More engagement rings have lab created diamonds

See This Wedding Season, Diamonds Face a Challenge: Man-made stones are falling in price and appealing to more shoppers who also see them as a socially conscious purchase by Suzanne Kapner of The WSJ. Excerpts:

"More than a third of all engagement rings with center stones purchased last year were created in a lab, according to an online survey of nearly 12,000 U.S. couples by wedding-planning website The Knot. That’s double the number from 2020."

"As the technology to make lab-grown diamonds has improved, production has increased and retail prices are falling. Their growing popularity, especially among younger consumers, has caught the attention of jewelers and watchmakers — and is challenging traditional diamonds that are mined from the earth.

It’s not just engagement rings. Diamonds grown in a lab accounted for 13.6% of the $88.6 billion in diamond jewelry sold globally in 2022, up from less than 1% in 2015 where they had hovered since the early 2000s"

"Lab-grown and mined diamonds look the same, unless viewed through sophisticated equipment that measures how the gems interact with light.  

Some consumers want lab-grown diamonds because they view them as more socially and environmentally sustainable. But price is also a factor. Man-made diamonds retail for about a quarter of the price of  traditional diamonds"

"The retail price of a one-carat man-made diamond has been dropping; it declined by about 74% since 2015"

"As of early this year, a 1 carat lab-grown diamond retailed for $1,430 compared with $5,635 for the same-size mined diamond."

"Their appeal, according to lab-diamond makers, is that they cause less environmental and human damage than mining diamonds from the earth as well as their cheaper price."

"the Federal Trade Commission issued guidelines in 2018 that essentially say lab-grown diamonds are in fact real diamonds"

"According to a new report by the group (Natural Diamond Council), more than 60% of lab-grown diamonds are made in China and India, where climate-polluting coal is the major power source."

"Proponents of man-made diamonds say growing diamonds in a lab helps stamp out conflict diamonds, or diamonds mined in war-torn regions and used to fund insurgencies. The mining industry says it traces the origins of diamonds to help stop the flow of conflict diamonds under what is called the Kimberley Process."

"Producers and sellers of lab-grown diamonds say, “Mining is catastrophic to ecosystems, the environment and its indigenous people,”  according to a report by an independent researcher at Imperial College London that was commissioned by lab-diamond maker Skydiamond. Land disturbance is the most lasting and visible environmental impact of mining, but it can also cause water contamination, displace wildlife and contribute to global warming due to deforestation, the report says."

Related posts:

Is it okay to propose to your sweetheart with a diamond that was made in some drab office park? (2017)

Diamonds, From Your Ring to Your iPhone (and will people start buying engagement rings with man made diamonds?) (2023)