Choosing The Right Diamond

Natural brilliant cut diamonds with a graphic overlay explaining the 4Cs – colour, cut, clarity and carat weight.
Beautiful. Rare. Cherished. Each diamond is unique and is a miracle of time, place and change. Each diamond has specific, unique qualities that establish its value.
Until the middle of the twentieth century, there was no agreed-upon standard by which diamonds could be graded. GIA created the first, and now globally accepted standard for grading diamonds: Colour, Clarity, Cut and Carat Weight. Today, the 4Cs of Diamond Quality is the universal method for assessing the quality of any diamond, anywhere in the world.
The creation of the Diamond 4Cs meant two very important things – diamond quality could be communicated in a universal language, and diamond customers could now know exactly what they were about to purchase.

Lab Grown Diamonds vs Natural Diamonds

Lab Grown Diamonds are physically, visually and chemically identical to their natural coun-terparts. Lab grown diamonds are created from tiny carbon seeds of pre-existing diamonds. Scientists use advanced technology – either extreme pressure and heat or a special process known as chemical vapor deposition (CVD) – to mimic the method of natural diamond for-mation. Over the course of six to ten weeks, a rough diamond is formed. The stone is then cut and polished in the exact same way as a natural diamond.
There are two primary methods of producing lab diamonds:

1. High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT): This method mimics the conditions under which natural diamonds are formed inside the earth. To produce the lab diamond, a large machine is fed a certain amount of carbon material that it then crushes under pressures of more than 870,000 lbs. per square inch at extreme temperatures ranging from 1300 – 1600 degrees Cel-sius.

2. Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD): CVD is when a seed diamond is placed in a small, vacu-um chamber filled with heated hydrogen and carbon-containing gasses. At a certain tempera-ture, the gas molecules are broken down and layers of crystallized carbon begin to form around the seed, growing a more substantial diamond.
You can’t tell the difference between natural diamonds, lab diamonds grown via HPHT meth-od, and lab diamonds grown via CVD method with the naked eye, only scientists can distin-guish the differences by analyzing identifying markers caused by the growth conditions.
The grading criteria remains the same for both Natural and Lab Grown diamonds and both are sold with independent Laboratory Grading Certificates from reputable laboratories worldwide.