The Best Diamond Shape for Your Hand Size

When my now-husband and I started talking about getting engaged, I thought I already knew what style engagement ring I wanted. Like many women, I had spent hours looking on Pinterest at different styles of rings, and I had fallen in love with a Ritani semi-bezel ring. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It was me in a ring: classic, but not boring; it was visually interesting but not glaring or dramatic. I thought it was the ring for me.

One night, my husband and I picked out a diamond (we’re part of the 42 percent of couples that shopped for an engagement ring together) and arranged for a Ritani Free In-Store Preview. Ritani set the diamond we picked in the semi-bezel setting and sent it to our local jeweler. A few days later, we got a call saying the ring was there, and we went to go try on my future engagement ring!!!!! I was really, really excited.

Except once I had it on my finger, I wasn’t as in love with the ring as I thought. It wasn’t the one.

I felt awful that Ritani had taken the time to set a diamond into the ring I thought I wanted. I sheepishly told the jeweler and he literally said, “No worries, Ritani’s free in-store preview program is really amazing. I just send it back to them–no issue at all.”

Now I was confused, was my life a lie? How could I not know what I wanted after all that time I spent swooning over rings on Instagram and Pinterest? I overlooked a few key details: what it would look like on my very petite hand and to my super particular, visually-driven eyes that had spent the last several years double-tapping pictures of just-engaged, perfectly manicured hands on Instagram. I had to start over and think about what would look good on my hands and that fit me as a person.

The jeweler brought out several more styles for me to try on: a halo with a french-set band, a classic open band, and a simple, elegant solitaire with a 1 carat center stone. He also brought out several fancy-shaped diamonds, an Asscher, marquise, princess, and oval, which I had never considered. The jeweler mentioned that because of my petite hands, I didn’t need as large of a diamond for the ring to look proportional (nearby, my husband sighed in relief).

The classic open band looked beautiful on my small hand and I loved how the halo looked–I kept staring at it and smiling, my heart aflutter. I hadn’t considered these options before.

A few months later, my husband surprised me with a halo engagement ring with an open band. The moral of this story: odds are, you may not really know what you want until you see it on your ring finger.



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How To Buy An Engagement Ring

There are no hard rules about what diamond shape you should wear–at Ritani, we believe the best diamond shape for you is the one you love, not what fits into society’s beauty standards about what types of hands are beautiful or not (who wrote those rules, anyway?). You write your own rules, and your hands are beautiful no matter what size they are.

At Ritani, we have a ring style and shape to flatter every finger and every hand, and there is one rule we DO believe in: wear what you love.

That said, the Ritani family has been in the diamond business since 1948, and what we’ve realized is that the goal is to find an engagement ring that looks good on your finger: not too small, not too big, but just right.

When looking at rings, you’ll need to settle on what shape of diamond you want. To decide this, start by looking at your hands: notice the length and width of your ring finger and in comparison to the rest of your hand. Then you can determine the best combination of stone size, diamond shape, and setting to create a ring that’s proportional to your hand size.

Best Diamond Shape For All Hands

As a reminder, there are ten diamond shapes to chose from: round, emerald, princess, cushion, Asscher, heart, marquise, oval, radiant, and pear.

Think about your lifestyle and what kind of shape and setting fits best with it.

Do you want a ring that’s subtle and doesn’t draw attention, or do you want a dramatic show-stopper?

Are you modest? Do you use your hands regularly? You might opt for a classic or solitaire setting that has less accent diamonds.

If you’re looking for an opulent, dramatic ring, you have plenty of options filled with bling like a halo, three-stone or masterwork.

Universally, round diamond shapes work for any hands, large or small.

Halo settings pair nicely with any sized finger, which is why halo engagement rings are Ritani’s most popular engagement ring style.



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Best Diamond Shape For Smaller Hands

It’s all about proportion when it comes to small hands. Petite or short-fingered hands typically look best with smaller-sized diamond.

  • Go for stones cut in a small, round shape; Asscher, marquise, princess or oval, or pear cut may look good too.
  • Try thin or open ring bands.



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Best Diamond Shapes for Wider Fingers

Having wide fingers gives you an advantage: you can easily pull off bolder, bigger rings.

  • Go for a fancy diamond shape: especially oval, marquise, rectangular or emerald shape.
  • Wide fingers mean you’ve got more room for bling: try a three-stone ring.
  • Try angular shapes or an asymmetrical design.
  • Consider a medium to wide band.



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Best Diamond Shape for Long Fingers or Skinny Hands

Long, thin fingers have a lot freedom when it comes to the shape and size of a center stone. Thanks to the overall size of a large hand, bigger stones appear more proportional.

  • Fancy, square and round stones work nicely on thin fingers.
  • Go for large, bold designs and wide-band statement pieces.
  • Consider thicker, heavier bands or double rows of diamonds.



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The bottom line is that you should opt for the ring that you love–no matter what size, shape, or setting. With hundreds of settings, several metals, and plenty of band styles to pick from, you can feel confident about finding the right ring for you (or we can custom design one for you). You can choose a pre-designed ring or create your own, and then try the ring on in person at a partner jewelry store near you–at no cost and no obligation–with our free in-store preview program, like I did.

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