So you're shopping for diamonds and are torn between the nature-made magic of natural diamonds and the size queen savings of a lab diamond. Don't worry, we got you. Keep reading for a completely transparent and comprehensive comparison between lab diamonds and natural diamonds where we dispel all the myths and tell the unfiltered truth on all facets including:
What Are Lab Grown Diamonds?
Lab grown diamonds are the man-made versions of natural diamonds. Whereas natural diamonds are formed deep within the earth's crust over the course of hundreds of millions to billion of years, lab diamonds are grown in a lab over the course of a few weeks. To the naked eye, lab diamonds look identical to natural diamonds and can only be distinguished by a trained Jeweler with specialized equipment.
Round brilliant lab grown diamond ring
Are Lab Grown Diamonds Real Diamonds?
"Real diamonds" is a relative term. While they do share the same optical, physical, and chemical characteristics as a natural diamonds, they are man-made and therefore are a replication of an earth-made diamond. They are however, just as strong and just as sparkly as a natural diamond and should not be confused with synthetic stones like cubic zirconia or man-made moissanite.
How Lab Created Diamonds vs Natural Diamonds are Formed
The formation of natural vs lab created diamonds is their biggest difference. Natural diamonds were formed 90 million to 3 billion years ago when carbon atoms in the Earth's crust were subject to extreme heat and intense pressure, bonding them together to form diamonds. Then after lying deep in the Earth's crust for millions of years, volcanic eruptions pushed the stones to the earth's surface. Every diamond found is completely unique with its own characteristics that tells the story of its individual path from deep within the earth to the earth's surface.
Lab grown diamonds are created in a laboratory over the course of a few weeks or months using one of two methods:
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Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD): A small slice of graphite about the thickness of a human hair is used as a diamond seed. The seed, along with pure graphite carbon is put in a vacuum chamber containing methane and hydrogen. Once it reaches a certain temperature, the gasses begin to break down and crystallized carbon forms around the seed to create a diamond.
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High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT): A replication of how natural diamonds are made, the CVD method puts a small amount of carbon inside a large machine and subjects it to extreme heat (1300-1600 degrees Celsius) and pressure (870,000 lbs) to create a diamond.
Lab Grown Diamond Benefits
The main benefit of a lab grown diamond is the cost - they are substantially less expensive than natural mined diamonds and the cost has continued to drop over the past decade. So, if you're on a tighter budget and are looking for a sizeable stone, lab diamonds are a great option.
How Are Lab Grown Diamonds Certified and Graded?
Lab diamonds are certified and graded by the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) and the IGI (International Gemological Institute) using the 4 C's (cut, color, clarity, and carat) just like natural diamonds are. The only difference: each report will specify whether it's for a natural diamond or lab grown diamond.
Natural diamonds vs lab diamonds: value
As of 2024, lab diamonds cost about 80-90% less than natural diamonds. Whereas natural diamond prices have risen about 3% per year, lab diamond prices have fallen by over 70% in the last 8 years. In 2016, a high-quality 1.5 carat round brilliant lab diamond cost about 10% less than a comparable natural diamond. Now, in 2024, that same lab diamond costs over 80% less than its natural diamond counterpart.
While that's fantastic news for the initial cost of a lab diamond (and it has made large diamonds much more accessible), it also means that their value has plummeted. And if the trend continues, lab diamonds won't have much value left. But why? The main reason is supply - whereas natural diamonds have a finite supply that will eventually run out, lab diamonds have a basically unlimited capacity. And generally, as supply increases, the value decreases.
This may not be a concern for many people who simply want a sizeable stone that fits their budget, but for those looking for a diamond that will hold a good chunk of its value, this is something to consider.
Lab diamond cluster ring
How pricing changes with rising carats
Because it's rare to find natural diamonds in larger carat sizes, pricing is not linear. That means a two carat diamond isn't simply double the cost of a one carat diamond since 2 carat diamonds are significantly rarer than 1 carat stones.
With lab diamonds on the other hand, there's no dependance on geology, so pricing is much more straightforward. A larger stone takes proportionately more energy and time to produce, so generally a 2 carat lab diamond costs about twice as much as a 1 carat stone.
Which one is more ethical? Lab Grown Diamonds or Natural Diamonds?
While you'll see a lot of retailers claiming that lab diamonds are a completely sustainable and ethical diamond option, this is simply not always true. Both lab diamonds and natural diamonds have ethical and environmental challenges depending on where they're made or mined and the labor practices and environmental practices at that specific lab or mine.
There's two main sides to ethical sourcing:
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The environment: protecting ecology and natural life.
