Legal
Affiliate disclosure
Every commercial relationship on this site, named.
Check live prices — we don't print them here, because they change daily.
Rings
The centre stone is where nearly all the money goes. Compare the same specification at each — shape, carat, colour, clarity, cut grade and grading laboratory held identical, or you are not comparing anything.
Earrings
Sold by total carat weight across the pair, so a 1ct pair is two half-carat stones. Cheap enough to make a sensible first purchase from a retailer you have not used before.
Bracelets
Check the clasp and the safety catch before the stone quality. A tennis bracelet that springs open on the wrist is the most common way people lose one.
Necklaces
The chain matters more than buyers expect. Check the gauge and the clasp — a heavy pendant on a thin chain is a repair waiting to happen.
Links open each retailer's own category page. Rare Carat links are affiliate links and earn us a commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you. The others are plain links that earn us nothing today. If that changes, this line changes with it. Every relationship is listed on the disclosure page.
Carat Brands earns commission when a reader clicks a link on this site and makes a purchase. This costs the reader nothing. It is how the site is funded, and under the United States Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides we are required to tell you about it clearly, which is what this page is for.
Who we have relationships with
| Retailer | Commission | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Blue Nile | 3.5% | Rate published on bluenile.com/affiliates. Third-party blogs still quote a retired 5% figure. |
| James Allen | up to 5% | Rate published on jamesallen.com/affiliates-and-community. |
| Brilliant Earth | 5% bridal / 7% fine jewelry | Published on brilliantearth.com/affiliates. Capped at $500 per order; paid net of returns. |
| Rare Carat | CONFIRM | Terms not published publicly — request the rate card before writing the review. |
| Grown Brilliance | CONFIRM | Programme exists with a 30-day cookie; the rate is not published. Request the rate card before writing the review. |
| Ritani | CONFIRM | Programme exists; request the rate card. |
| Kay Jewelers | CONFIRM | Signet brands run programmes; cookie windows are reportedly very short. |
| Zales | CONFIRM | Published rates range from 2% to 7.2% depending on source — verify. |
| Costco | NONE | No affiliate programme. Links here are plain and earn us nothing. |
| Jared | CONFIRM | Signet brands run programmes; cookie windows are reportedly very short. |
| Helzberg Diamonds | CONFIRM | Request the rate card. |
| Shane Co | CONFIRM | Request the rate card. |
| Whiteflash | CONFIRM | Reported around 5% with an unusually long cookie — verify before relying on it. |
| VRAI | CONFIRM | Request the rate card. |
| With Clarity | CONFIRM | Request the rate card. |
| Clean Origin | CONFIRM | Request the rate card. |
| Angara | CONFIRM | Reported around 8-10% — among the highest in the category. Verify. |
| 1stDibs | CONFIRM | Request the rate card. |
What is live today
We currently earn commission on Rare Carat links only. Its links on this site are tracked; the rest are plain links to the retailers' own category pages and earn us nothing.
That is worth saying plainly, because it is the obvious place for a conflict to appear: the only retailer paying us is one of four, and the honest test of an affiliate site is whether that shows up in what it writes. Read the Rare Carat review — it opens by explaining that the marketplace model puts an extra party between you and whoever is responsible when something goes wrong, and it tells you to check the underlying vendor's terms on every listing. That is not the copy of a site optimising for its paying partner.
Rates differ between retailers, and the ones we rate most highly are not the ones paying us. That is not a virtue we arranged; it is the situation, and if it changes this page changes first.
What we are not
We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, employed by, or sponsored by any retailer covered here. We hold no equity in any of them. All company names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are used here for identification only.
Links
Outbound retailer links are marked rel="sponsored nofollow" and open in a new tab, whether or not they currently earn us anything. Marking them all the same way means we cannot quietly present a paid link as an unpaid one.