Education - Lab Grown Diamond
WHAT ARE LAB-CREATED DIAMONDS?
Diagrown believes in adding value to its customer, and therefore it’s constantly expanding its base and knowledge in product offering and quality standards. It offers various varieties of shapes in diamonds such as Brilliant Round, Cushion, Heart, Marquise, Pear, Princess, Radiant, Square Radiant, Emerald, and Oval. The color ranges from D to J, with varieties of clarities like Hearts & Arrows, Certificated Fine makes, Excellent Makes, Single Stones and Mixed Parcel Category, etc.
Take a look at this stunning 2.71ct lab-created diamond. There is no questioning its beauty. But when looking at lab-made diamond prices and value, there’s more to consider than what initially meets the eye.
HOW ARE LAB-CREATED DIAMONDS GROWN?
Before we talk about how lab-created diamonds are made, it’s important to understand how mined diamonds are formed. The processes are extremely similar - only one happens naturally while the other occurs in a lab
Mined Diamonds Geologists believe that diamonds formed deep within the Earth between 1 billion to 3 billion years ago. While they don’t know exactly how those diamonds came to be, they believe the process starts with carbon dioxide that is buried roughly 100 miles beneath the Earth’s surface.
The carbon dioxide is exposed to heat in excess of 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit and put under extreme pressure of roughly 727,000 pounds per square inch. The diamonds are then transported from deep within the Earth’s core to the surface by way of deep volcanic explosions.
Lab-created Diamonds There are two processes labs use to grow diamonds - High Pressure-High Temperature (HPHT) and Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD).
HPHT diamonds are made using one of three manufacturing processes: a belt press, the cubic press, and the split-sphere (BARS) press. All of these processes create an environment of extremely high pressure and temperature conducive to diamond growth.
An HPHT diamond begins as a small diamond seed that is placed into carbon. Using one of the manufacturing processes above, the seed is exposed to temperatures of about 1500 degrees Celsius and pressurized to approximately 1.5 million pounds per square inch.
The pure carbon melts and starts to form a diamond around the starter seed. It is then carefully cooled to form a pure carbon diamond.
A CVD diamond begins as a thin slice of diamond seed, which is often an HPHT-produced diamond. The diamond seed is placed in a sealed chamber and heated to around 800 degrees Celsius.
The chamber is filled with a carbon rich-gas, like Methane, and other gases. The gases are ionized into plasma using technology similar to that of microwaves or lasers. The ionization breaks the molecular bonds in the gases, and the pure carbon adheres to the diamond seed and slowly crystallizes.
HOW ARE LAB-CREATED DIAMONDS CERTIFIED AND GRADED?
Lab-created diamonds are graded and certified using the same process as mined diamonds.
Diamonds are sent to a gem lab that specializes in grading diamonds. The majority of these labs grade using the 4c’s (cut, clarity, color, and carat — more on those later), however, a select few use their criteria.
The most popular diamond certification labs are:
Gemological Institute of America (GIA)
Antwerp World Diamond Center (AWDC)
American Gem Society (AGS)
International Gemological Institute (IGI)
Gemological Science International (GSI)
The diamond grading process is roughly the same for all of the diamond certification labs. Each diamond is graded independently by several gemologists at the lab. The individual grades are compiled and analyzed to determine the final grade.
This process is designed to provide each diamond with an unbiased grade. However, it’s not uncommon for a diamond to get a different grade, not only from a different lab but from the same lab if sent back for a second grading.
For this reason, there are a lot of differing opinions amongst consumers and diamond retailers as to which lab is the “best.” But, it’s important to keep in mind that those opinions are completely subjective. Each lab, much like anything in life, has its pros and cons.
A diamond retailer chooses which lab they use because they trust that lab to grade diamonds fairly. If diamond certification is an important factor in your purchase, you should have a candid conversation with your jeweler about which lab they use and why.
More than anything, jewelers want you to be confident in your purchase, so don’t be afraid to ask questions to find the best lab-created diamonds for your engagement ring or jewelry.
A diamond is evaluated using the 4c’s - cut, clarity, color, and carat. they judge the diamond on how well it has been cut down from its raw form into a jewel, how flawless and clear it is, and its size.
Below you’ll find an explanation of each category and the different measurements used for each.
ARE LAB-CREATED DIAMONDS REAL?
Let’s get one thing out of the way: I agree that synthetic diamonds look exactly like natural diamonds (so long as we’re referring to lab-grown diamonds, not diamond simulants or cubic zirconia). I’m not going to get into the technical details of how they make diamonds because that is not the issue. Lab-Created diamonds are diamonds.
But when looking at lab-made diamond prices and value, there’s more to consider than what initially meets the eye.
LAB-CREATED DIAMONDS VS. NATURAL DIAMONDS
You can’t tell the difference between lab-created diamonds and natural diamonds without specialized equipment, even if you’re a professional gemologist. The best way to tell the difference between lab-grown diamonds and natural diamonds is to look at the grading report.
If a professional gemologist is determining if a diamond is mined or lab-grown, they use magnification to look at the nature of the inclusions. The inclusions in a natural diamond appear slightly different than in a lab-created diamond. There are sometimes also differences in how the diamond reflects light compared with a synthetic diamond.
Lab-created diamonds and natural diamonds differ primarily in how they’re made but also in other qualities like price, resale value, rarity, and desirability. Here, we give a breakdown of lab-created diamonds vs. natural diamonds.
Lab-Created Diamonds
- Lab-grown in a matter of weeks
- Constructed of carbon atoms structures
- Mass-produced
- Lower price with no resale value
- Available in a range of shapes and carat weight
- Somewhat desirable for engagement rings
Natural Diamonds
- Formed under the earth’s crust over billions of years
- Constructed of carbon atoms structures
- One-of-a-kind
- Higher price with resale value at 50%+
- Available in a range of shapes and carat weight
- Very desirable for engagement rings
FAIR COMPARISON?
Is it fair to compare lab-grown diamonds to emeralds? Yes and no. From a technical standpoint, it’s hard to imagine that lab-grown diamond prices won’t continue to plummet. There is no cap on supply & economies of scale (along with innovation) will continue to force the price down.
Will they fade away in popularity? That’s a trickier question. Emeralds are beautiful, no doubt about it. But the diamond market has positioned itself as a must-have purchase when getting engaged.
SHOULD YOU BUY A LAB-CREATED DIAMOND?
Well, what about someone in the market for an engagement ring today? You can save some money by going with a diamond ring like this from another comparison to a natural diamond. But you must be OK with the strong possibility you’ll be seeing something similar in the future going for much less money.
There can be other reasons for going with a lab-created diamond (I have had readers contact me that were engineers wanting a ring, earrings, or a pendant and were in love with the fact that it was created instead of natural), but you should recognize that lab-created diamonds will lose most of their value.
If you replace the diamond with one of Diagrown's lab-created diamonds, you will save a nice chunk of cash.
