Mined and simulated diamonds differ greatly when it comes to price — and synthetic diamonds might not be as sustainable as you thought.
If you’ve bought a piece of fine jewelry containing a diamond in recent years, you’ve likely encountered a more affordable option in a lab-grown diamond — especially if you were in the market for an engagement ring.
While you may shell out around $23,000 for a 2-carat halo ring of natural diamonds, the lab-grown version of the same ring might cost $6,000 — a staggering difference for two options that are visually, chemically and physically the same.
Laboratory-grown, or synthetic, diamonds are more popular than ever as consumers are drawn to their affordability compared to mined, or natural, diamonds. Plus, sustainability and ethics are now top of mind for many diamond shoppers, even more so since the 2006 film “Blood Diamond” shed light on many of the inhumane practices in traditional diamond mining.
But when you ask the experts, the differences between mined and lab-grown diamonds aren’t so cut and dry — especially where ethics and sustainability are concerned. We talked to four industry experts to break it down.
For the rest of this article: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/difference-between-natural-and-lab-grown-diamonds_l_6440421be4b04997b56f21ac