While marketing efforts attempt to cast doubt on lab-created diamonds, the truth is that diamonds created in a lab and diamonds created in the Earth share the exact same optical, physical, and chemical properties. The only physical difference is the place in which your diamond is created, and the other differences are related to business practices like ethics and cost.
How They Look
Without specialized instruments, it is virtually impossible to discern between lab-grown and a mined diamond. The optical properties between the two types of diamonds are the same; they’re gorgeously lustrous, shiny, and sparkly. Lab-created diamonds do have an advantage when it comes to colored diamonds, however. Colored mined diamonds are much rarer than white mined diamonds, but in a laboratory, we can create beautiful colors that have never been seen before. Check out our dazzling colored diamonds here.
What They’re Made from
When we say that lab-grown diamonds and mined diamonds have the same physical and chemical properties, we’re primarily basing that on the creation process, which is the same. Both types of diamonds are made from the element Carbon that is exposed to high heat and pressure. While this is a naturally-occurring process that happens under the Earth’s surface to create mined diamonds, the exact same conditions have been replicated in a laboratory in order to bring us lab-created diamonds.
How Durable They Are
Because both kinds of diamonds share the same physical and chemical properties, they also share the same level of durability. We want your diamond to be forever, so we wrote an entire blog on the durability of diamonds if you want a more in-depth understanding.
Ethics
This is where lab-grown and mined diamonds begin differing. The problematic history of mined diamonds reaches way back to the discovery of the major pipeline in Africa in the early 1900s. We question the ethics because there were some sketchy marketing tactics used to inflate the value of mined diamonds — and to make everyone believe that diamonds were the end-all, be-all expression of love ( ). But beyond the marketing, huge problems emerged in the 1990s in which rebel groups in Africa were exploiting citizens and funding their wars against their governments via their control of the mining industry. Coined as conflict diamonds (or blood diamonds), this led to the UN creating an international resolution (the Kimberley Process). Now, compare all of this to scientists in lab coats creating gorgeous diamonds in the safe zone of a laboratory. No ethical issues there! The only true way to know that you’re getting an ethical, conflict-free diamond is by opting for a lab-grown diamond.
Cost
In closing, the biggest differentiator between Lab-grown and earth mined diamonds is cost. Lab-grown diamonds are much more cost effective than mined diamonds. Beyond that, our diamonds at New World Diamonds are even less expensive than competitors because our diamonds are grown in-house in our private laboratory. From rough diamonds to cut and polished ready-to-wear diamonds, we own the entire supply chain. We’ve cut out the middlemen and added markups found in the traditional supply chain, allowing us to provide you with a much more high-quality, cost-effective diamond.
The choice is clear to us when it comes to lab-grown or mined diamonds. We hope this blog has helped firm up any questions you have in the comparison of these diamonds, but if not — reach out to us. We’d love to chat with you, answer your questions, and help you find the perfect diamond for your moment!
