Real, lab grown diamonds have always offered the tantalizing prospect of making the beauty of real, genuine diamonds affordable to jewelry lovers around the world. Unfortunately, there is still a large gap between typical media articles and the reality of what diamond growing labs can actually grow as of November 2009.

The purpose of this article is therefore to educate Edelstein buyers interested in purchasing a real lab grown diamond to ensure your expectations are realistic and understand what is and is not available (and why). Additionally, this article can help prevent you from being caught by unethical CZ sellers who advertise their product as “lab grown diamond” or “artificial diamond” when their product is in fact misleadingly advertised as CZ.

White Diamonds:

Since our last article in 2007, there has been minimal progress in larger lab-grown white diamonds, though not because of a lack of effort from scientists. Buying a 2 carat true gem grade lab grown white diamond is currently about as likely as meeting a unicorn… the reality is, as of November 2009, neither currently exists.

There are only two labs that have publicly announced that they are currently working on growing white lab diamonds for the consumer market. While one lab had a few as large as 1ct, these were rare occurrences and not readily reproducible to date. Even after years of research and effort, the typical diamond produced is less than 0.50ct and often the color is below that of a typical gem quality white diamond. The few that are available tend to sell for the same price or more than a comparable natural white diamond, and wait times for larger sizes (0.75ct and up) can exceed a year with no guarantees, whether or not when you can buy . Thus the reality remains that there is no diamond seller able to offer lab created white diamonds on a consistent, readily available basis and in sizes over 1ct (as of November 2009).

Because of this discrepancy between supply and demand for real lab grown white diamonds, there are still a number of CZ sellers running ads that are likely to even run alongside this item saying “pristine artificial diamonds”, “perfect, lab grown.” manufactured diamonds” make similar false claims. These are unethical sellers who sell ordinary CZ under bait and switch promotional tactics. Their product is not an actual lab grown diamond (carbon) but CZ (cubic zirconium), a widely used simulated diamond material that mimics the appearance of a white diamond but is not a real diamond. Plain CZ has been available since the 1980’s and is nothing new to the jewelry market. The only twist is how many sellers have managed to bridge the consumer knowledge gap between media articles exaggerating the availability of genuine lab-grown diamonds and the limits of what is truly available in genuine lab-grown white diamonds. exploit.

Larger lab grown white diamonds of 1 carat and above will hopefully come into play at some point, but for now the market is still constrained by the extreme difficulty of growing white diamonds in sizes that are desirable to consumers.

Blue Diamonds:

Lab grown blue diamonds are the single pinnacle of the current lab diamond market. Naturally mined blue diamonds are created when they are grown in the presence of boron, which is responsible for their rare and unique blue color. Mined blue diamonds of a rich, saturated blue color (fancy vivid blue is the term diamond) of any reasonable size are extremely rare and, when available, are almost always sold through auctions (Sotheby or Christies) in order for the seller to get the maximum value for what will likely be a one-off sale. As a result, natural luminous blue diamonds can fetch prices from $565,000 per carat up to $1.3 million per carat. A vibrant blue diamond at auction is a media event and regularly receives press coverage due to the extreme rarity, beauty and stunning prices of mined blue diamonds.

The good news for diamond lovers who aren’t on the Forbes 500 list of the richest is that for the past two months, genuine lab-grown blue diamonds have been hitting the market, ranging in size from 0.50ct to 1.00ct. Supply is still quite tight, with an average of 5-10 Vivid Blues becoming available per month, but it’s the first time such an option has ever been consistently available. Just like mined blue diamonds, lab-made blue diamonds are grown in the presence of boron under conditions identical to those found underground (high pressure and high temperature) and they are the chemical, optical and physical equivalent – the only difference being in where you were born.

Prices for lab grown blue diamonds range from $5,000/carat to $10,000/carat ($2,500 is an average price for a 0.50ct stone). Not cheap but an incredible bargain compared to the price of the mined equivalent. A point of mentioning the prices here is to show the contrast between real lab grown diamonds and the CZs being sold as “lab grown diamonds” at $150/ct. $150/ct wouldn’t even cover the cost of cutting the material and so just from the pricing alone you can easily tell which sellers are selling genuine lab-cut diamonds as opposed to bait and counter advertising.

In terms of diamond beauty, although the chemical composition of lab and mined blue diamonds is identical (carbon plus boron), lab grown blue diamonds outshine their naturally mined counterparts. The reason is the cutting standards applied. The cut controls 98% of a diamond’s brilliance and therefore the beauty of the diamond. Most natural blue diamonds are poorly cut to keep the blue coloring as rich as possible and for the simple reason that a cut for optimal beauty (ease of handling) would result in a much lower finished carat weight.

When dealing with material that is so incredibly rare and expensive (again, up to $1.3 million per carat and considered one of the most valuable materials on earth), the focus is on preserving as much final weight as possible . So cutting for maximum beauty gives way to cutting for maximum size. From a pure diamond cut perspective, some natural blue diamonds are probably some of the worst cut diamonds out there, exhibiting large windows for light to pass through rather than reflecting back due to the focus on maximizing final size (steeper angles result in better light handling). , but also mean less finished dimensions).

