Earrings — styles you will see at the showroom.

What to look at

Studs sit flat and take the most wear, drops move and catch light, chandeliers are an evening piece and are usually tried on before anything else is decided. Check the back before the front — a screw or lever back holds a heavy stone, a friction butterfly does not, and replacing a lost drop from a matched pair is rarely possible.

Ask to hold a pair to the mirror rather than to the light. Stones matched in the tray can read differently once they are twenty centimetres apart on either side of a face, and the pair that looked identical under the lamp is the one worth checking twice.