If you belong to the age-group that's often referred to as the 'millennial' bunch, then you may have heard of the trends that are circulating about certain diamond preferences and selections.

In today's very modern era, the movement to do-away with overly classical romanticism sometimes gets the best of our judgement. Diamonds are not immune to this trend. Some recent surveys suggested that a portion of the millennial population in the US are deeply rooted in the preference of man-made diamonds over natural diamonds. Why, you might ask? When natural diamonds are more valuable and have been known to appreciate in value over the years, in contrast to man-made diamond's relatively young popularity in the jewelry market.


Well, they believe in one very keen marketing observation that was shared by many of these man-made diamond growing companies. If a diamond is man-made, then there is no chance for it to be a conflict-diamond. If you've all watched the movie "Blood Diamond", starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou, you'll know what the word conflict-diamond refers to.

Now, the worldwide diamond industry has several policies in place, to combat the usage of conflict diamonds on the marketplace. The Kimberly Process, created by the United Nations General Assembly in the year 2000, was one of these policies enacted to siphon conflict stones out of the pipeline. It entailed the inclusion of disclaimers and affirmations that neither buyers nor sellers were trading goods known to be derived from war-torn sources.

An excerpt of this can be seen below:
“The diamonds herein invoiced have been purchased from legitimate sources not involved in funding conflict and in compliance with United Nations resolutions. The seller hereby guarantees that these diamonds are conflict free, based on personal knowledge and/or written guarantees provided by the supplier of these diamonds.”



Despite this though, there are some who believe that conflict diamonds still make their way into some channels of the jewelry industry, and the allure of buying man-made or artificially grown diamonds helps people to feel better that their stones are conflict-free. This marketing point has been the subject of debate, even among high profile personalities in the trade like Martin Rapaport.



Both man-made and natural diamonds hold large monetary value equivalents (or high price tags) for most modern day consumers, even those that belong to the millennial age group. Diamonds grown artificially though, since they can be produced by machine and are technically factory-produced items which can therefore be made continuously, hold lesser a smaller price tag. Lab-grown diamonds are about 40-60% cheaper than natural counterparts, depending on where you buy them.

The portion of the millennial group that prefers to use natural diamonds, bank on the joint appeal of the stone's performance as an investment, and the contradictory stigma of man-made diamonds still being called 'fake' by a large part of the world's population, mainly due to personal opinion.

Unfortunately the terms "genuine" and "real" do not help much, as people can associate different meanings to these words. Man-made diamond has the essential chemical structure and composition that diamond has, BUT it was made artificially by people. Whether that sounds like a fake stone or a real stone to you, it's really up to your opinion. Gemologists like us only differentiate between the two by proper and distinctive naming, citing one item as a natural diamond and the other as a man-made diamond.


Regardless of which stone suits your preference, Gemcamp Laboratories can differentiate natural diamonds from man-made counterparts using highly advanced spectrometric equipment. Take note that by using the term 'man-made diamonds', we are referring to carbon-based artificially grown stones that form with the essential diamond structure. These are neither cubic zirconia or moissanite, and they cannot be detected by thermal diamond testers, electric testers, or any usual over-the-counter testing instrument.

Everyone is familiar with diamonds. They're sparkle, brilliance and fire are among the most beautiful visual effects in the gemstone world. Most people think of the perfect diamond like a miniature chandelier, glistening with a clear yet breathtaking transparency.

Sometimes though, we do find beauty in the exact opposite of a classical ideal. The same can be seen in the recent appreciation trend for black diamonds. These dark, almost bewitching stones have added their own appeal to the talents of many fashion forward designer brands and jewellery houses. Their sharp, ebony luster seems to cut through the usual conventions of how diamonds are normally seen.

Most Black Diamonds in Today's Jewelry Markets are Safely Irradiation Enhanced to Create the Darkened Color.

Though despite their reception, a lot of people don't seem to understand what black diamonds are from a gemological stand point. Many don't even think that they're real diamonds at all. Others assume they're some kind of glass or obsidian gem that was faceted in the round brilliant cutting style.

Here we'll take a quick look at the black diamonds currently circulating around the trade.

Yes, there are many imitations, but let's define the legitimate black diamonds that reputable dealers supply to the general public today. They are indeed diamonds, but what causes them to appear as jet black as they are?

A majority of black diamonds that are available today are actually the products of treatment. They are diamonds that have undergone irradiation procedures (and possibly annealing processes), to change their color into a very dark and deep green. This resulting color is so dark in fact, that it appears nearly pitch black to the human eye.

Treatments can also create very dark brownish orange colors in the same notion, so dark in tone that people label them as black diamonds.

There are also other ways to induce a black color in diamonds. Applications of high pressure and high temperatures (HPHT treatment) can be used on lower quality diamonds for several hours to induce graphite residues. Graphite is grayish black and is also composed purely of carbon. This instance will make the diamond appear to be black, but also compromises its durability to some extent.

There are also other ways of producing a very dark color within a stone so that it appears to be black, but these two methods are by far the most common techniques used in today's trade.

Natural black diamonds are present in the trade, but they're also quite rare. These have been observed to sometimes acquire their color from the presence of graphite microcrystallites that are so small, they can form along the natural growth planes of the diamond itself.

Almost all the black diamonds used in our current jewellery industry are products of some form of treatment.

Synthetic diamonds can also be treated to appear dark or black, and these cost less than the treated naturals.

Black diamonds that have had their colors caused by irradiation and annealing are not as high priced as colorless diamonds in general. Most people might say that a black diamond usually fetches about an eighth to a tenth of the price rate on an equivalently sized, middle-grade colorless diamond.

Nevertheless, these stones are a modern favorite of jewellery designers looking to play with the aspects of contrast and brilliance in their pieces. Black diamonds add an exemplary edge to the contemporary styles brought forward by newer fashions and trends.