Hey everyone! If you’ve landed on this page, chances are you are in the exact same boat I was in about six months ago: frantically scrolling through endless jewelry websites trying to figure out where on earth to buy a decent ring without spending a small fortune or getting scammed by some sketchy drop-shipper.
My partner and I had been talking about taking the next big step, and the pressure was completely on me to find something that didn’t look generic, but also wouldn’t require us to remortgage our house. After falling down a ridiculous number of rabbit holes, I kept seeing the name austen & blake pop up in forums and review sites. Australians online were raving about their custom-made approach, so I figured, why not dive in and see what all the fuss was about?
I’m going to walk you through my entire experience—from clicking around their website for the first time, to opening that little velvet box—so you can decide if they are the right fit for your big moment.
Why I Decided to Give Austen & Blake a Go
Let’s be real for a second. Buying fine jewelry online feels a bit terrifying. When you walk into a traditional brick-and-mortar store down at your local shopping centre, you can touch the metal, squint at the diamonds under those aggressively bright jeweler’s lights, and talk to a salesperson face-to-face.
Going digital means you’re relying entirely on high-resolution photos and your own research. So why did I risk it? Two main reasons: customisation and price. Traditional retail markups in Australia are no joke. You end up paying for prime retail real estate rent, commissions, and heavily stocked display cases. Brands that operate on a made-to-order model generally cut out a lot of that overhead.
Plus, I had a very specific mental image of what I wanted. My partner hates chunky settings and loves dainty, minimalist bands with a tiny twist. Whenever I tried to explain this to local jewelers, they either quoted me an astronomical custom design fee or tried to steer me toward whatever pre-made stock they were desperate to clear out of their safe.
When I started playing around with the custom builder on the austen & blake website, I realized I could pick the exact metal type (yellow gold, in our case), choose the diamond specs that fit our budget, and tweak the band width without paying a massive penalty for the privilege.
Navigating the Website and Designing the Ring
The user experience on their platform is surprisingly smooth. I’m usually the kind of person who gets overwhelmed by too many dropdown menus, but their ring builder breaks it down into simple, digestible steps.
Step one: choose your jewelry type (engagement rings, wedding bands, earrings, necklaces). Naturally, I clicked on engagement rings.
Step two: pick your setting style. Solitaire, halo, pave, trilogy—they have all the classics, plus some more modern architectural designs. We went with a classic oval solitaire because it elongates the finger and looks timeless.
Step three: choose your center stone. This is where things get really interesting. You can pick between mined diamonds, lab-grown diamonds, and various gemstones like sapphires or emeralds. We opted for a lab-grown diamond. Why? Because you get significantly more bang for your buck. A lab-grown stone is chemically, physically, and optically identical to a mined diamond, but it costs a fraction of the price and doesn’t carry the ethical question marks of traditional mining. It felt like a no-brainer for us.
Step four: select your metal and ring size. This was my biggest fear—getting the size wrong. If you live in a major Aussie metro area, they do have showrooms you can visit, but since I live a couple of hours away from the nearest big city, I had to play detective.
“I was super nervous about ordering an engagement ring online without seeing it first, especially living out in regional Victoria. But the customer service team helped me figure out the sizing and even sent out a free ring sizer plastic gauge. When the ring arrived, it fit her perfectly on the first try. Couldn’t be happier!” — Liam T., Bendigo
That quote right there from Liam mirrors my exact experience. I reached out to their customer support via live chat to ask about sizing kits, and they mailed one out to me free of charge. It took about three days to arrive, and we measured my partner’s finger on a lazy Sunday afternoon while drinking coffee. Crisis averted.
Quality, Craftsmanship, and the Waiting Game
Once you hit that final checkout button, the hardest part begins: the waiting. Because these pieces aren’t just sitting in a warehouse somewhere gathering dust—they are actually crafted specifically to your order—you have to exercise some patience.
My order took roughly three weeks from the moment I clicked pay to the day the courier knocked on my door. During that time, I’ll admit I got a little antsy. I emailed customer support around week two just to check on the status, and they got back to me within a few hours with a polite update letting me know it was currently in the setting workshop undergoing quality control checks.
