With Clarity Review
8 Minute Read
With Clarity was founded in 2013 by a husband-and-wife team who were looking for a more personal ring-buying experience online. And they truly have created a unique experience.
Their search interface is simple to use and their use of 3D printing technology allows you to preview your ring before you even buy it.
And while they don't offer the variety that some online retailers have; the only fancy colored diamonds they sell are black and you'll only find the standard shapes: round, princess, Asscher, radiant, pear, marquise, oval, cushion, and emerald. The don't have heart-shaped diamonds, which a lot of other sites carry.
They do, however, offer enough of a selection of quality diamonds to let you create the perfect engagement ring to suit your tastes.
Diamond Selection: Is With Clarity Legit?
If you google With Clarity, you'll probably get some results about clarity-enhanced diamonds. Clarity-enhanced diamonds are those that have been laser-drilled or fracture-filled to reduce the appearance of flaws and inclusions.
Let's be clear right off the bat. This is not what With Clarity sells.
All of their over 40,000 natural diamonds are GIA certified. Diamonds that have been fracture-filled are not certified by the GIA, and laser-drilled diamonds are indicated as such on their GIA certification.
With Clarity sells both natural and lab-created diamonds, two options you can toggle between on their diamond search tool. And they make it very clear throughout the buying process which kind of diamond you're looking at, so you're never confused.
Every natural diamond is marked with a double leaf icon in the search results and on the images of the diamond itself. Lab-created diamonds are marked with a little microscope. The words natural or lab created are included in each diamond's description, as well.
They also sell moissanites in their gemstone collection, as well as black diamonds, which are also listed with their gemstones. To get to either of these options, click on Gemstone Rings in the Jewelry dropdown menu.
All of the stones on With Clarity are conflict-free, a point they make throughout the site.
With Clarity Home Preview Program
Of all the online diamond and engagement ring retailers, this is the only one we've found that allows you to try up to two customized ring replicas at home before you buy the real thing.
It's called their Home Preview Program and it's completely free. Customers can choose two rings to preview at home. With Clarity then creates replicas of those rings using 3D printing. The rings look and feel just like the real deal. They send them to your home, where you have three days to preview them before sending them back.
One of the most nerve-wracking parts of buying a ring online is not holding it in your hands it until it ships to you. The Home Preview Program eliminates that uncertainty.
The Buying Experience: With Clarity vs. James Allen and Blue Nile
One of our favorite things about With Clarity is how easy it is to search for the perfect diamond and build the ideal engagement ring.
Building a Ring on With Clarity
Like James Allen, Blue Nile, and basically every other online diamond retailer, With Clarity features a ring-building tool. But theirs is so much more intuitive.
Like James Allen and Blue Nile, there is a three-step process that begins with choosing your setting, then choosing your diamond, and then finalizing your ring. You can toggle back and forth between these options, and if you don't like what you've created, you can choose to start over and clear your search.
This is different from other sites, where they save your previous settings and you have to be very careful before making your purchase that the diamond and setting you chose are not from a previous search.
Buying a Diamond on With Clarity
Their diamond search tool is very user-friendly, as well. Every search parameter you choose is marked with clear buttons and most include a brief explanation.
For example, diamond color, which is graded with a letter ranging from D to L, are grouped into three categories to make it easier to choose what you're looking for.
L and K are described as faint yellow. J through G are grouped in the Near Colorless category, and F, E, and D, are categorized as colorless. On other sites, the letter grades are there, but the description is missing, and you have to click over to the education page to decipher the grades.
The search results are a little less clear than other sites, however. It's actually a lot like Blue Nile, where you get a list of diamonds by shape, carat, cut, and color, but there's no image on the search results page. For that, you have to click through to each diamond's page. And not every diamond has an image or video. In the search results, little icons on the left will tell you if the diamond has an image or video.
Unfortunately, you can't restrict your search to diamonds that have images or videos only, like you can on other diamond retailers' sites.
Metals and Settings on With Clarity
With Clarity offers five types of settings: classic, contemporary, halo, solitaire, and three-stone. This is a little confusing, because if you're looking for a pavé setting, for instance, you have to kind of dig through those five options to find what you're looking for.
In terms of metals, they offer what's become pretty standard for engagement rings: 14K and 18K white, yellow, and rose gold, as well as platinum.
What's unique about With Clarity is that you can search by diamond shape to find a setting that will fit the kind of diamond you're looking for. If you're looking for something other than a round, that can cut down on some serious time spent re-configuring your search to find a setting that matches your diamond.
Other Ring-Buying Options
With Clarity's big selling point is their customizable rings. But if you don't feel confident building your own, or you simply don't want to take the time, you can purchase preset rings that are ready to go.
On the other hand, if you know exactly what you want down to the last prong, With Clarity will create a one-of-a-kind ring for you. You just have to contact them and send them an image of what you're looking for.
With Clarity's Customer Service
While finding the perfect ring is pretty easy to do on With Clarity, they still offer plenty of help along the way. Education pages, such as Engagement Rings 101 and The 4 C's, discuss diamond and ring-buying in detail. A live chat button follows you throughout the buying process so you can talk to an expert whenever a question pops up.
And don't forget about the Home Preview program we discussed earlier. Definitely take advantage of this service to ensure you're getting a ring you're happy with.
If after all this, something about the ring isn't perfect, With Clarity offers free returns with free insured shipping. Just make sure you return your diamond with the original certificate. If you don't, you'll have to pay a $250 fee.
(We should also mention that the ring is shipped by insured mail to you for free when you buy it, as well.)
They also offer free resizing on their rings and a lifetime warranty on all of their jewelry.
And of course, there is a lifetime upgrade on all of their GIA certified natural diamonds. One hundred percent of the original cost of the diamond will go toward an upgrade of a diamond at least twice the price of the original, which is a pretty standard policy.
Saving Money on With Clarity
Because With Clarity offers lab-created diamonds and moissanites, there's plenty of opportunity to save some money when buying an engagement ring. Lab-created diamonds, for instance, have the exact same molecular structure and chemical composition as natural diamonds, they've just never been buried in the dirt.
That said, they offer significant savings over natural diamonds, as do moissanites, a gemstone that looks strikingly similar to, and has nearly the same hardness as, diamonds.
Take a look at the two 14K white gold pavé diamond rings below. The top ring contains a moissanite and costs less than half the price of the diamond ring of the same design, metal, and carat.
If your heart is set on a natural diamond, however, you can still save yourself some money by choosing one of the fancy shapes they offer, rather than a round. Ovals, pears, marquise, radiants, and the like cost much less than the more-desired round diamonds, and some shapes such as ovals can even look bigger than a round of the same carat weight.
Bottom line: With Clarity sells a range of quality diamonds and rings that fit any budget a variety of tastes. And their Home Preview program means you can see your ring in person before you buy.
Laurie Mega
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