You can like or dislike diamonds, but we all must agree that they are the earth’s hardest natural substance. This fact alone makes this gem so highly rated and valued, and for many years, the mining process was something that dictated its price. Technology has advanced so much, and we can create the same conditions and grow them in a lab, reducing the damaging effect the mining process has on nature and creating gems affordable to much more people without reducing their quality. Of course, this is just the beginning, so let’s focus on the specifics and facts you probably didn’t know about man-made diamonds.
There are two methods
There is much talk about lab-grown diamonds and how their worth is much lower, which many confuse for the quality, as the price doesn’t always dictate the true value and quality of some product, or in this case, gem. Now, it’s needless to say that there is no real-life proof for such a statement, as man-made diamonds are pure as the ones created in nature. Of course, the process of how these diamonds are grown has a vast effect on the overall price, which is why those grown in labs are a bit less pricey, but that doesn’t mean that their quality is lacking.
On the other hand, it’s also about the method used to create them, and there are two main methods used. The first one is about replicating the conditions of how natural diamonds are formed as close as possible by exposing their seeds to high temperatures and pressure. As for the second one, it’s more based on a chemical vapor deposition, as certain particles are set on the seed and accumulate to form lab diamonds. Understandably, a crucial part of both methods is that the process is performed under control conditions, as even one small mistake during this process can have a bad effect, not just on the purity of the diamond, but overall.
They are eco friendly
Even though the first thought when someone says produced in a lab is that there must be something that is harmful to nature, in this case, this simply isn’t true. As a matter of fact, the mining process is not eco-friendly, and the diamonds grown in a lab have many ecological advantages compared to it. The waste caused by mining has a bad effect on the environment, and the entire mining process is damaging to the ecology, which is why buying and supporting this industry will help reduce pollution.
They are the purest
Yes, it’s pretty difficult to find a pure diamond in nature, as the one we find still needs to be processed, but all that is a thing of the past, as those made in a lab are as pure as they can be. As for the quality and value, almost all lab-produced gems are rated as IIa, which stands for the purest of the purest gems, making them the best form of diamond you can find anywhere in the world. The thing that has a tremendous effect on the price of a gem found in nature is that only two percent of them have such a high level of purity and are qualified as the type IIa.
They have the same lifespan as the naturally occurring diamonds
Another fact that many people are unaware of is the lifespan of gems created in a lab, as many believe they last for much less and are much more fragile. The reality is a bit different, as it all depends on how great care you take over your precious piece of jewelry. Namely, if both natural and lab-grown diamonds are preserved in the same conditions, their lifespan would be exactly the same. Above all, in such conditions, it’s more likely that the lab ones will last for much longer, which speaks volumes about their structure and overall quality.
The name
There are several names for this type of gem, and lab-grown is just one of them. They are also known as man-made diamonds, engineered, or cultured diamonds, and regardless of what term you use, they all mean the same. Now, the biggest mistake is when one confuses them and calls them synthetic diamonds, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Namely, when you use the term synthetic, it usually refers to something imitating a natural product, which simply doesn’t apply here.
The process of how these three types of diamonds are formed or created differs, but the fact that synthetic gems have no carbon properties is what makes them less valued. Since that’s the case, they cannot and shouldn’t be compared to lab-grown diamonds, as they don’t have anything in common. The biggest difference between real diamonds we can find in nature and the ones created in a lab is that it takes far less time to grow them in a lab, but everything else regarding the consistency and percentage of crystallized carbon is the same, making them a real diamonds just created in a bit different way.
They cost much less
As already mentioned, these types of diamonds are the purest, but they are also much less costly. We have explained why that’s the case, which surely doesn’t have anything to do with their quality, as just the process of growing them this way is much cheaper. Understandably, this reflects on the overall price of some products, and, in this case, diamonds, which is the biggest reason you can buy them at almost thirty percent less price. The cost of mining gems is far more time-consuming and costly, which is yet another thing that dictates the price of diamonds found in nature.
Every diamond is graded by the same parameters
In order to provide a real insight into the quality of lab-grown diamonds, you need to know that regardless of how some diamond is created, they are all graded per the same parameters. That is why when we say Man-made diamonds are purer than those found in nature, which means that they are of much higher overall quality, as the parameters used for grading both types of gems are the same.