Courtney Middleton
I hate reviews, especially Vine reviews, that sound like they're paid advertisements. As a consequence, you will generally not find me saying things like "buy these." This is an exception, and right up front it's because of the intersection between price and quality, aka value for money.These are sterling, and I have no reason to doubt that. The posts and backs are both marked 925, and nothing reacts to a magnet.The moissanites all passed thermo testing with zero problems. I wasn't able to test all of the tiny ones, even wearing my silly looking magnifying glasses hunched over the bench with the pen, but all of the ones that I did test (at least 2 accent stones per earring) also passed just fine. At the risk of sounding like an informercial, I've frequently seen (to my distress) lovely moissanite feature stones surrounded by tiny cubic zirconia accent stones. Next to the moissanite, the cz looks just as flat as can be - moissanites are incredibly refractive, lively stones, and czs do not benefit by proximity to that shine.The price here is borderline ridiculously low ($60 at time of review), but fair, for reasons I'm about to discuss. That price is what I'd expect to see for plain stud earrings of the same size, or even more for the studs, honestly. So how is this happening and why is it *not* too good to be true?First off, the moissanites are F in color rather than D (closer to A is closer to perfectly clear and therefore more expensive). There's a cost difference in upgrading from F to D, or, differently put, choosing D instead of F is a way to save on the cost and still deliver excellent stones. The vast majority of folks walking around out in the world couldn't tell you the difference between F and D, even if they tried really, really hard. Here, I think it's a good trade in terms of delivering value to the consumer.Next, there's no plating. This is just plain sterling silver. As far as I'm concerned, this is an UPGRADE, but one that somehow costs less. All plate will eventually wear off at stress points. Periodt. It's just a fact of life. Once it does, there's precious little to be done. It's not easy to repair worn plate, and it's certainly not cheap. Here what's going to happen is you're going to get tarnish on the silver. You know what happens then? You clean it, and then it's not tarnished anymore. Good as new, as they say. Even if you take it to have it professionally cleaned (free to good customers at most jewelry stores, or a nominal charge otherwise), it's very inexpensive. You see where I'm going with this? Gold (rhodium, platinum, whatever) costs more on the front end AND has a shorter lifespan than plain old no-nonsense sterling. Since these aren't plated, they could theoretically be heirlooms - not in the sense of grandma's diamonds that are worth more than my car, but in the sense that they're not going to degrade on you. Also - because these are moissanite, they'll stand up to more rigorous cleaning, like the kind I would never recommend for softer stones.Finally, the box. It's a perfectly good box. It looks like the one you'd get it you bought this at a proper jeweler, like with a glass display case and everything. It's a faux silk branded hinge-top presentation box that comes packaged in a plain white box (as in one that tape will stick to for gift wrapping). Thatssit. And that's all I want. You'll find a lot of moissanite sellers with the bougiest packaging imaginable - LED lights, rose shaped boxes, fancy boxes that tie on the top and split down the middle when you untie the bow, wax seals - you name it, somebody has done it. And I personally don't want my money spent that way. I want basic, elegant, no-nonsense presentation boxes and all the money otherwise wasted on bougie nonsense put into the PIECE, not the stuff that's going to sit at home (or get thrown out and clog up landfills). You can't wear those boxes, but you absolutely can wear the extra quality in the piece, and I know which one I want. Not even a hard question.If not for those 3 things, I'd be suspicious of the price here. Because of those 3 things, I can confidently tell you that this is one of the better values I've come across in moissanite jewelry as a Vine Voice.One last pro tip: for any stud or stud-like earring, I always add a clear plastic disc to the back. It stabilizes the earring and gives a much better presentation on the ear.
