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Diamonds at Jack Lewis Jewelers

Diamonds at
Jack Lewis Jewelers

Your proposal revolves around the engagement ring, and your engagement ring starts with choosing a loose diamond. You’re in luck, because diamonds are the cornerstone of Jack Lewis Jewelers.

Loose Diamond Collections
at Jack Lewis Jewelers

Our 3 in-house diamond brands are Jack Lewis Flame, Sizzle, and Spark. Or you might find your diamond in an exclusive collection from Fire & Ice. Explore each of the four collections below, then come see them in person.

zoomed in brilliant round diamond held with tweezers below the Jack Lewis Flame logo with red, orange and yellow flame imagery

Jack Lewis
Flame

zoomed in brilliant round diamond held with tweezers below the Jack Lewis Sizzle logo with fake smoke creeping in the edge of the photo and a neon green hue

Jack Lewis
Sizzle

zoomed in brilliant round diamond held with tweezers below the Jack Lewis Spark logo with various shades of light, royal, and dark blue in the background and yellow sparks like sparklers

Jack Lewis
Spark

zoomed in brilliant round diamond below the words Fire and Ice brilliant beyond compare. Half of the diamond has a blue hue to communicate the word ice from their brand name

Fire & Ice

Different Diamond Shapes,
aka ‘Fancy-Shaped’ Diamonds

Due to the uniquely dazzling way they sparkle when cut, round diamonds are the most popular diamond shape for an engagement ring. All diamonds in the Jack Lewis Flame, Sizzle, and Spark collections are round, as are many of our De Beers Forevermark and Fire & Ice diamonds. But if you’re looking for diamonds in other shapes (such as princess/square, oval, or pear), we have lots of those too!

The jewelry industry refers to non-round shapes as fancy-shaped diamonds. There’s really nothing “fancy” about them; it’s just technical industry jargon, and while we don’t have specific “collections” of them represented here on the website, we have dozens of different diamond shapes at Jack Lewis. So if she insists on a princess or a pear, you’ll absolutely still find it in our showcase! Come take a look…

Cut of a loose cushion diamond from Jack Lewis Jewelers in Bloomington, ILCut of a loose oval diamond from Jack Lewis Jewelers in Bloomington, ILLoose cushion diamond cut from Jack Lewis Jewelers in Bloomington, Illinoisloose marquis cut diamond from Jack Lewis Jewelers in Bloomington, IL
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5 Reasons Diamonds Remain the Best Gemstone for Your Engagement Ring

Maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves, because if you’re engagement ring shopping, it’s possible you’ve read negative things about diamonds, and you’re not convinced they’re the right choice for you. We get it. But can we share our perspective? Despite what you saw on the Internet, diamonds aren’t the traditional engagement ring gemstone simply because of a clever marketing campaign by DeBeers in the 1940’s (more on that later). Rather, there are great reasons why diamonds remain the best gemstone to symbolize ‘forever’ in your engagement ring.

  1. Diamonds are hard
  2. Diamonds go with any outfit
  3. Diamonds are rare
  4. Diamonds are natural
  5. Diamonds are sustainably and ethically sourced
  1. Diamonds are Hard

    Most women want to wear their engagement ring every day. Even after getting married, they still keep wearing it alongside their wedding band. This means the center stone needs to be extremely durable and capable of withstanding accidental blunt force trauma into the sink, table, or desk. Because as careful as she’ll try to be, she’ll eventually crash it into something. The last thing you want is a ‘softer’ stone that looks amazing but unforgivingly cracks and scratches the first time you accidentally shut your hand in the car door. Diamonds are the hardest gemstone on earth, and also extremely scratch-resistant, making them perfect for everyday wear. For more on this idea, check out our CarterCast episode here:

    Headshot of owner John Carter on the right side of the image looking directly at the camera with a confident smile, next to text that reads, Episode 4 Engagement Ring Alternative Don'ts. Top 3 Gems to Avoid if you don't want a diamond. Above the text is a logo for Carter Cast, the YouTube program being promoted. The logo is the outline of a diamond.
  2. Diamonds Go With Any Outfit

    Often overlooked and under appreciated about diamonds is that they’re clear and white, which makes them incredibly versatile with any outfit you want to wear. That green emerald, blue sapphire, or red ruby engagement ring might sound like a fun idea at the time, but after awhile, it might occur to you that your big green, blue, or red center stone doesn’t really go with that amazing dress and shoes you want to wear to the party. Clear white diamonds go with everything, so you’ll never have to think about this point ever again. 

