Love is magic and ephemeral, but it also has a tangible side. Flowers and candy can represent love, but nothing says, "I love you," better than jewelry, especially diamonds and gold. Here are some ideas for what to look for when buying the perfect gift to express your love.

Diamonds, Engagement Rings

This is one stone that you should always make sure to purchase from a jeweler you trust. Even then, getting a certificate and having the stone appraised by another jeweler is a good idea. When you're buying a diamond, look for the famous 4 C's: cut, color, clarity and carats (weight).

Each of these will affect the price. Color is sometimes "graded" on a scale, but not every scale is identical. A "D" may be the best color for one scale, but not for another. Make sure you know how a particular scale and grade represents the color of the diamond you're considering. A diamond can be described as "flawless" only if it has no visible surface cracks or other imperfections when viewed under 10-power magnification by a skilled diamond grader.

Gold

The quest for gold is not limited to sports heroes and rappers. Nations have been built by explorers in search of the precious yellow metal and wars have been fought to increase a country's supply. The history of gold as a valuable metal goes back to before the Bible and the urge to collect and possess it is still strong today.

The most common mixture of gold used in jewelry, fourteen karat (14K), contains 14 parts of gold mixed with 10 parts of base metals. While 14K is standard for gold jewelry products, you can get anywhere from 10K to almost pure gold. Pure gold is not used for jewelry because it is too soft and will not keep its shape well over time. Many items today are plated with gold instead of being solid gold. While gold-plated jewelry is very pretty, and often difficult to tell from the solid gold pieces, there's a big difference between gold and gold-plated jewelry.

Technically, gold-plated describes jewelry with a layer of at least 10K gold bonded to a base metal. The plating can be a more expensive 14K or more and that usually determines the price of the piece. Even the best gold plating eventually wears away. How long the piece will last depends on how often the item is worn and how thick the plating is.

Advice from a jeweler on buying wedding rings - make sure that the rings are made from a solid bar. Some less expensive rings are solid gold, but assembled from pieces. These rings will not last as long as bands created from one solid piece.

For those who are allergic to gold, you might be interested to know that the most common allergy is to molybdenum, one of the metals used to strengthen the gold. Often, getting a piece of jewelry that is 18 karats or higher will eliminate the allergic reaction.