Our new infographic, “How to Pull off the Perfect Marriage Proposal” for the upcoming engagement and wedding season, takes into account our many years of experience on getting engaged and what happens next. To view a large size version of the infograph please go to the Perfect Marriage Proposal guide on Briliance.com, and don’t forget to share with your friends or significant other (“hint, hint”).

While there are many online sites that have reviews on Brilliance.com, Trustpilot is by far our favorite. Trustpilot lets customers post online reviews as well as pictures of their purchased items.

Currently, Brilliance.com is ranked #3 in the category “Jewellery” out of 84 online jewelers and our average rating is 9.2 out of 10 on Trustpilot. View the Brilliance.com reviews on Trustpilot or click here to write a review on any online retailer.

This exquisite bra, designed by London Jewelers exclusively for Victoria Secret, contains about 3,400 loose diamonds and precious gems–all handset in 18K white and yellow gold. Two loose diamonds, more than 8 carats each, as well as two yellow diamonds, more than 14 carats each, serve as the bras tassel which hangs down the center. All of the loose diamonds (over 143 carat total weight) and precious gems were handset onto the Victoria Secret Gorgeous Push-Up Bra and took jewelers roughly 500 hours to complete.

The Fantasy Bra will be available for purchase October 21st in the 2011 Victoria Secret Christmas Dreams and Fantasies Catalog.

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<a href="http://blog.brilliance.com/2011/kardashian-wedding-vs-average-wedding-price-infographic" rel="thumbnail"><img src="http://www.brilliance.com/images/infograph/Kardashian-Wedding-Versus-Average-US-Wedding.jpg" WIDTH="500PX" /></a><br /><a href="http://www.brilliance.com/loose-diamonds" >Brilliance Loose Diamonds</a>

We are thrilled to announce that we have added a “Design Your Own Earrings” option to Brilliance.com. Follow the three steps below to begin designing your own custom diamonds earrings online:

1) Choose Your Style – Brilliance offers many different diamond earring settings in yellow gold, white gold, and platinum to compliment your choice of center diamonds. Our team of diamond and jewelry experts can help you select the setting type that is right for you based upon your budget and choice of diamonds.

2) Select Your Loose Diamonds – Shopping for diamonds sight unseen can be difficult, especially when selecting a matching pair of loose diamonds for earrings. Our trained experts and gemologists are always available to help you find the best matching diamond pair. Rest assured, should you decide to select two matching certified diamonds on your own we will inspect them and make sure they in fact match and are brilliant.

3) Complete Your Earrings -Once you add the loose diamonds and earrings to cart and complete your order our master jewelers will set the diamonds in the earring settings and they will be delivered enclosed in our signature jewelry box. As with any Brilliance purchase, we offer free FedEx shipping and no sales tax outside of the state of Florida. In addition, All of our products are backed by a 30 day money back guarantee, and our jewelry is covered under our Brilliance Care and Maintenance Policy. Lastly, we invite you to send your earrings back up to twice a year for a complimentary cleaning and prong inspecting.

Get started designing your own earrings by choosing a diamond earring setting first and adding two loose diamonds from our online diamond search. Custom diamond earrings compliment any look and make a wonderful gift. Should you need further assistance please contact a Brilliance diamond and jewelry expert at 1-866-737-0754

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably already know that Kim Kardashian married her beau, professional basketball player Kris Humphries, after nine months of being in a relationship together. The wedding was held in a lavish estate at Montecito, California on August 20th and was attended by 450 (or so) close friends of the couple.

Details of the wedding haven’t been incredibly forthcoming, but the E! special on the event entitled “Kim’s Fairytale Wedding: A Kardashian Event”, airing in October, should give the clamoring public all the specifics they’ll ever need on the reality star’s star-studded event.

For those who can’t wait that long, we at Brilliance have scoured the internet for the lowdown: so far, it has been revealed that the beautiful bride wore not one, not two, but three Vera Wang dresses for her nuptials – one for the traditional Christian ceremony presided over by family pastor Joel Johnson, and two for her reception, where guests were treated to food by acclaimed chef Wolfgang Puck and a six-foot tall black and white wedding cake by Hansen Cakes in Los Angeles. It was reported that the couple wanted it to resemble the cake from the Royal Wedding earlier this year, and it alone cost – get this – $15,000!

