Utilized in jewelry 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 wish 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 tools 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 subtle tools 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 greatest to get them screened with equipment.” Diamonds could be examined a number of instances as they transfer via the provision chain, together with after chopping and sharpening, when a jewelry producer acquires the diamonds and when a retailer receives a completed piece of jewelry.

These labs do the whole lot 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 jeweller desires to make certain they acquired what they ordered.

Along with certifying diamonds, labs wish to make certain there are not any combine ups after they go away 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. Due to this fact, as soon as a lab-grown diamond has been licensed, it’s inconceivable for it to be misidentified as pure by anybody with easy magnification instruments. Many labs additionally use completely different colours for his or her lab-grown diamond reviews, so there’s no method somebody can mistake the report for a natural-diamond report.

GSI grades each diamonds and completed jewelry for the commerce. A couple of years in the past, when lab-grown diamonds started for use extra continuously in jewelry, retailers requested GSI to create a program to check completed jewelry to make sure that lab-grown diamonds hadn’t been unintentionally combined into the ultimate product. Debbie Azar, President of GSI, says they created “a mechanism to display screen and take a look at all completely different varieties of jewelry in mounting, in all sizes, in any respect completely different value factors.” That is necessary as a result of many small diamonds don’t include certificates from main labs. GSI can take a look at the whole lot 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 jewelry in a mounting because the final step earlier than the jewelry would get shipped from the producer to the jewelry retailer,” she says. “We display screen and take a look at completed jewelry for a few of the largest retailers on the planet to make sure that the whole lot that will get via their doorways is what they’re saying it’s. And that’s pure diamonds.”

In-Home Testing

Many corporations, jewellers and boutiques have Diamond Verification Devices in-house that they use to check diamonds and jewelry they purchase, particularly in the event that they buy it on the open market. “Most synthetics are inconceivable to determine with normal gemological testing,” Tom Gelb, Technical Advisor at Mission ASSURE. “You possibly can’t do it with a microscope or a loupe. You want certainly one of these gadgets.” Utilizing these machines, they will make sure that they obtain precisely what they ordered with out sending it to a lab for verification.

How are you going to make certain these machines truly work? Ask if they’re a part of the ASSURE Program. The Pure Diamond Council works with unbiased 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 normal 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 unbiased 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.

“An increasing number of 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 jeweller 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 via 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.”

How one can Check Jewelry On Your Personal

In the event you purchase jewelry with out a laboratory report or certificates, one of the best ways to make certain you’ve a pure diamond is to have the piece examined. Some laboratories, resembling IGI, will grade gems 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 may as well convey your items to a jewelry boutique that has in-house Diamond Verification Devices, they usually can take a look at the diamonds for you on the spot. If the jewelry doesn’t have its personal testing tools, it could direct you to an unbiased lab for testing.

“Individuals are bringing in increasingly more of their jewelry 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 trying to have their jewelry inspected. Scott Friedman, Director of Enterprise Improvement at IGI, believes this is because of client consciousness. “With the whole lot on the planet, it looks as if customers simply wish to know as a lot info as doable concerning the merchandise they’re shopping for,” he says.

In the event you believed you bought a pure diamond however acquired a lab-grown diamond as a substitute, you may have a proper to a refund if the corporate didn’t observe FTC pointers. First, contact the corporate and see if they’ll refund you. If not, you may rent a lawyer or file a grievance 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 1000’s of {dollars} for individuals who have been defrauded.

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

Whereas pure and lab-grown diamonds may look related and have the identical chemical properties, they don’t seem to be similar. “The vastly completely different situations below which pure and laboratory-grown diamonds type go away variations on the atomic stage that enable our skilled employees with specialised tools 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 jewellery-buying customers. Pure diamonds have been fashioned deep within the earth between one and three billion years in the past, and have been introduced near the floor by the explosion of historic underground volcanoes. Alternatively, lab-grown diamonds are created in only a few weeks. All prime laboratories can definitively separate pure and lab-grown diamonds.

How Are Pure and Lab-grown Diamonds Labeled?

Initially, 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 just isn’t pure to be clear and conspicuous, which implies it could’t be buried within the nice print. The trade has its personal watchdogs, together with the Jewelers Vigilance Committee (JVC), which helps jewelry corporations stay in compliance with the complicated community of legal guidelines world wide. Tiffany Stevens, CEO and Basic 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 sophisticated than many others, they take a particular method to make it possible for the common one who doesn’t have a science diploma or a jewelry training can simply perceive what they’re buying.”

If you’re ever confused by the language a model makes use of, it’s an indication you must dig deeper into the diamond’s origins earlier than making a purchase order or purchase from a unique firm. “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 professional firm will talk with you a number of instances, whether or not that’s in particular person 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, resembling Blue Nile, do a fantastic job of distinguishing between them. Even when Nordstrom sells lab-grown diamond jewelry, it makes use of the time period within the product identify, description and particulars, making it inconceivable to overlook.

How Does the Trade 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 via 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. Slicing and sharpening amenities that work with each pure and lab-grown diamonds usually have separate rooms and employees devoted to every kind of [1] stone. And, in fact, many corporations solely work with both pure or lab-grown diamonds.

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

Firms 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. Firms that solely work with pure diamonds deal with testing and making certain {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 dad or mum 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 critical consideration to creating positive that the pipeline is clear, that we vet our producers, that now we have processes in place for full transparency. The vast majority of our diamonds come via our dad or mum firm, however even with that assurance, we proceed to verify parcels [of diamonds] after we get them in-house as effectively.”

If any work is completed on jewelry outdoors of their amenities, they require signed documentation that ensures lab-grown diamonds are saved separate from pure diamonds. As soon as a diamond has been minimize and polished, Hearts on Hearth sends the diamonds to a laboratory for certification the place every diamond is laser-inscribed with a singular serial quantity that corresponds to its certificates. So, even when a diamond is separated from its setting, the serial quantity could be regarded 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 Jewelry

Each industries take nice steps to make sure the integrity of their merchandise. Many individuals solely wish to purchase pure diamonds whereas others solely wish to purchase lab-grown diamonds. It’s in the most effective curiosity of all events to fastidiously monitor their provide chain and take a look at their diamonds at each step to offer shoppers what they’re on the lookout for.

Foerster believes the issue at this time isn’t the diamonds themselves, however disclosure on the retail stage. Newer retail workers won’t know the distinction between pure and lab-grown diamonds or concentrate on the FTC disclosure rules and may promote lab-grown diamonds to individuals on the lookout for pure diamonds. “It’s necessary that folks know the distinction and provides them the selection,” she says. Azar agrees: “Customers ought to at all times go into a jewelry retail retailer that they belief. However with that, I believe they at all times need to confirm and ask the suitable questions.”

While you’re looking for diamond jewelry, ask if the diamond is pure or man-made, and what certifications bigger diamonds (one carat or bigger) have. That method, you’ll be armed with the data it’s essential purchase an genuine piece of jewelry that you’ll actually love and cherish. Now that you understand all of the methods the jewelry trade safeguards customers, you’ll be able to really feel assured that items of jewelry that includes pure diamonds solely have pure diamonds in them.