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Writer's pictureBert Levi

Are Lab Grown Diamonds Diamond Simulants?

Round brilliant cut loose diamond.


This seems like a complicated question, and it is. The answer isn’t complicated at all. Lab grown diamonds are actual diamonds, real diamond not simulated diamonds. A simulant is a substance created to seem like a diamond. Lab diamonds are the exact same as natural diamond but created in a lab with technology that mimics how they are created in nature.






Famous simulants include moissanite and cubic zirconia.


  • Moissanite: Moissanite is a lab-created gem similar to a diamond that refracts light differently, creating a colored glint rather than the crystal-clear sparkle of a diamond. Thought Moissanite occurs naturally in meteorites, any you purchase are formed in a lab synthetically.

  • Cubic Zirconia: Cubic zirconia is a lab-created crystal often used as a placeholder in jewelry to show customers an approximation of how an item will look with the diamond. It is used extensively in costume jewelry.

Cubic zirconia and moissanite aren’t diamonds at all but just designed to look like them. You can tell the difference between a simulant and a diamond without any equipment. You can tell just by looking at them.


This isn’t to say that you might not enjoy a gem other than a diamond, and some people quite enjoy having a simulant. They just aren’t diamonds. Lab diamonds, on the other hand, are actual diamonds. Real. Diamonds.


Just very significantly less expensive and more ethically safe than mined diamonds.



 


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