Designing a Unique Halo Engagement Ring

Halo rings are among the most common and most popular design styles for engagement rings. And there are several popular, beautiful halo styles that may be just right for you. But we design custom engagement rings, so we know they're not right for everyone! Your design may need something unique and unexpected. Maybe your halo needs a bold bit of geometry or a subtle twist on the expected symmetry? On this page, we've gathered a few unique halo engagement ring designs to help you get inspired.

1

How do you take a set of common design elements and create something one-of-a-kind? A sunburst-style halo, an asymmetrical half-halo arrangement, a bypass band style — our designer pulled these together into a look that feels at once familiar and unexpected. The band's gorgeous curves twist into the silhouette of the pear cut center stone, and the settings for the sunburst style half-halo are given beautiful petal shapes. And even the center stone is surprising — the salt & pepper diamond sparkles at first glance, but reveals its beautiful speckling when you look closer.

2

Art Deco design has such distinctive elements, it's fun for our artists to sketch designs that aim to create something new from that era's beautiful geometry and bold glamour. In this design, many of the familiar Deco elements show up — a vivid sapphire, bold geometry, repeating lines and chevrons. But there's a twist. Literally. A halo wraps around the sapphire, but triangular cutouts with additional diamonds create a vortex that spins out into the angles and gems of the ring's shoulder detailing. When we describe it this way, it sounds like a chaotic look, but the orderly shapes and clean lines make it all look very organized even as the angles create wonderful movement for the eye to follow.

3

Our customer gave us several starting points for this design. He told us that his partner had once been surprised (in a good way!) by a ring with marquise gems arranged like the rays of a sun around a center stone. He also thought she'd like rose gold and, like the ring above, enjoyed Art Deco designs. In his words: "She is brilliant, loves to travel, she is compassionate, funny, and her favorite colors are yellow and gray." With that loving foundation, we had to build something uniquely wonderful to capture his sentiments!

Our designer's bold look captures her love of travel with a reference to a compass rose, extending like rays out from the center morganite. The pyramid-like chevrons of these rays also bring in a touch of Art Deco design. Between these rays, marquise onyx creates a unique halo like the ring she'd seen and liked, and corner diamonds complete the look by adding sparkle to catch the eye. Perhaps the most unique take on a sunburst halo we've ever had the pleasure of designing.

4

We designed this look from a Bible verse. Isaiah 54:11-12: “O you afflicted one tossed with tempest and not comforted. Behold, I will lay your stones with colorful gems, and lay your foundations with turquoise. I will make your pinnacles of rubies, your gates of crystal, and all your walls of precious stones." Our customer explained that interpretations vary — some say sapphire or lapis lazuli. But we went with turquoise, ruby, and sapphire, and, for the more vague terms, he suggested gems that fit the verse and also reflected a bit of the two of them — aquamarine and garnet, their birthstones. We designed a vintage-inspired halo with a unique look that allowed each gem (and each color) to fit a different shape and a different role in the halo, so that all of the colors would combine to create a harmonious arrangement. The choice of silver hearkens back to the days before white gold came into use, and will allow the look to pick up a beautiful antique quality as the silver gradually oxidizes, revealing the nooks and crannies of the ring's details.

5

Seems like we have a lot of vintage and Art Deco inspiration on this page. The octagon at the foundation of this ring's design very much owes a debt to Deco design. But our artist's unique choice to create gaps in the halo brings in an element that's almost futuristic, as if the halo slid open to create space for the center stone. Speaking of which: what can we say about this gorgeous bluish-green sapphire? A captivating color and cut with the perfect octagonal symmetry of an asscher cut.

6

Let's shy away from calling this one Art Deco — although that's very much what those curving wings seem to reference — and focus in on the unique halo around the moonstone at the center of this ring. A bit like the points of a snowflake or a flashing star. We accented the points with diamond and deep red garnet accents to highlight the compass points and add some sparkle in between them.

7

For this ring's design, we wanted to exaggerate the four points of a sunburst halo setting, using elongated marquise diamonds to stretch beyond the halo. As we moved from the initial sketches to the finished design in 3D, we opted to stretch those points even further, creating a look reminiscent of the Star of Bethlehem glinting its rays out toward the band and along the length of the finger. At the heart of the setting, a smaller white opal adds an incredible shimmer of pastel greens, oranges, purples, and blues.

8

This ring's vining and partially textured band creates a nature-inspired foundation for the center setting. So, rather than create a typical halo, our designer opted to open and offset the halo into two semi-halos, balancing the way the bypass setting connects with the center stone. Prongs on the outside of the semi-halo capture the brilliance of a sunburst around the warm, purple-green swirl of the opal center stone's color play.

9

Choosing something other than round stones for your halo will immediately make your design uncommon. But this look takes the idea even further, surrounding princess cut aquamarine with a halo of marquise sapphires and points of seed pearl. And we repeated this arrangement three times, as if this was a three-stone setting of multi-colored, cushion-shaped gems. A truly striking statement ring!

10

Can you believe it? Another Art Deco design! There are only four baguette diamonds making up the halo, but they combine with a kite-set ruby and beaded detailing to create a beautiful and unique halo-style setting. The shoulders of the ring bring in a hamsa hand design and citrine accents to transition to the band, but it's that center setting that keeps drawing our eyes. The choice of classic gold helps reinforce the vintage styling of the ring, and pairs perfectly with the center ruby.