Yes and no.

Fine jewelry with gold and diamonds is at the high end of the scale and may be more difficult to purchase due to the high cost.
Fashion jewelry is often a good choice instead as the price is significantly lower and the products may often imitate or surpass the beauty of fine jewelry.
Especially the variation in colors and artwork etc. is almost unlimited.

Cost vs. Value
The question of expensive or not has two sides.
One is the cost in order for you to purchase the jewelry, the other is the value it has for you, these are two separate considerations.
The cost includes the purchase price and overhead like transport charges, insurance and other directly related costs.
The value is what the jewelry means to you, what it can do for your feeling of wellbeing and enjoyment etc.

The most important thing is to find jewelry that will have a high value for you compared to the price you pay for it.
Fine jewelry will often cost you 50 times more than a, more or less, similar fashion jewelry item but will last much longer.
High quality fashion jewelry may cost 10 times more than low quality items (these figures are just meant as general guidelines) but will last much longer.

When trying to estimate the value of a jewelry item you should take into account how good you feel when wearing it. Next is to find out how often this feeling can be repeated, or how often you can wear the item, how long it will keep the shine and looks.

How long will jewelry last?
Fine jewelry will practically “last forever” so as soon as you have managed to purchase an item that you love wearing you will have something that last a lifetime.
High quality fashion jewelry may last a number of years depending on how you take care of it, often 10 years or more.
Low quality fashion jewelry will often deteriorate within a year, and some items may cause harm to your skin.

Using these rough guidelines means that the value of a high quality fashion jewelry item could be as much as 10 times higher than that of a low quality one.
When comparing prices, a low quality item should cost only on tenth of the price of a similar high quality one.
Let’s say if a necklace made with high quality beads like Swarovski, or equally good products, costing 100 dollars is, more or less, comparable to a low quality jewelry product costing 10 dollars with similar original looks.

Conclusion
Fine jewelry has the highest value but the purchase price may often be too high for your budget.

High quality fashion jewelry has a higher value than low quality items but the price may be 5-10 times higher. It may, however, last a number of years.
Low quality fashion jewelry does not last any length of time and must be valued as more or less a “use and throw” item.

When buying fashion, or costume, jewelry you have to look at the purchase price measured against the value it has for you as the initial cost may be less of an issue.
Very often, but not always, quality follow the price.

And one more thing, the higher the price of a jewelry item the more you want to keep it from getting lost. Cost of insurance must often be included when it comes to fine jewelry, especially nowadays when economy is not so good and expensive items may be more prone to theft.