Among the celebrities who attended were Demi Lovato, Babyface, Mario Lopez, Ryan Seacrest and Lindsay Lohan.

If you missed the buzz about Kim’s jewelry – really, how can anyone miss it? Her engagement ring is a huge sparkler: an emerald-cut 20.5 carat diamond ring set in platinum valued at a cool 2 million dollars –now paired with a diamond eternity band, also set in platinum, estimated to be worth $60,000. During the ceremony, Kim wore a 65-carat diamond headpiece inspired by Audrey Hepburn worth another $2.5 million, and 28-carat diamond earrings worth $5 million. Altogether, Kim wore close to $15 million in blinding bling – all by jewelry designer Lorraine Schwartz.

The over-the-top ceremony reportedly cost something along the lines of 6 to10 million dollars, as no expense was spared for arguably the most popular Kardashian sister. Among the items included in the swag bag given to guests was a pair of flip-flops emblazoned with the couple’s names, a personalized nail polish set by Nicole from OPI, a bottle of Kim’s new fragrance, a scented Voluspa candle, and a gift certificate to a shoe website that Kim co-founded.

See an idea that you want to snag for your own wedding? Don’t forget to check out Brilliance.com for all of your engagement and wedding jewelry needs! We features a wide array of beautiful diamond jewelry, as well as wholesale loose diamonds you can use to create your own pieces. You don’t have to spend millions of dollars to be brilliant – just visit Brilliance.com.

Gold-mining, while a lucrative industry, poses a great risk to the environment and may create serious human rights issues, especially in third-world countries where they are abundant. The ecosystem where a mine is located can be severely disrupted by its presence; gold is also traditionally a very dirty metal to mine and process. In addition toxic chemicals are used to extract gold from the earth, which are often dumped into pits and waterways, poisoning the ground and water supply. Ultimately, gold mining damages the quality of life for organisms around the mine, and the damage is often left behind for the host country’s government to clean up after a mine closes.

In Third World countries mining is often coupled with human rights issues. Gold can be mined in very dangerous conditions by workers who have few protections and rights. Moreover, the land in which a mine is situated in is often seized from the indigenous peoples that reside in them, leaving them homeless, with nowhere to go once their native lands are taken from them.

“We’re really glad to be a part of the No Dirty Gold (campaign)”, says Jonathon Ohayon from Brilliance. “We’re always looking for new ways to contribute to society and it’s the right thing to do. A diamond engagement ring symbolizes a future couples’ hopes and dreams. It’s something you build a relationship on and not something that they should feel guilty about.”

“We would like to encourage other diamond and jewelry retailers to join the (No Dirty Gold) campaign as soon as possible,” added Jonathon. “Consumers can also show their support by patronizing businesses which sell ethical and environmentally-conscious jewelry.”

A product of the combined efforts of two organizations, the Mineral Policy Center and the Oil & Gas Accountability Project, the Earthworks organization also seeks to reform government policies, improve corporate practices, influence investment decisions and encourage responsible materials sourcing and consumption through nationwide campaigns such as No Dirty Energy, Recycle My Cell Phone, Save Bristol Bay and Mining Reform Campaign. Click here to visit the Earthworks official website.

Many online diamond retailers boast they have 70,000 to 100,000 diamonds in their database, but truthfully, none of those retailers own the diamonds in question, much less have them in stock – or have even seen them. Thus, the quality of the stones cannot be guaranteed. In this scenario, the customer is grossly disadvantaged – some retailers have mistakenly sent loose diamonds that don’t match diamond reports once taken to a gemologist.

Although we now provide all consumers with the highest quality jewelry, engagement rings, and loose diamonds, we originally started out as a diamond wholesaler, selling diamonds to local jewelry retailers. As more consumers began purchasing diamonds online, Brilliance.com was created as a means of offering certified diamonds at the same competitive prices we’d always offered as wholesalers.

At Brilliance we don’t drop ship loose diamonds. Rather we receive every diamond into our offices and keep tight quality control by having each one visually inspected prior to shipment by our Master Gemologists. Customers can browse our selection in a pressure-free, convenient environment online, and can be confident in the quality of their purchase. Additionally, visual inspection can be conducted by our diamond and jewelry experts to verify appearance and quality before a purchase is even made.