Expert Diamond Buying Advice from Clear Cut Founder Olivia Landau

Olivia Landau did not set out to be the person your friends text when they are about to spend a small fortune on a diamond, but that is exactly how The Clear Cut started.

Fresh out of the Gemological Institute of America and working inside the traditional diamond supply chain, Landau found herself fielding ring questions from her now husband and co-founder Kyle Simon’s Columbia Business School circle.

“They would ask if he ‘knew a guy’ who could help them get a good deal on a diamond, and I became the ‘guy,’” she told LA Times Studios Weddings.

What began as helping friends source stones and design custom settings turned into a pattern she could not ignore: “Most people didn’t know the first thing about buying a diamond, and they were overwhelmed.”

So in 2016, she started an educational blog called The Clear Cut, built around explaining diamonds in plain language and without the old-school pressure she saw everywhere.

“The goal of The Clear Cut was always to speak to my community the way I would speak to a close friend,” Landau said. “I wanted clients to feel informed, empowered, and confident, never intimidated.”

That mix of expert clarity and friend level candor became the brand, and the Instagram following that came next brought in couples well beyond New York who wanted the same kind of guidance from the comfort of their phones.

Landau’s authority is not manufactured. She is a fourth generation diamantaire, with family roots in Antwerp, and parents who own an independent antique jewelry business. But she also knows what it feels like to step into the industry as a modern consumer. “The diamond industry has historically had a reputation for being opaque,” she said, and she built The Clear Cut around pulling the curtain back, both in the advice she gives and the way the business operates.

The company’s process begins with a consultation and then a personalized online “gem portal” where a client can review curated stone options with specs, photos, and notes from a gemologist. That portal is part of why The Clear Cut is often described as digitally native, but Landau is quick to ground the tech in the human part of the purchase.

“Engagement rings are incredibly emotional purchases,” she said. “I always tell clients that their center stone is forever. They should feel genuinely giddy every time they look down at their hand.”

Practicality still matters, too, and her advice is refreshingly non precious. “Settings can evolve, styles can be updated, and rings can be reset over time,” she said. “But you have to love your diamond.”

That balance of romance and realism shows up in how Landau talks about the details brides obsess over, and the ones they tend to miss. For first time shoppers, her big wish is that people would let go of the idea of a single perfect stone. “There is no universally ‘perfect’ diamond,” she said. “Perfection isn’t about checking every box on a grading report. Sometimes the most charming and special aspects of a diamond are its natural imperfections and tiny details that make it unique.”

Her gemologist brain kicks in when she explains why two diamonds with the same grades can look totally different on a hand. “Two diamonds can look identical on paper but perform completely differently in real life,” she said, pointing to cut quality, light performance, and proportion as the difference between a stone that looks fine on a certificate and one that reads electric in person.

It is also why she staffs her diamond team with GIA Graduate Gemologists, because, as she put it, “Our clients aren’t just shopping, they’re being educated and guided by true experts.”

Landau is also frank about the questions brides now bring into ring shopping, especially around natural versus lab grown diamonds. She hears the same assumptions over and over, including that natural diamonds are automatically unethical or impossible to trace. “That is simply not the case,” she said, noting that some diamond revenues directly fund public programs in producing countries and that traceability tools, including blockchain based systems, are increasingly part of the conversation.

She is equally clear about what lab grown diamonds are and are not. “Natural diamonds are formed over billions of years deep within the earth. Lab-grown diamonds are manufactured in a controlled environment in a matter of days,” she said. “While they may look similar to the naked eye, they are not the same in origin, rarity, or long-term value dynamics.”

She also emphasizes that trained professionals can tell the difference with the right equipment, and she frames the choice less as a moral test and more as a personal one: what story do you want your ring to carry, and what tradeoffs are you comfortable with.

If all of this sounds a little too heady for a piece of jewelry you just want to love, Landau would probably agree. The point of education, in her view, is not to turn every bride into a diamond nerd, it is to give you enough confidence to buy what you actually want. “Cut quality is incredibly important,” she said, “but ultimately what makes a diamond special is how it feels to the person wearing it.”

She sees that feeling play out constantly, even years into the business. “Seeing proposal photos never gets old,” she told me. “Hearing our couples’ engagement stories still makes me emotional.”

And because The Clear Cut now designs wedding bands and milestone pieces beyond the proposal, she often stays in people’s lives longer than the engagement season. “We often say we want to be our clients’ ‘jeweler for life,’” she said, describing returning clients who come back for wedding bands, anniversary gifts, push presents, or heirloom redesigns.

For the bride who wants a ring that feels like her, and wants to understand what she is buying without feeling talked down to, Landau’s whole approach can be summed up in a single line: “When someone understands what they’re buying, they make better decisions and they feel proud of them.”