With the advancement of technology through the creation of diamonds in a lab, all the criticism and ethical concerns that have been levied against natural diamonds for the greater part of the century have now been resolved. Buying a piece of diamond jewellery now is not a morally and financially draining experience that it used to be. In fact, a lab-grown diamond is cheaper and often of much higher quality than mined diamonds.

Lab-grown diamonds have the same physical properties as mined diamonds, and even professionals aren’t able to tell the difference. They are certainly not cubic zirconia or other diamond simulants. While these may look similar to diamonds, they are fundamentally different and are not as durable and long-lasting as real diamonds. A professional test can easily expose their chemical makeup.

Lab-grown diamonds, as the name suggests, are grown in labs from carefully arranged small diamonds called seeds that are placed into carbon. Advanced technology subjects the seeds to extremely high pressure and temperature that mimics the natural method of diamond formation but at an exponentially accelerated pace.

The pure carbon melts and starts to form a diamond around the starter seed. It is then carefully cooled to form a pure carbon diamond, which is then cut and polished. Mined diamonds often have impurities due to the environment in which they were formed. Diamonds created in a lab with strictly controlled processes result in brighter and whiter diamonds but with much fewer defects than mined ones.

Besides, colored diamonds produced in labs are much more vibrant and uniform than their mined counterparts. The feat is achieved by the very precise dosing of trace chemicals. For example, yellow diamonds get their colour from nitrogen while blue diamonds get their colour from boron.