and have a local jeweller resize it up or down for you. We’ve designed our rings in such a way that allows for resizing to be a fairly straightforward process.