Why lab grown
What Is a Lab-Grown Diamond?
Same material. Same grading criteria. A different origin — and a very different price.
A laboratory-grown diamond is a diamond produced in a controlled environment rather than formed geologically beneath the earth. It has the same fundamental crystal structure and chemical composition — carbon arranged in a diamond lattice — as a mined diamond, and it is graded using the same criteria by the same independent laboratories.
A laboratory-grown diamond is not a simulant. Cubic zirconia and moissanite are different materials that imitate the look of diamond. A lab-grown diamond is diamond.
How they are made
CVD — Chemical Vapour Deposition
A thin diamond seed plate is placed in a sealed chamber filled with carbon-rich gas. The gas is energised into a plasma, breaking the molecular bonds so carbon atoms settle onto the seed and crystallise layer by layer. CVD growth runs at comparatively low pressure and offers close control over the growing conditions.
HPHT — High Pressure, High Temperature
A diamond seed is surrounded by carbon source material and subjected to pressures and temperatures that mimic the conditions found deep in the earth. The carbon melts and crystallises onto the seed. HPHT is also used as a post-growth treatment to improve colour in some stones.
Lab-grown compared with mined
- Hardness, refractive index, dispersion and durability: identical
- Grading vocabulary — carat, colour, clarity, cut: identical
- Formation time: weeks rather than geological timescales
- Availability of large, high-clarity, high-colour stones: significantly greater
- Price: typically a fraction of a comparable mined diamond
- Identification: specialised laboratory equipment distinguishes them reliably
Pricing and resale — honestly
Laboratory-grown diamond prices have fallen substantially over the past decade as production capacity has grown, and they may continue to move. Secondary-market resale values for lab-grown diamonds are typically low, and a stone should not be purchased as a financial investment. Buy it because of how it looks, how it wears, and what it means.
Every diamond sold by Carat Drop is a laboratory-grown diamond and is identified as such in its listing, on its grading report, on the invoice and in the packaging. We never describe a laboratory-grown diamond as mined or natural.