Welcome to The Ring Adviser's Celebrity Engagement Ring Breakdown. In each post, we simulate a popular celebrity engagement ring choice and determine what the best Diamond would be. Contact Us if you would like to send us a suggestion for a future installment of our personal one-on-one help.

What would it cost to replicate Kourtney Kardashian's Ring From Travis Barker?

The big recent celebrity engagement news comes from the house of Kardashians. Travis Barker, the 45-year old drummer for Blink-182, proposed to Kourtney Kardashian in Montecito, California, with a whopping Oval diamond Engagement ring that some estimate to have cost over $1 million. I guess that's what it takes to snag one of the stars of Keeping Up with the Kardashians. But enough about the couple, we're interested in the ring, so let's get to it!

Breaking down the Kourtney Kardashian Ring

As we stated above, the engagement ring is a beauty—a truly massive diamond of what looks like excellent quality. (If you want to take a closer look at the ring, head over to PageSix as they have the close-ups!). The initial photos show an Oval Cut diamond on a pavé Platinum setting. Industry insiders speculate that the Oval Diamond could be as large as 15-Carats, but is definitely at least in the 8-10 Carat range. Assuming a Very Good Cut with an above-average Color and a Clarity in the VVS1-2 range, we can start breaking this down to see what it would cost to duplicate.

At Blue Nile, we found a handful of GIA Certified Oval Diamonds above our 8-Carat threshold. To give you an idea of the price sensitivity at this scale, a Flawless 8-Carat example is just above $500,000, while a VVS1 12-Carat example comes in at over $900,000. That is a massive jump for an extra four Carats. For argument's sake, let's look at the 8-Carat example. 

• Carat - 8.28

• Color - E

• Clarity - FL

• Cut - Very Good

• Polish - Excellent

• Symmetry - Excellent

• Fluorescence - None

• L/W (mm) - 16.13 x 11.25

• L/W Ratio - 1.43
  

With the Diamond settled, all you would need to finish the look would be a pavé Platinum setting, which would run you around $5,000, and you have a stunning engagement ring for about $525,000.

Next, let's see how close we can get the same style ring with a similar presence while sticking to a "semi-reasonable" budget?

Budget Kourtney Kardashian ENGAGEMENT RING

In keeping with the spirit of Kourtney's ring, we will keep the Oval Cut but scale it back to a 5-Carat range. Making a few concessions on Color and being a bit choosey on Clarity brings us the following Oval Diamond example.

While Blue Nile has around a dozen diamonds that would fit the description, we think this 5-Carat example has excellent specifications and is priced fairly, given the size, at $120,000. The Diamond can easily be paired with a $2,000 pavé Platinum setting, and you're out the door with a genuinely generational engagement ring for under $125,000.

So how big of a difference is there between our proposed "budget" ring and the speculated Kourtney Kardashian engagement ring? Our 5-Carat Oval diamond measures 12.77 mm x 9.63 mm (96.7 mm2) when viewing the Table from above, while the 8-Carat diamond measures 16.13 mm x 11.25 mm (144.5 mm2). That equates to approximately 50% greater surface Table area, for which you would pay a premium of 320%. Not exactly a linear progression. So there you have it, a lite version of the Kourtney Kardashian engagement ring for over 300% less.

Would you like us to help you create your version of the Kourtney Kardashian engagement ring to fit your budget? Contact us, and we will provide you with a one-on-one service that will get you the best diamond available!