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In this day and age, shopping for an engagement ring can feel downright overwhelming. With such a large variety of stones, shapes, and styles to choose from, settling on one design is no easy task. For those interested in the classic diamond, there’s now one more level to consider: whether you’ll opt for a natural (or mined) diamond or for a lab-grown stone.
The good news: As far as the average consumer is concerned, there’s very little difference between the two. "Chemically, optically, and gemologically, lab-grown and mined diamonds are the same," ensures Clean Origin’s Brandon Cook.
Brandon Cook is the director of marketing for Clean Origin. Founded in 2017, Clean Origin is a 100-percent lab-grown diamond company that caters to couples looking to customize their engagement ring design.
Where the two chiefly diverge is how they are created, and the ethical and environmental ramifications they have on the world at large. To learn more about lab-grown diamonds vs. natural diamonds—including how they also may vary in price, durability, and clarity—read on.
Most naturally-occurring diamonds on the market today were formed far beneath Earth’s surface, in the planet’s mantle layer. Billions of years of intense heat and pressure caused the element carbon to rearrange on an atomic level, and thus take on the solid form of a diamond. In areas of the globe where the conditions and temperatures have been ripe to create diamonds, deep-source volcanic eruptions sent the stones closer to the surface via kimberlite pipes. These massive, deep-reaching craters are then mined for precious stones.
Lab-grown diamonds, on the other hand, are just that: diamonds grown in a lab. "The most common way is through a process called chemical vapor deposition," Cook explains. "You start with a very slim slice of a diamond, where the crystalline structure for the diamond is already formed. This is often called the diamond 'seed' and is composed of pure carbon; either natural or existing lab-created diamond. The seed is placed in a vacuum where carbon molecules assimilate to the diamond seed. It’s almost like 3-D printing a diamond. Once the diamond is 'grown' in this chamber, it will be ready to be cut and polished, just like a natural diamond." Because a diamond created in a lab is still pure carbon, it is, chemically speaking, the exact same as a natural diamond.
Per Cook, the first lab-grown diamonds were produced in the 1950s, but "it took about sixty more years to produce gem-quality diamonds—that is, a diamond of sufficient color and clarity you’d want to wear on your finger."
Part of the reason natural diamonds are so pricey is because of their rarity. There is thought to be a finite amount of the stone on this planet, and the natural circumstances under which each is created are unique, so the characteristics the gemstone is graded on will be similarly unique. Other aspects that contribute to their cost are the labor and energy that goes into mining and polishing the stones, and, of course, the strategic and somewhat dubious origins of, control of, and advertising behind the diamond market itself.
Lab diamonds are going to be less expensive than natural diamonds—sometimes up to 50 percent less than a natural stone of similar grade—because they aren’t controlled by the same supply chains. "Advances in technology also allow for more efficiency in crafting lab-created diamonds," says Cook.
The technology of lab-grown diamonds is also still evolving, which could lead to changes in their value. If they become easier to produce and cost less to make, their price will likely go down, which will drive down their value. Also, if future generations continue to deprioritize the diamond as a symbol of love and marriage, the value of both lab and natural diamonds may go down as there is less of a demand for them.
Lab-grown diamonds are comprised of carbon, the same material natural diamonds are comprised of. They remain the hardest material on earth—a 10 on the Mohs hardness scale—and thus are as difficult to chip as a natural diamond.
"Many of the same grading agencies, namely the Gemological Institute of America and the International Gemological Institute, grade lab-created diamonds using the same methods and standards used for natural diamonds," says Cook. That’s important to note because if these standard-bearing institutions are using the same scales to evaluate both lab-grown and natural diamonds that means the differences between the two when it comes to the 4Cs—cut, clarity, color, and carat—are nil.
Because lab-grown diamonds are grown, not built, they will also take on the inclusions or "flaws" that affect a stone’s sparkle and clarity grade. (The more inclusions in a stone, the cloudier it may be, and the lower its clarity grade becomes.) Just as with natural diamonds, clarity grades for lab-grown diamonds range from Flawless (F1) to Included (I3).
Same deal here: a high-quality lab-grown diamond will be graded on the same scale as a natural one when it comes to color. There is no visual difference between lab-grown and a natural diamond, and most couples seek out gems of both varieties graded between G and J, which are near colorless. Graded D through F, true colorless diamonds are exceedingly rare, and thus exceedingly expensive.
Perhaps the strongest case for purchasing lab-grown diamonds has to do with the ethical and environmental ramifications of bringing natural diamonds to market. As the consumer values of Millennials and Gen Z evolve, they are more concerned with ensuring their dollars back companies with values similar to their own than previous generations were. While the creation of lab-grown diamonds absolutely still leaves a carbon footprint, the impact is, overall, less.
"It only takes one Google image search of the Orapa diamond mine to understand the amount of ecological destruction and outright pollution that can stem from diamond mining," says Cook. "This goes hand-in-hand with the historically murky ethics of diamond mining. While the industry has made progress in cleaning up its act, the only way to know with certainty that your diamond is truly 100 percent conflict-free"—that’s a diamond that did not originate from an area controlled by warring factions—"is by purchasing a lab-created diamond."
No. Per a 2018 revision by the Federal Trade Commision to their jewelry marketing guidelines that removed the word "natural" from its definition of a diamond, the term synthetic cannot be applied to lab-grown diamonds because they are made from pure carbon, the same material natural diamonds are made of. Because they have the same chemical makeup, they are both considered diamonds.
The monetary "value" of a stone is assigned by the market and what a customer is willing to pay for it. If a lab-grown diamond is documented as and known to be lab-grown, it will be valued less than a natural diamond of similar gradation. Meaning: It’s important to purchase your diamond engagement ring not because it can be used for capital, but because it’s a symbol of love and commitment for your partner. But, no, an appraiser will not dock the value of your stone just because it is lab-grown. They will instead just grade it on a different value scale.
"Absolutely not," says Cook. "In fact, most jewelers wouldn’t know the difference under a diamond loupe if there weren’t a tiny laser inscription on the girdle of the diamond that identifies it as lab-created."
Federal Trade Commission. "FTC Approves Final Revisions to Jewelry Guides." July 24, 2018
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