Emerald Modern Halo Engagement Ring

A hard-working female-led design brand, Ana de Costa creates modern heirlooms. Ana's designs involve decadent use of colour, and confident silhouettes, testament to her love of the 1920s, and in particular the Art Deco and Art Nouveau movements. Creating an exclusive series of one-of-a-kind pieces specific to each client, the highest level of care and craftsmanship is taken during the process.

Emeralds are a green coloured precious gemstone, and one of the four most desirable gemstones worldwide, alongside diamonds, rubies and sapphires.

Emeralds fall below diamonds, rubies and sapphires in terms of hardness, due to the fact that most emeralds have a high number of inclusions in them - small splits and breakages visible in the stone - so they can shatter quite easily and are considered a fragile gemstone.

As emeralds are usually quite ‘included’ - where there are marks that are clearly visible in the stone - the colour and the clarity are considered to be the most important factor in determining value. So as with all gemstones the colour is king, and tends to determine price, with emeralds it’s also how clear the gemstone is. It’s normal to have a few inclusions in an emerald, so instead it’s important to choose a bright colour that sparkles and glows a deep green. Emeralds too pale will show the inclusions even more, and too dark will appear dull.

It’s also important to set emeralds securely, usually in a bezel setting rather than a claw setting, so the metal goes all the way around the stone, protecting it.

Emerald is traditionally the birthstone of May. View all emerald rings here.

Round brilliant cut diamonds are the most popular diamond shape. From round old-mine and European cuts, to the high-sparkle of the modern 'Brilliant' cut, round diamonds are the most enduring and popular shape throughout the centuries of diamond cutting history.

The modern 'brilliant' round cut is cut for maximum sparkle, or as its name suggests, brilliance. Each of the 57or 58 facets cut into the stone have been meticulously measured and maximised to allow the optimum reflection or light to bounce around inside the diamond, reflecting out a brilliant sparkle. The ubiquitous sparkle of the brilliant cut round diamond makes it an extremely versatile choice, easy to wear, and a good level of sparkle even with inclusions.

See all round cut diamond rings here.

Gold is a naturally occurring metal with a warm, glowing finish when polished, and remains the most popular choice for engagement rings due to its natural beauty and hard-wearing strength.

Pure 24k gold is naturally a soft material, and considered too soft to create jewellery with, so it is mixed with small amounts of other metals to create an alloy.

As well as increasing the durability of the gold, adding alloys can also change the colour of the gold to produce rose or white gold, for example.

18k yellow gold is made up of 75% pure gold, and 25% alloy, which would usually include silver and copper.

18k rose gold is made up of 75% pure gold, 22.2% copper, and 9.2% silver.

18k white gold is made up of 75% pure gold and 25% palladium or platinum.