Real lab-grown diamonds have constantly offered the tantalizing
prospect of making the beauty of true, real diamond 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.
This article is thus designed to educate diamond buyers who are interested in purchasing a real, lab grown diamond to ensure your expectations are realistic and understand what is and is not available (and why). In addition, this article can help prevent you from being taken by unethical CZ sellers who advertise their product as 'lab grown diamond' or 'man made diamond' when their product is actually deceptively advertised CZ.
White Diamonds:
Since our last article in 2007, there has been minimal progress on larger, lab grown white diamonds, though not for lack of effort by scientists. Buying a 2ct, real gem grade, lab grown white diamond is currently about as likely as you encountering a unicorn...the reality is neither, as of November 2009, currently exist.
There are only two labs that have publicly noted that they are working on growing white lab diamonds for the consumer market at this time. While one lab has 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.50ct, and often the color is below the typical gem grade white mined diamond. The few that are available typically sell for the same price as or higher than a comparable natural mined white diamond and wait times for larger sizes (.75ct and higher) can exceed one year with no guarantee of if or when you will be able to purchase. 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 disparity between supply and demand for real lab grown white diamonds, there are still a number of CZ sellers who run ads, likely even showing next to this article, proclaiming 'Flawless Man Made Diamonds', 'Perfect Lab Created Diamonds' or similar false claims. These are unethical sellers peddling ordinary CZ under bait and switch advertising tactics. Their product is not actual lab grown diamond (carbon), but rather CZ (cubic zirconium), a widely available simulated diamond material that mimics the look of white diamond, but is not real diamond. Plain CZ has been available since the 1980s and is nothing new to the jewelry market. The only twist is how many sellers have succeeded in taking advantage of the consumers knowledge gap between media articles over-proclaiming the availability of real lab grown diamonds, and the limits of what truly is available in real lab created white diamond.
Larger, 1ct and higher lab grown white diamonds will hopefully eventually come to fruition, but for now, the market is still constrained by the extreme difficulty of growing white diamonds in sizes desirable to consumers.
Blue Diamonds:
This article is thus designed to educate diamond buyers who are interested in purchasing a real, lab grown diamond to ensure your expectations are realistic and understand what is and is not available (and why). In addition, this article can help prevent you from being taken by unethical CZ sellers who advertise their product as 'lab grown diamond' or 'man made diamond' when their product is actually deceptively advertised CZ.
White Diamonds:
Since our last article in 2007, there has been minimal progress on larger, lab grown white diamonds, though not for lack of effort by scientists. Buying a 2ct, real gem grade, lab grown white diamond is currently about as likely as you encountering a unicorn...the reality is neither, as of November 2009, currently exist.
There are only two labs that have publicly noted that they are working on growing white lab diamonds for the consumer market at this time. While one lab has 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.50ct, and often the color is below the typical gem grade white mined diamond. The few that are available typically sell for the same price as or higher than a comparable natural mined white diamond and wait times for larger sizes (.75ct and higher) can exceed one year with no guarantee of if or when you will be able to purchase. 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 disparity between supply and demand for real lab grown white diamonds, there are still a number of CZ sellers who run ads, likely even showing next to this article, proclaiming 'Flawless Man Made Diamonds', 'Perfect Lab Created Diamonds' or similar false claims. These are unethical sellers peddling ordinary CZ under bait and switch advertising tactics. Their product is not actual lab grown diamond (carbon), but rather CZ (cubic zirconium), a widely available simulated diamond material that mimics the look of white diamond, but is not real diamond. Plain CZ has been available since the 1980s and is nothing new to the jewelry market. The only twist is how many sellers have succeeded in taking advantage of the consumers knowledge gap between media articles over-proclaiming the availability of real lab grown diamonds, and the limits of what truly is available in real lab created white diamond.
Larger, 1ct and higher lab grown white diamonds will hopefully eventually come to fruition, but for now, the market is still constrained by the extreme difficulty of growing white diamonds in sizes desirable to consumers.
Blue Diamonds: