Utilized in jewellery for hundreds of years, pure diamonds are among the many earth’s most valuable items. And now that lab-grown diamonds are additionally on the scene, lovers of pure diamonds need to be additional positive they’re buying a diamond that was not manufactured in a laboratory.

The pure diamond trade has answered the decision, creating stringent provide chain protections, introducing new testing gear and dealing with governments to legally outline diamonds. It’s all within the identify of defending customers and giving them confidence of their purchases. Right here we clarify all of the methods the trade distinguishes between pure and lab-grown diamonds. 

Testing: The Key to Confidence

Excessive-tech labs take a look at and grade diamonds worldwide, together with the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), Worldwide Gemological Institute (IGI), Gemological Science Worldwide (GSI) and American Gem Society (AGS). These corporations grade pure and lab-grown diamonds and use essentially the most refined gear to determine them. Avi Levy, President of IGI North America, says, “Due to the closeness, when it comes to the make-up of the stone, it’s finest to get them screened with equipment.” Diamonds may be examined a number of instances as they transfer by means of the provision chain, together with after chopping and sharpening, when a jewellery producer acquires the diamonds and when a retailer receives a completed piece of bijou.

These labs do every part from the preliminary certification of diamonds to certifying a retailer’s whole stock and checking parcels of tiny melee diamonds utilized in pavé settings when a jeweler needs to make sure they obtained what they ordered.

Along with certifying diamonds, labs need to make sure there are not any combine ups after they depart the lab. A number of labs, together with GIA, IGI and GSI, laser-inscribe each lab-grown diamond they certify on the girdle to point that they’re lab-grown together with the report quantity. The laser inscription is invisible to the bare eye and doesn’t have an effect on a diamond’s look, however it may be seen at ten instances magnification. Subsequently, as soon as a lab-grown diamond has been licensed, it’s unattainable for it to be misidentified as pure by anybody with easy magnification instruments. Many labs additionally use totally different colours for his or her lab-grown diamond stories, so there’s no manner somebody can mistake the report for a natural-diamond report.

GSI grades each diamonds and completed jewellery for the commerce. A number of years in the past, when lab-grown diamonds started for use extra incessantly in jewellery, retailers requested GSI to create a program to check completed jewellery to make sure that lab-grown diamonds hadn’t been by chance blended into the ultimate product. Debbie Azar, President of GSI, says they created “a mechanism to display and take a look at all totally different varieties of bijou in mounting, in all sizes, in any respect totally different value factors.” That is vital as a result of many small diamonds don’t include certificates from main labs. GSI can take a look at every part from a 0.25 carat diamond pendant with one level diamonds surrounding it to the best engagement rings. “The purpose was to have the ability to do that in jewellery in a mounting because the final step earlier than the jewellery would get shipped from the producer to the jewellery retailer,” she says. “We display and take a look at completed jewellery for a few of the largest retailers on the planet to make sure that every part that will get by means of their doorways is what they’re saying it’s. And that’s pure diamonds.”

In-Home Testing

Many corporations, jewelers and boutiques have Diamond Verification Devices in-house that they use to check diamonds and jewellery they purchase, particularly in the event that they buy it on the open market. “Most synthetics are unattainable to determine with commonplace gemological testing,” Tom Gelb, Technical Advisor at Undertaking ASSURE. “You’ll be able to’t do it with a microscope or a loupe. You want one in all these units.” Utilizing these machines, they will be certain that they obtain precisely what they ordered with out sending it to a lab for verification.

How will you make sure these machines really work? Ask if they’re a part of the ASSURE Program. The Pure Diamond Council works with impartial laboratories to check these machines’ capabilities to make sure that what they are saying is a pure diamond is in reality a pure diamond. “The ASSURE Program has developed a regular to check Diamond Verification Devices in a constant method,” says David Kellie, Chief Govt Officer of the Pure Diamond Council. “We partnered with main producers as a part of a shared dedication to sustaining client confidence.” To do that, they bought pure and lab-grown diamonds and had two impartial laboratories take a look at them, then used these confirmed pattern units to check the machines. As well as, they work to “future proof” the machines by frequently testing the machines towards new and weird synthetics that come into the market.

