Jewelry is always a good option to select for a gift to give someone because anyone can wear jewelry and use it to accentuate their look and their clothing. Jewelry is also a great way to commemorate something or someone, which you can do with a purchase that you carefully select and evaluate for the right choices in the piece you choose. Here are some recommendations to help you choose the right piece of jewelry for the occasion and your budget.

Select the Metal

When you go to visit a jewelry shop, you may be overwhelmed with the gleaming of all the different pieces with the shiny metals and sparkly stones. However, carefully consider the look of your jewelry piece and choose a metal that is going to best showcase the piece and your own skin. Some prefer yellow gold with its sunny allure, but others may like the look of sterling silver or white gold.

Be sure that the type of metal you choose is good quality and not a plated metal in order for you to get the long-lasting look. Yellow gold is a bit higher in price at the moment, which can make this option a bit more expensive, but you can also choose a lower number karat to still give you the gold look but at a more affordable price. For example, 24k gold is pure gold and is going to be the most yellow in color, but you can also select 18k, 14k, and 10k gold, each one with a lower amount of gold in the mixture but still a nice gold tone.

Sterling silver is another classy and beautiful option for the metal of your jewelry. Sterling silver keeps its shine with an occasional polishing, but is more budget-friendly based on your spending limit. And sometimes you may find the silver color will better accentuate any diamonds or gemstones you have set into the piece. Just be sure you select sterling silver and not another silver name, such as nickel silver, that may not be made of true silver.

Choose a Gemstone

Once you have selected the type of metal for your jewelry, there are a number of gemstones you can choose from. You can look at diamonds, Austrian crystals, or another gemstone, such as ruby, emerald, sapphire, garnet, opal, pearls and amethyst. With gemstones, you can choose from precious and semi precious, and each will be priced differently. This allows you to choose a gemstone based on someone's birthstone.

Be sure you look at the type of gemstone and if it is lab created or a natural stone. If you want pearls, look for a pearl that is cultured and has a good luster with a shiny deep glow to its surface.