Myth 1: 'Lab grown diamonds hold their value over time.'

Lab-grown diamonds began populating jewelry retail spaces more frequently in 2015. At that time, a good ballpark figure was to say that a typical 1 carat lab-grown diamond would cost anywhere between 10-16% less than a natural diamond counterpart with similar color and clarity traits.

Fast-forward to 2020, and the production of lab-grown diamond products for the jewelry industry has reached substantially higher levels. It would be common to see lab-grown diamonds go for around 45-55% less than their natural diamond counterparts with the same grade. This substantial drop had dealt a heavy blow to early investors of CVD and HPHT lab-grown diamonds, although the trend merely followed laws of supply and demand wherein improving technologies (that had also gotten cheaper with their widespread adoption) created the opportunity for many newcomers to go into the manufacturing business of LGD. It was a lucrative space that was becoming more and more accessible to producers.

As we jump forward to late 2024 and early 2025, observant buyers will now notice that prices for lab-grown diamonds have gone down even further. It would not be uncommon to be able to acquire a lab-grown diamond at a price around 90% cheaper than a natural diamond with equivalent 4C traits. Depending on the source, reports of 92-95% cheaper price tags have also surfaced, giving rise to a divide in the jewelry collector market’s reception of LGD’s. More affordable prices can sometimes blur the gap between commercial jewelry and fine jewelry items, however fans of lab-grown diamonds hyperfixate on the fact that these items are still diamonds- in the sense that they have the same essential chemical composition, crystal structure, brilliance and even hardness. 

Myth 2: 'Lab grown diamonds are “certified” by major laboratories.'

Many of the world's leading laboratories, such as the Gemological Institute of America, issue gemological reports as their official document type (even for natural diamonds and other gemstones). This may be read on their website statement here. Most of the jewelry industry has adopted the trade term ‘cert’ or ‘certificate’ when referring to these kinds of reports, due to the fact that such words have more of an impact from a purely marketing standpoint. 

While many laboratories do accept testing requests for lab-grown diamonds, it’s important to note that there may often be very substantial differences to the way lab-grown diamonds are described on reports in contrast to how natural diamonds are described. GIA for example, at least as of this article’s publication, has announced changes to the format and content of reports for lab-grown diamonds. One important change would be that they “will start using descriptive terms to characterize the quality of laboratory-grown diamonds” and “will no longer use the color and clarity nomenclature that GIA developed for natural diamonds.” - both statements quoted from their website announcements. This will supposedly go into effect in October of this year.

What does this mean exactly? While laboratory policies and systems are ever changing (even quick paced in the recent months), for now at least they have clarified that lab-grown diamonds formerly graded in the D-Z color range will now be much more simply classified as: “premium” or “standard,” based on GIA’s own assessment of clarity, color, and cut. Likewise any LGD that does not meet the criteria even for “standard”, will not receive a grading. Interested readers may inquire directly with GIA on this, as we are only basing this information from their public announcements on different platforms. Such policies may also change or be further clarified at the discretion of GIA itself of course.

Myth 3: 'Lab-grown diamonds are the same as imitations like cubic zirconia and moissanite.'

While this may be easier to debunk for experienced jewelry buyers, not everyone knows about the technical differentiation between lab-grown diamonds versus other kinds of “diamond alternatives” out there on the market.

Lab-grown diamonds are man-made or artificially created diamonds with the same essential chemical composition and crystal structure as the diamond mineral we all know of. While some differences remain (such as crystal habit, which is influenced by the growth method and machinery involved), traits such as Moh’s hardness (10), refractive index and adamantine luster are the same for both natural and lab-grown diamonds.

Now in contrast to this, there are what we call diamond “simulants”, also known as diamond “imitations”. These are in simple terms- materials that look like diamond (to the point where visually they can be very hard to distinguish apart using the naked eye), but do not possess the same essential chemistry or atomic structure as diamond. The most popular diamond simulants used today are cubic zirconia and moissanite, both of which are currently very much cheaper to buy or manufacture compared to lab-grown diamonds.

Cubic zirconia was the earlier of the two imitation types to be invented and popularized. In response to this, a very simple technology was adapted using thermal conductivity detection, in the effort to aid jewelers with the separation of cubic zirconia from diamond. It should be noted however that these ‘thermal conductivity pen testers’ cannot distinguish between moissanite, natural diamond and lab-grown diamond. 

Today, advanced spectrometric tests are typically the go-to necessary screening method used for the separation of lab-grown diamonds from natural diamonds. One cannot rely on those old diamond pen testers that were once invented for the easy detection of cubic zirconia or other older simulants.

Electronic or multi-testers that sometimes make use of a combination of thermal and electrical conductivity are occasionally useful for detecting moissanite, however they are not black-and-white tests as most people may believe. Many HPHT lab-grown diamonds for example have boron impurities that increase the electrical conductivity of the stone. This can easily confuse a multi-tester into thinking that an HPHT lab-grown diamond is a moissanite by mistake. Such is only one of the issues that should be considered when using even the newer types of pen testers today.

