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.

Today, we'll just lightly discuss four common misconceptions believed about diamonds in the jewelry industry. We'll briefly offer counterpoints to these statements in order to provide helpful information from our own experiences and point-of-view.



1.) Some say that diamonds are nearly indestructible?

Diamonds are not indestructible. Even if they are the hardest naturally occurring mineral on the planet, hardness is understood by definition as 'resistant to scratches or abrasion' rather than being impervious to breakage or splitting. Diamonds are actually able to 'chip' and break, especially at the thinnest points of their physical structure- the girdle edge and the culet. Chipped diamonds obviously become lower in value, as this does affect their clarity grade. Likewise, diamonds also have certain crystallographic directions where the bonds between atoms are weaker, causing them to possibly or potentially 'split apart' in clean breaks if hit with enough force along those directions. These are called cleavage planes. Furthermore, diamonds are made of carbon. Carbon can burn. Which is why diamonds can be altered significantly by intensely high temperature fires, and can also be 'cut' or separated using lasers.

2.) There are some people who say that 'lab-grown diamonds' are not diamonds at all? (specifically referring to CVD and HPHT produced LG diamonds)

Actually, by chemical definition- a diamond is essentially made-up of carbon atoms crystallized in the isometric / cubic crystal lattice system. By this definition, a lab-grown diamond is a diamond. The difference between natural diamonds and lab-grown diamonds mainly relates to two things: market price value and how they grew. Natural diamonds take billions of years to form, and this results in the presence of minor trace-elements and certain atomic defects when compared to lab-grown diamonds, which allow properly equipped gemological laboratories to differentiate between the two. Trace elements are very small percentages of elements that are non-essential to a diamond's basic chemistry, but form along with it during growth. The present-day selling prices / value of natural diamonds are higher than those of artificially grown or man-made diamonds due to the rarity factors involved, as well as the idea that lab-grown diamonds can simply be produced over and over again (despite manufacturing technologies still being expensive). Be very careful of using terms like 'real' or 'genuine' when buying or selling a lab-grown diamond. These terms are very subjective and can have different meanings and interpretations for different people. For ethical transparency you should always say 'lab-grown diamond', if your stone is indeed a man-made diamond. You can always further differentiate it from imitation materials like moissanite or cubic zirconia as well, and say that its essential chemistry is composed of carbon.

(Note: Lab-grown diamonds are different from lab-grown imitation materials like cubic zirconia or moissanite. This article refers specifically to lab-grown diamonds grown from the Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) process or the High-Pressure, High-Temperature (HPHT) process. We are only talking about man-made diamonds themselves (carbon chemistry), not about any kind of simulant or lookalike gem material.)

We would like to deeply thank Biznews Asia Magazine for their recent 5-page spread feature on our gemological laboratory. In light of the ever-growing jewelry and gemstone trade, our team assists with the scientific identification and grading of diamonds and gemstones for collectors, jewelry brands and online retailers alike.




At the current time (for 2019), note that our laboratory has shifted focus to the examination of fully-cut, transparent gemstones, diamonds and jewelry only. We are not evaluating raw, rough or partially-cut gemstones for this year. In accordance with this direction, we now maintain many advanced instruments catering to the study and evaluation of fully faceted gemstone materials, including diamond, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, topaz, aquamarine, tourmaline, kunzite, peridot, alexandrite and many more species and varieties.

Our current scope of interest, is the polished / faceted diamond industry. Our gemological team members have undergone specific training and educational progress at the Gemological Institute of America in order to properly support the Philippine jewelry trade.




With the growing popularity of lab-grown or man-made stones becoming an issue for many jewelry buyers, we provide our own professional services to help them obtain more detailed information about their precious gemstones. We ourselves do not grow diamonds, we only perform the necessary tests to check and separate potentially lab-grown stones from a majority of natural counterparts. We also do not engage in the buying or selling of gemstones, in order to maintain no vested interest towards any gemstone examined at our laboratory.

We carefully examine fully finished-cut diamonds, whether these are mounted or loose- using highly-advanced testing instruments such as photoluminescence-based spectrometers, and gemological equipment such as gem refractometers, spectroscopes and many others.

Laboratory grown diamonds, for those who do not know- can bypass or fool those handheld jewelry testers / diamond testers you usually see in most jewelry retail shops. We're pointing to those small 'beep' gadgets that base their assessment on thermal and electrical conductivity of course- which are useful tests for moissanite and cubic zirconia (assuming the instrument is properly calibrated and consistent). Lab-grown diamonds are also made up of carbon, and grow in the cubic crystal system, just like their natural counterparts. Advanced spectrometric testing is needed to identify the vast majority of natural diamonds today, as sometimes even gemological microscopes are no longer enough on their own.

One main marketing point that lab-grown diamond sellers use to appeal to millennials especially, is the notion that they are both ethical and eco-friendly, compared to the notorious blood diamonds that people may be familiar with. While you may or may not agree with this side of their story, each seller obviously markets his or her own product to the best they can write.

The movie 'Blood Diamond' starring Leonardo DiCaprio, showed us some terrible scenes that people have come to believe as 'standard' in natural diamond mining. Today though, the Kimberly Process and many other systems of ethical protection already protect the vast majority of the natural diamond trade. Jewellers and jewelry buyers alike do not want gemstones to help terrorists, and so the global industry as a whole has already undergone changes to safeguard the diamond industry against 'blood diamonds'.



Lab-grown diamonds are much easier to create, compared to finding and mining natural diamonds from remote areas of the globe. Some people would say this is more eco-friendly, due to the fact that no digging of earth is actually involved. Note that while the demand for lab-grown diamonds as 'cheaper' more eco-friendly diamonds continues to grow, so does the number of suppliers in the trade. More and more people are creating factories to "make" diamonds, and this can have a drastic effect on the balance between consumer pricing and general supply. The articles linked above, might help you get updated on the situation which continues to evolve every day.