“Increasingly individuals throughout the commerce are testing extra of their inventory, and the integrity of the pipeline is far stronger than it was beforehand,” Gelb says. The result’s peace of thoughts for each the jeweler and the consumer, who know {that a} diamond has been examined and correctly recognized.

Hearts on Hearth makes use of ASSURE-approved machines to check each diamond that comes into its workshops, no matter provenance. “On the finish of the day, it finally ends up with us,” Foerster says. “It’s our accountability. We’re placing ahead the model in North America. Defending the patron and the model’s popularity by means of strict requirements and testing is of paramount significance to her. With all the safeguards in place to maintain the diamonds separate, she’s assured that pure diamonds are protected of their provide chain.”

Tips on how to Take a look at Jewellery On Your Personal

In case you purchase jewellery with no laboratory report or certificates, one of the simplest ways to make sure you will have a pure diamond is to have the piece examined. Some laboratories, equivalent to IGI, will grade gem stones with out eradicating them from the settings. Others, like GIA, solely grade free diamonds, however can take a look at mounted diamonds to find out if they’re pure or laboratory-grown diamonds, and even diamond simulants like cubic zirconia. You can too convey your items to a jewellery boutique that has in-house Diamond Verification Devices, they usually can take a look at the diamonds for you on the spot. If the jewellery doesn’t have its personal testing gear, it may direct you to an impartial lab for testing.

“Individuals are bringing in increasingly more of their jewellery that they’ve had for years for clarification,” Levy says. He’s seen a marked improve within the variety of inquiries that IGI receives from customers seeking to have their jewellery inspected. Scott Friedman, Director of Enterprise Growth at IGI, believes this is because of client consciousness. “With every part on the planet, it looks like customers simply need to know as a lot info as potential in regards to the merchandise they’re shopping for,” he says.

In case you believed you bought a pure diamond however obtained a lab-grown diamond as a substitute, you can have a proper to a refund if the corporate didn’t observe FTC pointers. First, contact the corporate and see if they are going to refund you. If not, you can rent a lawyer or file a criticism with the FTC. The JVC has a mediation program that works primarily with the commerce, in addition to some customers, and has recouped tens of hundreds of {dollars} for individuals who have been defrauded.

What Are the Variations Between Pure and Lab-Grown Diamonds?

Whereas pure and lab-grown diamonds would possibly look comparable and have the identical chemical properties, they don’t seem to be equivalent. “The vastly totally different situations below which pure and laboratory-grown diamonds type depart variations on the atomic stage that enable our educated workers with specialised gear to inform them aside,” says Tom Moses, Govt Vice President and Chief Laboratory and Analysis Officer on the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), the 90-year-old nonprofit institute devoted to defending gem- and jewelry-buying customers. Pure diamonds had been fashioned deep within the earth between one and three billion years in the past, and had been introduced near the floor by the explosion of historical underground volcanoes. Alternatively, lab-grown diamonds are created in only a few weeks. All high laboratories can definitively separate pure and lab-grown diamonds.

How Are Pure and Lab-grown Diamonds Labeled?

At the beginning, there’s a authorized definition of the phrase “diamond.” Anytime you see the phrase “diamond” by itself, that refers to a pure diamond that got here from the earth. Purveyors of lab-grown diamonds are legally required to make use of sure phrases to qualify that they don’t seem to be pure diamonds.

The Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) recommends three phrases be used: laboratory-grown, laboratory-created or [manufacturer name]-created; many individuals shorten “laboratory” to “lab.” The FTC requires the disclosure {that a} diamond is just not pure to be clear and conspicuous, which implies it may’t be buried within the wonderful print. The trade has its personal watchdogs, together with the Jewelers Vigilance Committee (JVC), which helps jewellery corporations stay in compliance with the advanced community of legal guidelines world wide. Tiffany Stevens, CEO and Common Counsel of the JVC, says, “The FTC’s mission is to guard the American client from deception in all industries. Since our trade is a lot extra difficult than many others, they take a particular strategy to make it possible for the typical one who doesn’t have a science diploma or a jewellery schooling can simply perceive what they’re buying.”

In case you are ever confused by the language a model makes use of, it’s an indication you need to dig deeper into the diamond’s origins earlier than making a purchase order or purchase from a unique firm. “If in case you have a humorous feeling, one thing appears too good to be true otherwise you really feel like somebody is attempting to confuse you, they in all probability are,” she says. “It’s higher to take your time. Any respectable firm will talk with you a number of instances, whether or not that’s in individual or on-line. If anybody is attempting to hurry you or convey a way of urgency to issues, belief your intestine feeling.”

Respected retailers that promote pure and lab-grown diamonds, equivalent to Blue Nile, do an awesome job of distinguishing between them. Even when Nordstrom sells lab-grown diamond jewellery, it makes use of the time period within the product identify, description and particulars, making it unattainable to overlook.

How Does the Business Hold Pure and Lab-Grown Diamonds Separate All through the Provide Chain?

The trade makes use of many steps to maintain pure and lab-grown diamonds separate by means of each step of the provision chain. When transporting stones, many corporations have a vertically built-in provide chain, use tamper-proof packaging and verify each stone they purchase with a Diamond Verification Instrument or a third-party laboratory, whatever the accompanying certificates. Reducing and sharpening services that work with each pure and lab-grown diamonds typically have separate rooms and employees devoted to every kind of [1] stone. And, after all, many corporations completely work with both pure or lab-grown diamonds.

Stevens notes that the trade jumped into motion as quickly as lab-grown diamonds entered the jewellery market within the early 2000s, and has been refining its processes ever since. “This isn’t a brand new problem that we are attempting to determine,” she says. “There are a number of authorized and supply-chain mechanisms in place to guard the trade and in the end customers from getting the fallacious items.”

Corporations that promote each pure and lab-grown diamonds have stringent processes to maintain pure and lab-grown diamonds separate all through the provision chain, together with chopping, sharpening and setting. Corporations that completely work with pure diamonds deal with testing and guaranteeing {that a} lab-grown diamond by no means crosses its threshold.

In an interview, Rebecca Foerster, President of North America at Hearts on Hearth, explains that its father or mother firm, The Chow Tai Fook Jewelry Group, is likely one of the largest purveyors of pure diamonds on the planet, which is the place its dedication to the highest-quality pure diamonds begins. Naturally, it has world-class procedures and testing practices to solely promote pure diamonds. She says they pay “very severe consideration to creating positive that the pipeline is clear, that we vet our producers, that we now have processes in place for full transparency. The vast majority of our diamonds come by means of our father or mother firm, however even with that assurance, we proceed to verify parcels [of diamonds] once we get them in-house as effectively.”

If any work is completed on jewellery exterior of their services, they require signed documentation that ensures lab-grown diamonds are saved separate from pure diamonds. As soon as a diamond has been lower and polished, Hearts on Hearth sends the diamonds to a laboratory for certification the place every diamond is laser-inscribed with a novel serial quantity that corresponds to its certificates. So, even when a diamond is separated from its setting, the serial quantity may be appeared up. “Having this certification from a really respected laboratory is actually a part of the model promise,” Foerster says.

What To Ask When Shopping for Diamond Jewellery

JEWELERS OF AMERICA: https://www.jewelers.org/find-a-jeweler

AMERICAN GEM SOCIETY: https://www.americangemsociety.org/find-a-jeweler

NATURAL DIAMOND COUNCIL: https://www.naturaldiamonds.com/official-partner-locations