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For thousands of years women (and men) have enjoyed adorning themselves with artful decoration in the form of jewelry. Whether it was made from wood, wool, metal or stone the purpose was the same - to enhance or create a desired appearance.

Regardless of if you are looking for jewelry to compliment a formal outfit or for daily wear you want the jewelry you choose to draw attention to your best features or possibly camouflage less desirable areas. Your choice of jewelry style will subtly affect others perceptions, so what guidelines are there to help you select the most flattering jewelry?

CHOOSING A NECKLACE

Are you tall? Average? Petite? Your choice of necklace can minimize or emphasize your size. If you want to create or emphasize a taller appearance choose longer necklaces and V shapes. A necklace that falls past the bustline but above the waist will elongate while a choker style or shorter U shaped necklace resting on the breast bone will shorten your appearance.

The size of your necklace should also be considered. Fuller figures can compliment their proportions with larger, chunkier pieces that would overwhelm an individual with a smaller frame.

CHOOSING EARRINGS

Face shape is important when selecting earrings. Face shapes are generally grouped as: oval, rectangle, round, heart and square.

Individuals with an oval face shape can wear any style while other people should look for styles that contrast their face shape. Selecting a hoop or button style for a round face would only emphasize the round shape. Square or long shapes will de-emphasize a round face.

The same is true with other face shapes; a long, rectangular face should stay away from long, dangling earrings and choose smaller studs instead. Square faces need the softness of round or hoop earrings and heart shaped faces are complimented with triangular shapes with a wide base that contrasts a narrow chin.

CHOOSING BRACELETS AND RINGS

Are you animated with your hands when talking? Then take as much consideration to the jewelry there as near your face.

Similar guidelines should be followed with bracelets and rings as with necklace choice. Women of average build and height will find a wide bracelet most complimentary. Petite women should look for more delicate pieces and tall or full figured women should layer several small or wide bracelets, avoiding very delicate pieces that can look lost.

When selecting rings make sure that the setting doesn’t cover your knuckle which not only will cause fingers to look short but can interfere with movement and comfort.

Shorter fingers benefit from oval settings while longer fingers look best with wide bands or simple, round settings.

CHOOSING WHAT YOU LOVE

While these guidelines may influence the type of jewelry you select you can be sure that there are many, many choices for all tastes and occasions regardless of your shape or size.

Above all you should select jewelry you love to wear. Jewelry lasts a lifetime and should always feel good to wear, so ultimately make a decision based on what makes you FEEL wonderful.

Diamonds - their very mention makes the heart skip a beat. Be it for the expectations implied or for the very beauty and exquisiteness of their possession. However, purchasing a diamond can test the nerves of even the most astute buyer - what do you look for? What do the terms mean? What makes one diamond worth more than another?

Here is a simple guide to the essentials of diamond grading. Understanding these terms will help you discuss with the dealer the features most important to you, ensuring you get the very best diamond for your money.

Diamond appraisers look for four qualities in a diamond when discerning its value. Commonly called the ‘4 Cs’ they are: Cut, Clarity, Carat and Color.

CUT

There are two aspects referred to when discussing the cut of a diamond. The first refers to the quality of the cut - affecting the brilliance of the diamond - the other refers to the actual shape of the diamond.

Diamonds are available in many shapes. Some of the more common are; round, oval, pear (teardrop shaped), heart, princess (square shaped), Emerald (rectangular shaped), marquise (football shaped) and round.

Of all the shapes available, round diamonds are the shape most capable of being cut to exude the greatest brilliance. The brilliance is determined by the ability of the diamond to reflect light. A quality cut diamond will have facets angled to reflect the greatest amount of light. Beware of diamonds cut to maintain a higher carat weight while sacrificing the cutting of a good angle as this will dramatically reduce the brilliance.

CLARITY

Diamonds from natural sources are subject to individual flaws including trace minerals and scratches. A diamond without such characteristics is called flawless and is the rarest kind. While these flaws are often not visible to the naked eye, they affect the light reflecting qualities of the diamond which affects the overall brilliance.

Diamond clarity is classified as follows: Flawless, IF, VVS1, VVS2, VS1, VS2, SI1, SI2, SI3, I1, I2 and I3.

CARAT

Carat is the measurement of the weight of a diamond. One carat may also be referred to as ‘100 points’. This means that a half carat would be listed as ‘50 points’ and so on.

