Many individuals prior to now turned to cubic zirconia or moissanite to get jewellery that appears much like a pure diamond at a lower cost. However in the previous couple of years, the price of laboratory-grown diamonds has decreased considerably, in keeping with the Worldwide Gem Society, making them one of many hottest alternate options to pure diamonds. 

VERIFY viewer Mary despatched us an e-mail asking if there’s a technique to inform the distinction between lab-grown and pure diamonds.

Is there a technique to inform the distinction between lab-grown and pure diamonds? 

Sure, there’s a technique to inform the distinction between lab-grown and pure diamonds. However it’s almost unimaginable to see with the bare eye.

Pure diamonds are fashioned beneath excessive temperature and strain situations that exist about 100 miles beneath the earth’s floor, in keeping with the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), a nonprofit institute devoted to analysis and training within the subject of gemology and the jewellery arts. Lab-grown diamonds, alternatively, are created comparatively rapidly in a laboratory or a manufacturing unit, however share almost all the identical traits as pure diamonds. 

“Lab-grown diamonds have the identical chemical composition and actually the identical bodily properties as pure diamonds,” defined James Shigley, a distinguished analysis fellow at GIA.

Diamond trade skilled Mike Fried advised VERIFY it’s almost unimaginable to inform the distinction between a pure diamond and a lab-grown diamond with the bare eye. However Fried and Shigley say specialised instruments, resembling this gem testing system that makes use of fluorescence spectroscopy moderately than UV gentle, might help respected jewelers at giant jewellery corporations and educated gemologists inform the 2 aside. 

“All diamonds are just about the identical, however there are some very minute variations that you would be able to’t see with the attention,” mentioned Fried. “It will require subtle gear in a laboratory to detect the distinction between the 2.” 

Jewelers with out entry to dependable detection know-how can even ship the diamonds to a gemological laboratory for verification. Shigley says the GIA additionally has a particular report service through which a producer or a jeweler can ship in a parcel or a package deal of pure or lab-grown diamonds that may be examined in-house by GIA gemologists. 

“We are going to undergo them and separate out those which might be pure and those which might be lab-grown, and we return them individually so you understand what you’re coping with,” Shigley defined. 

So how are you going to inform if you happen to’re shopping for a pure or lab-grown diamond? 

The Federal Commerce Fee (FTC) requires that any gem materials produced in a laboratory be described in a method that “leaves little question that it was not produced naturally,” in keeping with the GIA. Lab-grown diamond producer ALTR additionally says the “trade is certain by regulation and ethics to reveal whether or not a diamond is lab-grown or earth-mined” on its web site. 

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