Salt and Pepper 2cttw Round Brilliant Cut Diamond Stud Earrings with Butterfly Pushbacks in 14k White Gold

Two round brilliant cut diamonds, one for each ear, each held in four prongs with a butterfly pushback behind it. Two carats total weight for the pair, so a carat a side. These are salt and pepper stones — heavily included, with dark inclusions visible right through the crown of each one, which is exactly what that name describes. Photographed close and unretouched, so what is on the screen is what is in the box. 1.50 grams of 14k white gold between the two mounts.

Salt and pepper is the trade's name for a diamond that carries its inclusions out in the open instead of hiding them, and it is the whole reason a pair this size is reachable. Two carats of loupe-quiet diamond is a different order of money entirely — several times this, and not close. What you give up is the idea of a stone with nothing inside it. What you get is size, which is the only thing a solitaire stud has to offer in the first place: there is no halo, no drop, no metal to look at, and once it is in your ear the mount is invisible. A carat a side reads from across a table in a way that three quarters does not. You also get two stones that look like nothing else, because no two included diamonds are marked the same way. Which trade would you rather make?