When in doubt, especially with high value purchases, it is always best to counter-check the item with a gemological laboratory that does not buy or sell diamonds and gemstones commercially. An impartial, third-party assessment is usually the most ethical and accurate choice for transparency in the jewelry trade today, which is why most of the largest laboratories in the world such as GIA, SSEF, Gem-A and HRD do not buy and sell gemstone items.

Whether you're for or against the recent hype on lab-grown diamonds, the product's presence is undoubtedly increasing in many parts of the world. From our own experience, 2017's roster of visitors to the laboratory consisted mostly of people needing to separate moissanite from diamond. A handful of lab-grown diamonds were also seen as well as, but most of the year's requests centered on differentiating diamonds from their imitations.



Photoluminescence analysis and spectrometry-based testing instruments help our gemologists detect and separate a majority of natural diamonds from potentially man-made counterparts (HPHT, CVD), however not everyone is properly informed on what lab-grown diamonds are, and the means needed to detect them.

Note that standard 'DIY' diamond or jewelry testers (those that are thermal and electric conductivity based) cannot separate lab-grown diamonds from natural ones. This is because lab-grown diamonds are made up essentially of carbon atoms crystallised in the isometric / cubic crystal system, just like natural diamonds. They are essentially also diamonds by chemistry, the only difference is their artificial origination due to the efforts of human beings.



Lab-grown diamonds do have substantial value, way above the current prices of imitations like cubic zirconia or moissanite, but their values are typically well below those of natural diamonds at the current time. This is just what we've observed ourselves during visits to international trade fairs, and constitute our opinion only on the matter. From what we've seen, wholesale cost rates of lab-grown (CVD, HPHT) diamonds are about 40% to 60% lower than equivalently graded natural counterparts. Lab-grown diamonds, despite their name, should also not be confused with gemological labs (which only hold the purpose of evaluating third-party gemstones).

Lab-grown diamonds are beautiful products in their own right, as long as they are sold ethically with proper disclosure. They should never be sold as 'natural diamonds', because buyers would most definitely feel deceived regarding their origin.

Take note that many sellers on the market use the term 'real' in their marketing pitch for these diamond products. Buyers must be careful with this descriptor as it might have subjective interpretations by different people. If someone defines a 'real' diamond as simply crystallised carbon (cubic) or basically by essential chemical standards, he might advertise lab-grown diamonds under that notion of understanding. On the other hand, if an opposing person defines a 'real' diamond as needing to have come from natural geological processes, then he may not agree that a lab-grown diamond be called 'real'. It's a tricky situation, since terminologies like this are not universally understood by people exactly in the same way.



We ourselves here at the laboratory try to refrain from ambiguity, and use the two descriptive terms "natural" and "lab-grown" instead (as much as possible) when referring to diamonds. These words are much more clearly defined, so that people do not get confused about the origins of their diamond.

If the term 'real' is used, a statement of accompaniment- such as 'real diamond by chemical definition, but created artificially by man', should at least be present for better ethical transparency.

If you are purchasing a diamond or diamond jewelry and the vendor describes them only with the words real or genuine, it's always still advisable to further ask them if the diamond(s) are natural or lab-grown. This should be done respectfully of course, just to be certain that all parties understand the product on equal definitions without subjective interpretations.

We've recently noted that a lot of people who set appointments for diamond checking / evaluation, express heavy concerns regarding natural diamonds possibly losing a percentage of their current status or value in the trade. This fear seems to stem from the recently rising popularity of lab-grown / man-made diamonds both locally and abroad, based on what we're hearing from visitors.

As far as we've seen though, natural diamond sales across the globe are very stable and values at middle-to-commercial tiers are still routinely standardized. Values at the top tiers (D-E-F with F-IF or VVS clarities above 10cts) are also doing very well at auction events. At the retail level though, the most in-demand sizes remain especially strong- 1ct, 1.5ct and 2ct weights.

Pictured below is 102.34 ct. round brilliant natural diamond, image credit: Sotheby's auctions. Rare and astounding gemstones like this are reserved for only those willing to pay the required fortune for owning such an opulent symbol of exclusivity and luxury. Large, high end natural diamonds have been increasing in value-demand quite steadily over the recent years, even with the advent of lab-grown stones.



Lab-grown diamonds are cheaper than natural earth-mined stones by around 40-60% at the wholesale / dealer level (sometimes 30% at retail), and *normal diamond testers (or moissanite testers) are NOT able to separate these from natural diamonds at all. Remember that their essential chemical composition is the same as a natural diamond's, so advanced spectrometry-based laboratory equipment would be required to positively identify most earth-mined natural diamonds from potentially man-made counterparts.

Nevertheless, we're currently aiding the screening efforts for several jewelry stores in order to make sure their diamond inventory is more accurately identified. (As a third-party evaluator though, we do not buy or sell diamond jewelry. We also do not recommend or discourage sale from any specific store or brand, in order to remain completely objective for all our evaluations.)

In the U.S., some stores are already selling lab-grown stones under the label- real diamonds, and while some may agree and others may disagree, they are following the definition based on same chemistry and cubic crystal structure. Essentially lab-grown diamonds are still chemically diamonds, they were just created in a factory lab.

Whether you're into lab-grown stones or not, it's best to be sure of what you have. These two kinds of diamonds have very different market values this 2019.