lab-grown diamonds are everyone’s best friend

Globally, lab-grown diamonds are on the rise, and they are cheaper and more ethical than mined ones. Gone are the slogans by De Beers like ‘Diamonds are forever’ and ‘Diamonds are a girl’s best friend’ and so on. The diamond industry is now riddled with decision-making tensions. What to buy…rocks formed over billions of years in the depths of the earth Or a rival in the form of equally sparkly lab-grown diamonds made in weeks? Both are ranked as diamonds by the International Gemological Institute,  but buyers are said to be going wild for the cheaper version….Lab-grown Diamonds!

Lab-grown diamonds are not fakes, they are physically, chemically and optically the same as natural diamonds. You can’t tell the difference with a jeweller’s loupe, the only way is to use a special machine that detects growth patterns.  Production methods apart, there’s a key difference between the two: cost. With rapidly improving technology, prices for lab-grown diamonds are continually dropping, now selling for between 33% and 80% less than their mined equivalents.

According to data, lab-grown accounted for 18.5% of diamond jewellery sales in 2023 internationally, and it’s still growing. The industry is worth over £23bn worldwide. And, with a cost-of-living crisis, sales of natural diamonds are down over 50% as customers realise they can buy a mined diamond’s twin and still have change for a fabulous holiday.