Somewhere along the way jewellery became something you wait to be given. It is worth noticing how recent and how commercial that idea is.
The occasion problem
Gift jewellery is bought for a date: a birthday, an anniversary, a proposal. That means it is chosen by someone else, for a moment rather than for a life, and it often sits in a box because it was picked for the event rather than for the wearer.
Jewellery you buy yourself has the opposite problem, which is no problem at all: you know exactly what you will wear.
Four questions that get it right
- What do you already reach for? Look at what is worn thin and buy in that direction, not away from it.
- Silver or gold? Whichever your watch is. Mixing metals is fine in theory and rarely done in practice.
- Will you wear it to work? If yes, a stone under about 8 mm and a chain around 45 cm. If it is for evenings only, ignore this entirely and buy the larger stone.
- Would you still want it if nobody commented? The honest answer sorts a purchase from a performance.
Where moissanite makes this easy
The reason self purchase used to stall was price. A two carat top colour diamond solitaire is a conversation with a financial adviser. The same look in a D to E moissanite, on solid sterling silver, is a few hundred dollars, and it is durable enough at 9.25 on the Mohs scale to be worn every day rather than saved.
The warranty goes in your name, which is a small detail that turns out to matter. It is your piece, registered to you, replaced for you if the stone is ever lost.
A note on what to spend
Buy what you can pay for now. Jewellery bought on credit stops being a pleasure the following month. Within that limit, buy fewer and better: one piece you wear daily beats three you rotate out of guilt.
Nobody is coming
Not as a complaint, as a fact. There is no year in which someone finally buys you the thing you have been looking at. If you have chosen it, you can afford it, and you will wear it on a Tuesday, that is the whole test, and you have already passed it.
