What are lab-created diamonds?
Diamonds are the hardest natural mineral and their beauty and sparkle has made them one of the most coveted gemstones. Lab-created diamonds share the same physical properties as mined diamonds with the only difference being their origin. They are crafted in controlled settings that mimic the natural process of diamond formation – high heat and pressure – and offer a great option without compromising beauty and physical quality.
How lab-created diamonds are made
It takes billions of years to create a diamond in nature. Carbon is exposed to high temperatures and pressure below the surface causing the carbon atoms to bond together and slowly form the mineral. These conditions are replicated in a lab-setting where the diamond can form within several weeks vs billions of years.
The only difference is how they are originated
Lab-created are optically, chemically and physically identical to natural diamonds. They undergo the same cutting and polishing process to bring out their brilliance and sparkle and come in a variety of color and clarity. All of Monte Luna jewelry […]
The 4Cs for Lab-Created diamonds
Every diamond is unique with four distinguishing characteristics – the 4 Cs: color, clarity, cut and carat weight. Originally created by the Gemological Institutes of America (GIA), the 4Cs have become the standard for assessing the quality of a diamond.
Lab-created diamonds have the same optical, physical and chemical properties than natural diamonds, meaning that they are also graded using the 4Cs.
-
CUT
Not to be confused with the shape of the diamond, the cut impacts how a diamond’s facets interact with light, it determines its sparkle and brilliance. The quality of the cut is impacted by the polish, the proportions and symmetry. Gradings range from Super ideal and ideal to very good, good, fair and poor.
-
Clarity
A diamond’s clarity grades the number of inclusions and blemishes in the stone. It’s important to notice that some inclusions and blemishes are not visible to the naked eye. Gradings range from Flawless to included. At Monte Luna we are working with the grade of stone 'Slightly Included' where diamonds may have small blemishes or inclusions that can be visible under 10x magnification.
-
COLOR
Monte Luna only accepts and works with diamonds that are colorless or near colorless to ensure the desired brilliant white color. Anything outside of these color grades can appear slightly yellow. It mostly requires a trained eye to distinguish between D, E, and F grading within the colorless category while near colorless stones can have a slight trace of color that is mostly not noticeable to the naked eye.
-
CARAT WEIGHT
Carat is a measurement of the weight of the diamond with one carat equally 0.2 grams. This diagram gives a general indication of size for a round diamond, but the actual size will vary by shape (cushion, emerald, marquise, oval, princess, pear, radiant, round, heart) and the depth of the stone.
Lab-created diamonds vs natural diamonds
Extracting natural diamonds from the earth can be very harmful to the environment and sometimes exploit local communities for labor. With the same optical, chemical and physical properties, lab-created diamonds offer a great alternative that doesn’t carry the environmental and human costs associated with mined diamonds.
