Like every other item from a competitive market, buying diamonds can be tricky. When buying lab-grown diamonds in particular, one should be very careful. There are chances of ending up with a fake, poorly cut, or blood diamond.
This article exposes common mistakes to avoid when buying lab-grown diamonds to ensure you get all the value for your money.
The Essentials of Lab Diamonds
If you must take a premium quality lab diamond home, there are certain essentials to look out for. These are called the 4Cs of a diamond and are important physical properties that determine the outlook of your lab-grown diamond.
What are the 4Cs, and how are they important to a diamond?
Cut
Contrary to what you may have known, a diamond’s cut is not the shape of the diamond. Instead, the cut refers to how a diamond is patterned to form angles and sides (called facets). A diamond’s cut contributes to its luminosity and brightness. A poorly cut diamond would be less brilliant than what is acceptable.
Clarity
Quality lab-grown diamonds are very clear with little or no inclusions. A flawless or FL diamond has the highest clarity with no inclusion or crack of any kind.
Colour
Unless, of course, you want a colored lab-grown diamond, being colorless is a highly desirable diamond quality. Diamond colors are graded from D to Z. D diamonds are the most colorless diamonds and are very rare.
Carat
The carat is determined by how much weight of diamond you have in your jewelry piece. Hence, carat size may vary based on shape, size, and cut. There is no standard carat size for a quality diamond. It depends on your budget and how big you want your diamond. A 1-carat diamond should weigh about 200 milligrams.
What’s a diamond if it does not meet all of these qualities at a standard scale? Therefore, it is essential that you understand how the 4Cs play a role in determining the quality of lab-grown diamonds.
A Lab-Grown Diamond Certificate
A lab-grown diamond is not completely ready for sale without a certificate. A certificate shows detailed information about the 4Cs grading of a diamond and also proves all those information is correct.
Buying a lab-grown diamond with a certificate gives you extra confidence in the diamond’s quality. It also makes the seller credible as you can trust the diamond’s source.
Certificates are issued by gem certification institutes such as the International Gemmological Institute (IGI). There are also country-owned or private-owned institutes that have been approved to certify lab-grown diamonds.
The Origin of Your Lab Diamonds
Always care to know where your diamond jewelry comes from. Although purchasing a blood or conflict diamond can only occur when buying mined diamonds, it is vital that you know where your lab-grown diamond is coming from. As a safety-conscious jewelry buyer, avoiding unethically sourced lab-grown diamonds rids you of unnecessary legal issues in the future and puts your mind at rest.
How then would you know how a lab-grown diamond was sourced?
Research the Company or Seller
Before hitting your favorite jewelry store, you should do research about them. Where does the company or seller get its lab-grown diamonds from? Are they transparent about their supply chain processes, or are they too vague?
Reasonably related, too, it pays to research if a seller stocks lab-grown diamonds, the carat sizes they have available, and how pricey the diamond can be. All of this will inform your decision even before you’re out of your home.
A Big Discount
Like the saying goes: “nothing good comes free,” and hardly does it ever come cheap. While a highly-priced lab diamond does not automatically guarantee quality, very cheap diamonds are hardly ever true diamonds. Even if they are, they may have been unethically sourced or stolen, which could cause trouble for you.
Unlike other commodities, diamonds hardly ever sell for big discounts. This is because their prices do not readily fluctuate with seasons. Usually, diamonds sell at a relatively fixed wholesale price across several jewelry stores.
A little research online should inform you of the price range of your preferred lab-grown diamond. If you think a lab diamond is being sold too cheap, do not buy it without finding out why, or better still, avoid it altogether.
Conclusion
Buying a quality lab-grown diamond involves taking proper consideration of several things: the seller, the source, its physical and optical properties, as well as its certification(s). These factors play a large role in ensuring a lab-grown diamond is the best for its price.
Finding a trustworthy lab-grown diamond seller like BIRON® Gems and avoid buying lab-grown diamonds that go for ridiculously low prices. And lastly, never take a diamond home without obtaining proper certification.