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The working conditions:fair pay, safe working conditions, and ethical labor standards
To find out if a diamond (either lab created or natural) is ethical, you have to look at the environmental practices, labor standards, and worker treatment at each particular mine or lab. While some mines use environmentally responsible mining practices and restore all the land after mining, other less-regulated mines can have massive negative effects on the environment. The same is true for diamond labs - some use renewable wind and solar energy and have minimal emissions, while others have zero environmental regulations, use a huge amount of coal-fueled energy, and contribute to climate change.
Emerald cut natural diamond ring with kite diamond sides
Pink oval cut lab diamond ring
The same is true for worker treatment - some labs and mines pay their workers well and have strict, ethical labor standards, while other labs and mines pay their workers pennies and have terrible, unsafe working conditions.
The bottom line: it's about the individual mine or lab the diamond came from. If an ethical stone is important to you, do your research, and find a retailer who knows the exact origin, environmental practices, and labor standards of the mine that stone came from - whether natural or lab.
For more about ethically sourced diamonds, read our comprehensive guide.
Questions to ask to determine if a diamond is ethically sourced or made
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Is this stone (if natural) certified through the Kimberley Process?
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Is this stone traceable back to the original mine or lab?
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Where was this gemstone mined or made?
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Does this mine or lab use environmentally responsible mining techniques or energy sources? Are they required to reclaim the land once mining is completed?
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Are the miners or lab worker paid fairly, is their workplace safe, and are they treated ethically?
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Who cut this stone? Are the workers paid fairly and treated ethically?
Is boycotting natural mined diamonds the most ethical answer?
The natural diamond mining industry employs 10,000,000 people who depend on that work to support themselves and their families. If we completely stopped natural diamond mining, all of these people would lose their jobs. Is removing their livelihoods the ethical alternative or does the answer lie in better environmental regulations, stricter labor standards, and more community investment?
Because the truth is, the diamond industry is not what it used to be. Nowadays, almost all diamonds are certified conflict-free through the Kimberly Process and environmental practices are becoming more and more stringent - with many mines working towards only using recycled water and renewable energy, creating nature preserves for affected wildlife, and fully reclaiming the land once mining is complete. And in areas like Canada and Australia, wages, working conditions, and workplace safety are strictly regulated.
Also, many large diamond mines invest heavily in local communities, hiring large numbers of local workers, building infrastructure, and often partnering with local communities to make social investments - think schools, medical services, and services the community is missing.
For example, in the Northwest Territories in Canada, diamond mining has contributed $24 billion to the economy and of that, almost $17 billion has gone to local Northwest Territories businesses and $7.5 billion to indigenous-owned NTW businesses. In Botswana, natural diamonds make up 88% of their total exports and 33% of their total GDP.
This of course, is not true for every mine and every diamond. This is why traceability and transparency is so key with both natural diamonds and lab diamonds. When you know the exact origin of your diamond and the environmental and human rights practices at that particular mine or lab, you can truly know the ethics of that particular stone. Any retailer that claims all of their diamonds are ethical (whether lab or natural) without any information on the origins of each stone, is simply greenwashing.
Environmental impact of lab diamonds vs natural diamonds
The environmental impact of lab grown diamonds
Are lab grown diamonds more sustainable than natural diamonds? It depends on a lot of different factors. Producing lab diamonds is a very energy-intensive process using temperatures of up to 20% of the sun's surface. And, more than 70% of all lab diamonds are created in China and India where the majority of electricity is generated from coal - the least clean energy source there is. Having said that, some lab diamonds are grown using fully renewable energy like wind power and have a much lower environmental impact.
Though lab diamonds are often called mining-free, it's not strictly true. To produce the machinery in these labs, large amounts of high grade steel are needed along with graphite, nickel, iron, cobalt, pyrophylite, and methane which all require mining.
That being said, the production practices, energy sources, water usage, and environmental practices vary widely between labs. The environmental impact of a lab diamond comes down to the particular lab it was produced in. That's why we always say, traceability is key in ethical sourcing. A lab diamond produced using coal power has about a 16x larger carbon footprint than one created with wind power.
Moval lab diamond ring in platinum bezel setting
Asscher cut natural diamond ring with kite diamond sides
The environmental impact of natural diamonds
Environmental practices vary between mines just as they do between labs. There are mines using renewable energy, mostly recycled water, restoring 4x the land used for mining, and there are those with huge energy and water usage and a major impact on the land being mined on. Having said that, there is much more environmental regulation in the natural diamond industry vs the lab diamond industry. Natural diamond mines must follow industry regulations as well as global and national environmental regulations, whereas the lab diamond industry has very environmental regulation so far.
