Lab-Grown Diamond Jewelry

It means the crystal was grown in a chamber or a press rather than recovered from the ground, and a seller is required to say so plainly. Origin is treated as material information, so it belongs in the product name and the description rather than in small print.

What it does not mean is that something was applied to the stone or done to it after the fact. A grown diamond is not a coating over another material, and not an existing stone altered by treatment - the crystal itself was grown from nothing.

The older trade word is synthetic, which is precise in gemmology and misleading in ordinary English, where it suggests an imitation. Most of the trade now writes laboratory-grown, or simply grown, for that reason.

Two methods account for essentially all of them. High Pressure High Temperature reproduces the conditions of natural formation: a seed, a carbon source and a metal catalyst in a press, under great pressure and heat.

Chemical Vapour Deposition works at low pressure instead - a carbon-rich gas is broken down in a vacuum chamber and carbon settles onto a seed plate layer by layer.

Both produce diamond. They leave slightly different growth signatures, which is part of how laboratories identify the method afterwards.

Not by looking, and not with a jeweller's loupe. The material is identical, so there is nothing visible to give it away.

Identification requires laboratory instruments that read growth patterns, fluorescence behaviour and trace elements - the traces the growth process leaves rather than the substance itself.

Many grown stones also carry a laser inscription on the girdle stating their origin, which is invisible in wear and readable under magnification.

Yes - on the same four Cs, by the same major gemmological laboratories that grade mined stones.

A report for a grown stone states clearly that it is laboratory-grown, and where it can be determined, which method produced it.

So two stones can be compared on their reports in exactly the way mined stones are.

Because supply is not constrained by geology. A grown stone of a given specification can be produced to order in weeks, where the equivalent mined stone depends on what the earth happens to have made.

Production capacity has expanded considerably in recent years, and prices have moved a good deal as a result.

The saving is the main reason buyers choose them - it often means a larger or better-specified stone for the same outlay.

The secondary market for laboratory-grown stones is not comparable to the long-established resale market for mined diamonds.

The sensible way to approach a lab-grown stone is as something bought to be worn and enjoyed rather than as something bought to resell.

We are not able to advise on the financial side of that decision - it is worth speaking to someone qualified if resale is part of your thinking.

Many CVD-grown stones are treated after growth to improve colour, which is standard practice in the industry and is disclosed on the grading report.

The treatment is stable and does not require special care in wear.

As with mined stones, treatment is a stone-by-stone matter and the report is where it is recorded.

No more than a mined diamond, because it is the same material - hardness 10 on the Mohs scale, the hardest natural substance there is.

It will not cloud. What makes any diamond look dull is a film of grease on the surface, and warm soapy water and a soft brush removes it.

Diamond is hard but it can still be damaged: it has cleavage planes, so a sharp blow at the wrong angle can chip any diamond, grown or mined.

Both mining and laboratory growth have environmental costs, and the comparison depends heavily on the specific operation - particularly the energy source powering the growth process.

Claims on either side are frequently made with more confidence than the underlying data supports, and we are not in a position to verify them for a given stone.

If this is the deciding factor for you, it is worth looking for specific, documented information about a particular producer rather than relying on category-level claims.

Exactly as for any diamond: warm water, a little mild soap and a soft brush, cleaning behind the setting where grease collects.

Diamonds attract oils, and a stone worn daily loses its brightness faster than people expect. A clean every few weeks restores it completely.

Have the setting checked periodically - prongs wear before anything else does, and that is true regardless of where the stone came from.