When the package finally arrived, it came in a plain, discreet courier box (major points for discretion—if your partner is home when the delivery arrives, they won’t instantly suspect a massive surprise). Inside that was a sleek presentation box housing the ring itself.
I held my breath as I popped open the lid. Sometimes online photos use macro lenses that make stones look massive, only for the real thing to look like a microscopic speck. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case here. The oval diamond caught the light immediately, throwing off those gorgeous rainbow flashes you want to see. The yellow gold band was polished to a mirror finish, with zero rough edges around the prongs.
“The craftsmanship blew me away. I compared it side-by-side with a ring my mate bought from a flashy boutique in Sydney that cost nearly double, and honestly, you couldn’t tell the difference in quality. The prongs are secure, the diamond sparkles like crazy, and my fiancée gets stopped by strangers asking to see it.” — Marcus B., Brisbane
Pricing and Value: How Does It Stack Up?
Let’s talk numbers, because budget matters to almost everyone. Before stumbling onto austen & blake, I went into a few traditional retail stores just to get a baseline price. For a 1-carat equivalent ring with decent clarity and color set in gold, local high street shops were quoting anywhere between $7,000 and $10,000.
By opting for a lab-grown diamond through their online platform, I managed to get a stunning stone and custom setting for roughly half of that lower estimate. It freed up enough cash for us to actually enjoy a decent engagement trip down the coast instead of eating baked beans for six months to pay off the jewelry bill.
Of course, buying online means you aren’t paying for the salesperson’s commission or the expensive storefront lease, which explains the price gap. But does lower price mean lower service if something goes wrong? That was my big worry.
They do offer a returns and resizing policy, which gave me some peace of mind. While I didn’t need to return mine thanks to the plastic ring sizer trick, knowing that there’s a safety net if the size is slightly off is crucial when buying online.
The Proposal and the Everyday Wear Test
The proposal happened on a quiet headland at sunset during a weekend getaway. She said yes before I even managed to get all the way down on one knee (which was good, because my knees are terrible anyway).
Now, flash forward a few months. How is the ring holding up to day-to-day life? An engagement ring isn’t just for show photos on Instagram; it needs to survive cooking, cleaning, typing away at a desk, and general daily wear.
My partner works a desk job, but she’s also an avid gardener and gym-goer. She takes it off for heavy lifting and getting her hands dirty in the soil, but she wears it pretty much everywhere else. The gold hasn’t scratched to pieces, the prongs are holding the center stone as tightly as day one, and it cleans up brilliantly with a little warm water and mild dish soap.
“I’ve had my wedding band and engagement ring set from them for over a year now. I wear them every single day without fail. No loose stones, no weird tarnishing on the metal. I just pop them in an ultrasonic cleaner every couple of months and they look brand new again.” — Sophie W., Melbourne
What Could Be Improved?
To keep things balanced, no brand is entirely flawless. While my overall experience was overwhelmingly positive, there are a couple of things potential buyers should keep in mind.
First, the lack of instant gratification. If you need a ring by this coming Friday because you decided on a spontaneous proposal, ordering a custom piece online is not going to work. You have to plan ahead. Give yourself at least a month to be safe.
Second, while their website tools are great, trying to visualize exact millimeter measurements on a screen can be tricky. A 1.5-carat stone looks very different on a computer monitor than it does wrapped around a human finger. My advice? Cut out little paper circles of the carat dimensions you’re considering and tape them to your finger to get a real-world sense of scale before you buy.
Final Verdict on Austen & Blake
Stepping into the world of online jewelry shopping can feel like walking through a minefield of over-the-top marketing and questionable quality. But my gamble paid off.
If you are looking for a way to get a customized, high-quality piece of fine jewelry without paying the bloated prices of traditional high street retailers, checking out austen & blake is well worth your time. Just make sure you do your homework on ring sizes, allow a few weeks for production, and don’t be afraid to lean on their customer support team if you have questions.
It made a stressful life milestone remarkably painless, saved us a bucketload of cash, and most importantly, resulted in a ring that my partner looks down at and smiles at every single day. And really, what more could you ask for?