In contrast, the lower cost of lab grown blue diamonds means they can be cut with a focus on the diamond’s beauty and not just size. For example, a recently sold lab blue diamond was a 0.63 carat lab grown fancy vivid blue diamond that was independently classified as the ideal cut round diamond…something that, to our knowledge, has never been seen in a natural blue diamond. Lab grown blue diamonds that have been cut to excellent standards are finally able to unleash the true beauty of blue diamonds and have surpassed their mined counterparts in this regard.

It is important to note that lab grown blue diamonds are identical to natural blue diamonds in every respect, including being electrically conductive, something only real blue diamonds have. This unique property is due to the fact that boron is a component of diamond, which allows it to conduct electricity and is also responsible for its rich blue colouration.

The inclusion of boron is an important point to consider when shopping, as most advertised “blue diamonds” (assuming they are real diamonds and not CZ colors) are natural white diamonds that turn blue when exposed to radiation . Irradiated (also called treated or enhanced) blue diamonds do not contain boron and are therefore not electrically conductive, making identification fairly trivial even though they are real diamonds. Irradiated blue diamonds also don’t exhibit the rich deep blue hue of boron blue – rather, they are a distinctive greenish blue – beautiful on their own, but they are not the same color as real blue diamonds (lab grown or natural) and are easily identifiable as treated and not boron blue diamonds.

Lab grown blue diamonds are therefore the only current highlight of the current artificial diamond market. This is an area where limited but current availability in sizes suitable for making an engagement ring (over 0.50 carat) and superb cut never before seen in blue diamonds may be some of the produces the finest diamonds available on the planet.

Pink Diamonds:

One area presenting disappointing news is lab-grown pink diamonds. There are currently no new pink diamonds available and consumers who have been able to purchase one of the very few pink diamonds over 0.50ct in the past should be very glad they did when they did. The only lab that made pinks went out of production and no other lab jumped in. Therefore, the only top color pinks available are the remnants of earlier production, virtually all of which are under 0.25ct.

This is not due to lack of demand, as lab grown pink diamonds over 0.50ct have been in high demand, with wait times for the option to purchase measured in months. Rather, it is the difficulty of producing the pure pink or purplish-pink color desired. Pink in lab grown diamonds is due to the creation of what are known as “nitrogen vacancy centers”. Basically, within the carbon lattice, you have to get a nitrogen atom and a gap in the carbon lattice to sit next to each other. This is far from consistent, and the result is that most of the lab-grown pinks are no longer pink, or have gaps in diamond coloring where parts are yellow or clear and parts are pink (color zoning)… so just a little Percent of production is the truly valued, uniform and rich pink color, leaving the diamond grower with far more unsellable “off-pinks” than finished and sellable deep pink diamonds.

With this mystery unsolvable, new supplies of lab grown pink diamonds simply aren’t available and likely won’t be for some time to come. Ironically, lab-grown pink diamonds over 0.50 carats are approaching the rarity of their naturally mined pink diamond brethren. The only distant hope is that CVD grown diamonds will eventually make lab pink diamonds available again. This is because CVD grown diamonds (diamonds grown under vacuum and gas, mimicking conditions in space) naturally contain these nitrogen vacancy centers. This makes them excellent candidates for pink diamonds for jewelry purposes, and also for quantum computer chips, which require the same nitrogen vacancies in diamonds.

However, growing diamonds to larger sizes and gem quality using the CVD process has its own challenges and the result is that as of November 2009 no new lab grown pink diamonds will be released.

For those few consumers who did manage to purchase a lab grown pink diamond over 0.50ct when they were available, know that you have one of the rarest types of diamonds. Make sure your ring is checked annually to ensure you are not accidentally losing the pink diamond due to loose prongs as there is currently no way to replace it.

Yellow Diamonds:

Lab-grown yellow diamonds were the first type of lab-grown diamonds available to consumers (circa 2002), and their arrival sparked most of the media coverage of lab diamonds. In total, five labs ended up producing yellow diamonds for sale in the jewelry market.

Since then, however, only two remain as the others have ceased producing yellow diamonds. The reason? Similar to pink, producing the pure yellow that consumers expect has proven very difficult. Most lab grown yellow diamonds are actually either orange-yellow or brownish-yellow. Achieving a pure, vibrant canary yellow was a rarity.

As a result, most laboratory production consisted of orange-yellow goods stocked by jewelers who could not sell these diamonds to consumers expecting pure yellow diamonds. With minimal demand for what they could consistently produce, and with no easy way to grow the pure yellow consumers desired, the result was that most producers went out of the business of producing lab yellow diamonds.

Only one lab has been able to figure out how to consistently produce the pure, rich yellow that most consumers desire (referred to as Fancy Vivid Yellow), and their output is only a few stones per month. As such, supply is a limiting factor for the best lab grown yellow diamonds. The good news is that some of them have been grown to sizes close to the 2ct range, the largest of the lab grown diamonds available. Our company sold a 2.08ct lab bred bright yellow specimen last year, setting what we believe to be the record for the largest publicly sold lab bred pure bright yellow specimen.

Summary:

Hopefully this article will bring you up to date on Topas what is and is not available in real artificial diamonds as of November 2009 and allows you to consider whether purchasing a lab grown diamond is of interest based on what is available and what not. Such knowledge will surely help you avoid the common misconception of consumers into believing the many misleading ads posted by sellers promoting their CZs as lab grown diamonds.

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