1) It has a cool story behind it: The shape of the stone was said to be designed for Louis XIV of France who wanted a diamond fashioned after the Marquise de Pompadour's smile.

3) The stone may look bigger than it actually is. The marquis diamond not only has a large surface area but the elongated lines can make the carat size look larger than what you plunked down money for.

The pear shaped diamond is considered to be a round brilliant diamond at one end and a marquise shape at the other. It is sometimes referred to as a tear drop due to its rounded side and pointed edge. A length-to-width ratio between 1.45 and 1.75 is typically considered most desirable for the pear. Just so you know, the pear-shaped diamond is less sparkly than the round brilliant, and loses more brilliance, if poorly proportioned. One thing in particular to avoid when shopping for a pear shape is the dreaded bow tie effect: a dark area in the middle of the diamond which looks just like a black bow tie. It is hard to avoid the bow tie effect completely with the pear. One nice thing about the pear is that it tends to make one's fingers look slimmer.

Hearts can either be wide or long. They are most similar to the pear shaped diamond but have a cleft at the top. When looking to purchase a heart, make sure the top arches are symmetrical in appearance. Assymmetrical hearts will look more like pears. When looking at other women's ring fingers, you won't see too many hearts. Hearts are less typically found in an engagement ring setting and more commonly seen in earrings or pendants. I will say one good thing about heart shapes: that they cost around 20%-25% less than round diamonds.