A lot of jewelry collectors may be familiar with De Beers, as the primary mining giant in the world of natural diamonds. Last May, the company shocked the world with its announcement of a direct-to-consumer subsidiary called 'Lightbox', which would sell laboratory-grown diamonds to consumers. This controversial move by the natural diamond trade's number one supplier, added to the concern of traders and buyers alike.




Now, De Beers is said to be partnering with retailers like Bloomingdale's, in an initiative to finally have its lab-grown counterpart; Lightbox, participate in brick-and-mortar jewelry showcases. This new move also comes with some uneasy reactions from the jewelry trade, which has already seen the natural diamond market flounder a bit this year, due to several factors including the trend of man-made diamonds rising to historical highs.

De Beers markets its Lightbox lab-grown diamonds as alternatives for less-formal purchasing reasons, such as gifts for sweet-sixteen birthday celebrants, debutantes, or even for everyday wear by teenagers and youngsters. This might be an effort to help the public understand the difference in current value between this class of product and natural mined diamonds. Chemically speaking, lab-grown diamonds are still diamonds with essentially the same chemical composition (carbon) and crystal structure (cubic) as natural counterparts. This makes most diamond testers that rely on older technology (like thermal testers or electric conductivity testers) virtually useless in separating the two. Advanced photoluminescence spectrometry, and other laboratory tests are needed for the verification of natural diamonds today. One might wonder if this new foray by De Beers is going to further affect the mindset of buyers into accepting lab-grown diamonds as potential jewelry gifts for their loved ones.

Lightbox's prices for its lab-grown diamonds are modest enough to say the least. An earring pair we've seen on their website shows a price of 1000 USD for a total carat weight of 1ct., which basically means two LG diamonds weighing about 0.50ct each. The company's message in pricing is clearly heard- lab-grown diamonds are cheaper, because they're a different class of product. They are still diamonds though, and therefore maintain price ranges well above any diamond imitation used today- such as cubic zirconia or moissanite.

While some people are learning to love lab-grown diamonds, especially in the Western countries, it's really up to the personal taste of a jewelry buyer as to whether or not this product is something that he or she would consider purchasing in place of a natural earth-mined gemstone.

In the following years to come, De Beers is said to have plans for a manufacturing facility located in Oregon that would be able to produce about 200,000 polished carats annually, which calculates to around $200 million worth of merchandise for selling. The complex may be estimated to cost about $94 million. Where will the diamond industry take it from here?

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.

A few years back (2015), the Lesedi La Rona diamond had just been uncovered as the world's 2nd largest gem-quality diamond. Its given name translates to 'Our Light' in the local Tswana language- the 1,109 carat stone was found in Botswanna, a source that has become famous for the production of many large diamonds throughout history.



London-based jewelry icon Lawrence Graff purchased the diamond back in 2017 for about 53 million dollars. Since then, Graff has had 66 individually cut diamonds polished from the Lesedi La Rona, which initially close to the size of a tennis ball.



Last month, the largest cut stone was finally unveiled, weighing 302.37 carats. The faceted diamond was named the Graff Lesedi La Rona, maintaining the original stone's given name in part. The stone is now believed to be the largest 'square shaped emerald cut' diamond in existence. Mr. Graff commented in an article that their initial goal was to surpass the 300 carat mark for this stone, which was properly achieved by paying careful attention to the diamond as every procedure was being accomplished.



Prior to the release of this stone, many of the smaller diamonds cut from the original Lesedi La Rona had already been unveiled, possibly to give the public an impression into the diamond's slow journey towards the upper hierarchies of the jewelry world.

We're re-reading an interesting throwback article from JCK Magazine 12' (linked here) that details how according to an IGI Trade Alert, CVD grown man-made diamonds were sent or submitted to their facilities in Antwerp and Mumbai. The person who submitted the stones had no idea that the parcel contained over 600 artificially grown diamonds. He thought that they were natural, and mentioned that he had originally paid for them under the impression that they were natural, earth-mined diamonds.



Normal gemological tools like microscopes, loupes, refractometers and the like- are not solely enough to make the separation anymore. *Gemcamp Laboratories make use of these advance spectrometry-based detectors to identify natural diamonds that possess well-documented characteristic absorption and emission patterns that allow us determine their specific type group.

Here in the Philippines, most people we've come across, still believe that the pen-type diamond testers (diamond thermal testers and moissanite testers) are enough for their protection, but the fact remains that these two instrument types CANNOT differentiate between a man-made diamond and a natural diamond. This is clear, because of the fact that both natural and man-made diamonds are made up of carbon that crystalizes in the cubic crystal lattice system. Lab grown diamonds have the same thermal conductivity and electrical conductivity as natural diamonds. From the best that we can tell, our country's view towards protection against diamond fraud is unsurprisingly behind.

Lab-grown or man-made diamonds at the wholesale level (from what we personally observed during international jewelry trade fairs) are about 40 to 60% cheaper than natural counterparts. At the retail level, most seem to sell them about 30% cheaper than naturals. This big price difference alone should be a good enough reason for society to be cautious against mismatched stones.



Pictured above is a stunning CVD Lab-grown diamond. Despite the negative attachment that circulates around undisclosed stones, the trade applauds man-made stones that are sold honestly and ethically.

Lab-grown diamonds are beautiful products in their own rights, and chemically speaking they are in fact diamonds. The problem only lies when a lab-grown stone is fraudulently sold to someone under the representation of a natural stone.

Some people even try to sell man-made stones with original reports from many gemological laboratories. They have a natural stone checked properly with a lab, and then take that report and use it for advertising a similar-looking lab-grown diamond of the same carat weight or size. While gemological laboratories can verify if a stone matches a specific report if someone comes in to check it, they have no liability or control over the external actions of potentially fraudulent individuals with regards to what they do after acquiring a report document.

Here is a link to an article about a man-made stone fraudulently sold as a natural diamond, by trying to misrepresent it with GIA report information for a different stone.

The lab-grown stone was fraudulently inscribed with a falsified laser inscription that pointed to a GIA report for another stone (a natural diamond). This practice is often called stone swapping or stone switching, wherein people try to use an original lab report to fraudulently sell an item that is not the one described on the report. GIA's laboratory obviously did not play any part in this, as they cannot possibly monitor what each and every client does with the reports they have commissioned. We believe that they do however (like most laboratories) encourage verification of reports with their laboratory first before trusting a potential seller. Protect yourself from stone-swapping scandals by verifying your item with the corresponding laboratory listed on the report first. Make sure the report isn't fake or invalidated, and then lastly be sure that the item or stone on your report is exactly the one you're being sold by asking the issuing laboratory.