u/Curley1018

I was all set to buy the set of 9 pink mahenge spinels but when I was finally able to see them out of the case they suddenly felt much smaller than I thought, about .6 CT or less each and most of them had dark occlusions. I was okay with most of the occlusions but there was some very noticeable ones in the two best colored stones which I had wanted to turn into earrings and I just couldn't buy them. I instead selected this 2.49ct pink tourmaline. It has 2 occlusions in the stone but they are off to the sides and I don't think they would be super obvious once the stone is in a setting. Is this what people mean by eye clean? It's very pretty and when you look straight through it you can't see any issues unless you move the stone side to side. Was this a good purchase? It was $398 SGD (313USD) and then the seller gave me an extra discount so I paid $388SGD (305USD).

I'm a first time buyer and I have been eyeing this promotion case at a shop I pass every week. A lot of them have been there for at least 3 weeks. I see a few that catch my eye but I'm inexperienced and afraid of overpaying. I had custom jewelry made when my son was born but came to regret the purchase later for several reasons, one of which was the price of the main stone being 4 figures. I've seen similar stones since for less and although I know that size and clarity make a difference it also felt like there was a huge markup on the stone. I do want to have more custom jewelry made in the future but have been thinking about sourcing the stones myself.

Anyway I have my eye on perhaps the mahengi spinel set of gems, I also like the light pink tourmaline in the bottom right of the promo case, the London blue topaz above the light pink tourmaline is new this week and really caught my eye as well.The blue beryl also caught my eye. Only the blue beryl is marked as having been likely issued a gem report. All of these are priced at just under 400sgd. They seem like a good deal and I am guessing it is because most of them seem to be less than 1ct size wise. Sorry if the photos aren't great, I'm too intimidated to go into the shop yet as I feel like I don't know what to talk about with the shopkeeper. I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts or advice on these stones or any others pictured.