Natural diamond mining is split into large-scale mining (about 85-90% of all diamond mining) and artisanal small-scale mining (10-15% of all diamond mining) done by individuals or small groups. Large scale mining is much more disruptive to the environment, but there are also more regulations in place to reduce the environmental impact including land reclamation, water recycling, and waste management. Artisanal mining is generally much less disruptive to the environment but isn't subject to the same regulations.
Just like with lab diamonds, the environmental impact of a natural diamond comes down to the particular mine it came from. If you buy a traceable natural diamond, you can verify the environmental practices of that particular mine and that's the only way to be sure of its environmental impact.
Your lab diamond vs natural diamonds questions answered
Are lab created diamonds as good as real diamonds?
Lab created diamonds share virtually the exact same chemical makeup as natural diamonds, with the same sparkle and the same durability, however their value is much less thanks to their infinite supply. So, it all comes down to what's important to you. If you'd like a large, low cost stone and aren't worried about retaining value, lab diamonds are a great option. If you value the nature-made aspect, don't mine compromising on size, and want a stone that will retain some value, a natural diamond may be a better choice for you.
What are the disadvantages of lab grown diamonds?
The main disadvantage of lab grown diamonds are their decreasing value - the prices have dropped about 80% in the past 8 years. Additionally, lab grown diamonds are missing the earth-created allure of natural diamonds and there are concerns over coal-based energy consumption and taking jobs away from people in the natural diamond industry.
Can a Jeweler tell if a diamond is lab grown?
Yes, a Jeweler can tell if a diamond is lab grown with the help of specially designed instruments that show their fundamental differences including nitrogen content, growth pattern, fluorescence, composition, and spectral signature.
The easiest difference to spot: 99% of natural diamonds contain nitrogen, whereas lab diamonds don't. As a result, natural diamonds will respond to ultraviolet light very differently than lab diamonds and Gemologists use this lab diamonds test to quickly tell the difference.
A GIA diamond certificate will also clearly state whether a diamond is lab grown or natural.
Are lab diamonds worth anything?
Lab diamonds cost about 80% less than natural diamonds as of 2024, and their value has dropped significantly since their introduction.
why do people not buy lab diamonds?
Unlike natural diamonds, whose value increases about 3% per year, the value of lab diamonds is continuously depreciating - dropping about 70% in the past 8 years. In terms of resale value, natural diamonds lose some value, but nowhere near the almost total decline with lab diamonds.
Some people also appreciate the unique, nature-made magic of natural diamonds - forming billions of years ago in the Earth's crust and travelling to us via volcanic eruptions; it's a pretty special process that the clinical creation of a lab diamond doesn't match.
Some people are also looking for antique diamonds, rose cut diamonds, and other unique cuts and styles that aren't produced in labs.
Do lab diamonds get cloudy?
No, lab diamonds don't get cloudy over time. If your lab diamond looks cloudy, it's likely just dirty. Give it a thorough clean with with warm water, dish soap, and a soft bristle toothbrush to bring back its sparkle and shine - don't forget the bottom of the diamond, that's where the most grime hides!
Read our blog How to Clean Your Engagement Ring for more!
How long will a lab diamond last?
A lab diamond should last forever, just like a natural diamond, barring any major impacts or damage. Remember, diamonds are not actually unbreakable and need to be cared for. Read our blog How to Care For Your Fine Jewelry for more.
Antique old mine cut diamond
Why does my lab diamond look fake?
A genuine lab diamond should not look fake - however sometimes the highest color grades can have that cubic zirconia look because natural diamonds so rarely form in those grades. Choose a slightly lower color grade for a more authentic diamond appearance.
Also, be sure to purchase your lab diamond from a reputable and trusted retailer, as there are diamond stimulants like cubic zirconia and man-made moissanite being passed off as lab diamonds.
What is the difference between Lab Grown Diamonds vs. moissanite vs. Cubic Zirconia
While lab diamonds, synthetic moissanite, and cubic zirconia all look like diamonds, lab diamonds are created from a small amount of carbon just like natural diamonds, whereas the other diamond stimulants are made from entirely different materials.
True moissanite is an incredible mineral found in meteorites. The moissanite you see on the market however, is synthetic moissannite, also created in a lab. They look very similar to diamonds but have a more prominent rainbow sparkle than diamonds do.
Cubic zirconia is another synthetic crystal that looks somewhat like a diamond. It's often used in fashion jewelry or costume jewelry as a low-cost diamond lookalike.
Shop all our in-stock and made to order diamond rings here or book a free consult to chat about creating your own custom lab diamond or natural diamond ring!
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