The larger a diamond is the more costly it becomes. Since the larger diamonds are much rarer the cost will go up significantly with each increase in size. A one carat diamond will be more than just double the cost of a half carat, however, a ring with multiple diamonds that have a combined weight of one carat will be cheaper than a single stone of that weight.

COLOR

The color of a diamond is rated on an alphabetical scale from D to Z. A typical ‘white’ diamond should be as colorless as possible - a rating of ‘D’ being the rarest and most desirable. When choosing a colorless diamond it is best to stay within the D-J range or the diamond will have a yellow cast which lessens the value. The less natural color the diamond has the more colors will appear in the flashes reflected in the prism.

‘Fancy’ diamonds (diamonds with a rating over Z) come in a variety of shades and include some famous diamonds such as the Blue Hope diamond.

When purchasing a diamond it is important to remember that each of the 4 Cs are of equal importance in an appraiser’s eyes. If budget is an issue, however, you should consider which features are of greatest importance to you and with a little knowledge select the diamond that will hold the greatest value and sentiment for your budget.

Holidays or not, online shopping is fast becoming the main shopping choice for many people. People prefer online stores for their shopping needs over the brick-and-mortar stores for a variety of reasons - discounted price, quick price comparisons, unavailability of desired items in the retail stores, 24 hours shopping convenience, etc. Whatever the reason is, before you jump into the online shopping bandwagon, you must consider a few things to avoid frustration and monetary loss.

Before you pull out your credit card to buy an item at an unbelievably reduced price, think about the reasons why the merchant is throwing out his profits. Maybe it is a total scam and they want your credit card number to rip you off. Stay with the big online shopping sites. Sites that are publicly traded or reputable private companies do not spam your email inbox with unsolicited advertisements. If you find a shopping site, advertised in a spam e-mail, that sells $100 software for $10, you can bet that it is a scammer’s site.

Ask your friends about their experiences with online shopping sites to select sites that are worthy of your hard earned money. Another approach is to use a search engine like Google to search for items you plan to purchase. When you use Google to search for an item, you will get advertised and non-advertised sites offering your items at different prices. Check out a few sites before you decide to make a purchase.

Many sites like bizrate.com or nexttag.com offers price comparisons, reviews, and shopping site ratings. Use these sites to read reviews and to do a price comparisons. Sites like techbargains.com publishes information on latest bargains, coupons, and discounts offered by various online shopping sites. Monitoring this type of sites provides opportunities to get great bargains. One comparison shopping site, buysafeshopping.com, provides information on qualified shopping sites that have gone through a screening process for merchant’s identity, online sales experience, and the ability to deliver purchased items.

If you have to shop with an unknown online merchant, check for their telephone number at their Web site. Contact someone at the merchant’s physical location and talk to them. Ask them about their privacy and refund policy. If you cannot find a phone number or the phone number goes to a voice mail, instead to a live person, go shopping somewhere else. There are dozens, if not hundreds, good online merchants for any items you want to buy.

At the online checkout counter, you have to use a credit card to pay. When you use your credit card, make sure that your credit card and personal information are sent using encryption to avoid someone intercepting your information for unauthorized use. To check for encryption, look for https in the URL. It is perfectly safe if the site has http in its URL for all pages except the order page - the page where you enter your credit card and other personal information like address, etc. Even if a site is encrypted, it can still be a scammer’s site. Look out for tale-tell signs like numbers at the beginning of the URL. Avoid public computers at cafes, airports, etc. for your purchases. The danger is that hackers can install key-loggers to log your key presses before they are encrypted.

Always use a credit card to pay for your online purchases. Most credit cards have online purchase protection. If something goes wrong, you can always call your credit card company and dispute the charge. You do not have to pay for your disputed charges till the dispute is resolved. Federal laws limit your liability to $50 in charges should someone uses your card fraudulently. Never use a debit card. Debit cards pull money from your bank account as soon as the transaction is made. If you are ripped off, it may take months before you get your money back, if you ever see it again.

Despite all the cautionary warnings, online shopping is safer than shopping offline. You do not have to take a shower, dress up, drive and mingle with other shoppers and touch anything in the store for online shopping. How safe can it be? If you are careful, you can guard yourself against identity and credit card thefts by following safety tips discussed above. When you are using a credit card in an offline venue, there is a person, such as the sales person, who processes the transaction and this person can also see your private information. In online transactions, the middle man is eliminated. If you do your research, watch for signs of fraud and only use credit cards for your purchases, online shopping provides more benefits over offline shopping.