  3. Diamonds are Rare

    When considering whether diamonds are “rare,” Carter likes to remind people to look at the Moon. It’s big. You can clearly see that it’s full of Moon rock. There’s plenty of it. Now, if you use the logic often applied to diamonds, that means Moon rock isn’t rare. But that’s nonsense. Of course Moon rock is rare. Why? Because despite being able to clearly see that there’s tons of it available, getting to it, extracting it, and bringing it back to Earth seems like a pretty important part of the equation! The same holds true for diamonds. It’s not the presence of it, it’s the “getting to it” that drives rarity. Diamonds are formed in the mantle of the Earth over millions of years and require equipment, expertise and effort to sustainably and ethically extract. Just like Moon rock, that makes them extremely rare. See more of our discussion on diamond rarity here:

  4. Diamonds are Natural at Jack Lewis

    This is a slightly controversial topic, but at Jack Lewis Jewelers, we do not offer lab-grown or synthetic diamonds. We proudly only offer natural, earth-formed diamonds. We have our reasons (which we’ll get into in upcoming episodes of the CarterCast), but for now, let’s leave it at this: the durability and rarity of diamonds symbolize the strength and uniqueness of your relationship. Similarly, the natural qualities of a diamond reflect your relationship too. Nothing about you is synthetic. And nothing about you was grown in a lab. Your love is the real thing. Your diamond should be too. #soapbox 

  5. Diamonds are Sustainably and Ethically Sourced

    The diamond industry has come a long way. We think it should get credit for that. After all, if we continue judging an industry by the sins of its past even after it makes positive changes, what incentive is there to change? At Jack Lewis, we’re the first to admit the diamond industry hasn’t always been a force for good in the world. But we’ve also had a front row seat to its massive evolution, and we’re proud to tell that story if you’ll hear it. This is important, so we ensure any diamond that reaches the Jack Lewis showcase is 100% ethically sourced and 100% sustainably extracted (in environmental terms). See our CarterCast discussion here. 

    Durable, versatile, rare, natural and responsible…just like the two of you. Those reasons, and how they parallel your relationship, are why diamonds remain the best choice for an engagement ring gemstone.

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The 4C’s & Other Diamond Info

The 4C’s are Cut, Color, Clarity, and Carat weight, and since you can read about them anywhere, you might find it more helpful (and entertaining) to watch our podcast episodes about the 4C’s instead. The below vids are from our CarterCast series, the pre-proposal show for dating couples designed to make diamond engagement ring shopping easy, understandable and fun.

The 4C’s: Carat and Cut Explained

Headshot of owner John Carter on the right side of the image looking directly at the camera with a confident smile, next to text that reads, Episode 3 The 4 C's Part 2. Why Cut is the Most Important C. Above the text is a logo for Carter Cast, the YouTube program being promoted. The logo is the outline of a diamond.
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Are Diamonds Just Worthless Marketing Hype?

Float around the Internet for 5 minutes, and you’ll be bashed with snarky posts, sarcastic memes, and cynical threads about diamonds. The point seems to be that diamonds are worthless. It’s all a scam. They have no real value. It’s all just marketing hype. Everybody knows this. How can you still be spending thousands of dollars on a diamond in current year? But…is any of that really true? In one of our most transparent and fearless CarterCast episodes, we have a blunt and sometimes surprising conversation about the value of diamonds and whether the whole thing is just manufactured smoke and mirrors. If you’ve spent too much time on Reddit and find yourself on the fence about diamonds, give this a watch.

Headshot of owner John Carter on the right side of the image looking directly at the camera with a confident smile, next to text that reads, Episode 6 Diamond's Value Are Diamonds Just Worthless Marketing Hype? Above the text is a logo for Carter Cast, the YouTube program being promoted. The logo is the outline of a diamond.

Our (Not So) Humble Approach to Diamonds

We’ll be humble elsewhere, but not with diamonds. We’re the diamond experts. Certainly in Bloomington-Normal. Probably also across Peoria, Champaign, and Springfield. Maybe even most of downstate Illinois. Diamonds are what we do.

Bottom line, if you’re interested in diamonds and you’re anywhere in the Midwest, Jack Lewis is your destination.

We believe diamonds are more than just a sparkly rocks, and more than just tradition; they’re the engagement ring gemstone that best captures all the reasons why you’re proposing, capable of symbolizing your relationship with a dazzling laser light show that turns heads from across the room.

You’ve found the one, and choosing your diamond is an important part of that story. We’d be honored to help you find your forever symbol at Jack Lewis Jewelers.

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