Valentine’s Day is right around the corner and love is in the air. What kind of Valentine’s Day Gift will you get your special someone? If your honey is watching their waistline (think indulgent holiday celebrations), forget heart shaped chocolates and consider buying jewelry.

If you plan to make your jewelry purchase online, be mindful of the keywords you use in your online search to find the perfect piece.  Although shopping online for jewelry may be easy, convenient and secure, we suggest that you take a moment to mindfully choose keywords with care, as you will avoid buyer's remorse. There are a couple of keywords that may be misleading and produce an inaccurate, irrelevant search result.

“Gold Filled” “Gold Plated”

Gold filled or gold plated means that a base metal was used in the production of the jewelry and a thin layer of gold has been applied to it. You may think that the entire piece is gold but it's only the top layer that's fine gold.

“Enhanced”

Enhanced diamonds and gemstones are natural but have undergone processing in order to improve clarity. There are multiple ways that jewelry technicians and experienced Jewelers enhance diamonds[1].

“Diamond”

You may think that the most logical thing to do is to search for the keyword “diamond”. Unfortunately, the word “diamond” can produce broad search results and will  include a range of options from raw diamonds to faux diamonds to lab grown diamonds to natural diamonds. There’s always those ads that pop-up to confuse you even more! Unless it’s stated that it is a natural diamond, a lot of jewelry search results will produce diamond jewelry that may not be a diamond at all such as Moissanite which looks much like a natural diamond.

“Period Piece”

Jewelry from different time periods appeal to specific audiences. Some of us love the unique and asymmetric design of the Art Deco era, or the curves and embellishments of fine gold originating from the Victorian period in Europe. However, it’s useful to do a little research to understand what qualifies under which time period. According to the popular antiques and vintage jewelry site Ruby Lane, anything  over 100 years old can be considered Antique; Victorian jewelry dating is from 1837 to 1901, while Edwardian dating is from 1901 to 1910. 

Sometimes the best way to know for sure what you are getting is to shop the old fashioned way, which is to go in person to your local jewelry store and have a conversation with the seller or owner. We offer multiple secure online channels like Etsy, Ruby Lane and Ebay, as well as the choice for shoppers to buy fine jewelry at our cozy shop in Beverly Hills.

If you are in the area, come visit us at Olympic Gold and Jewelry! We are located at 9182 W. Olympic Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California 90212. Check out our 5 star reviews on Google and Yelp!

Sources

[1] shopping.schubachstore.com/clarity-enhanced-education