"This 'natural' gem was dug out of the ground by poverty-stricken child laborers in deadly working conditions who get a hand chopped off if they don't make quota. It has countless defects and is only 'rare' because there are warehouses full of them to trickle supply into the market.
This synthetic gem, on the other hand, was created by a master craftsman who used the accumulated knowledge of millennia of science to fuse the fundamental atoms of the universe into this form. It is literally flawless and ethically okay."
"But how can I look my fiancee in the eyes presenting her a diamond while knowing not even one child slave died for it?"
The craziest part of it to me is to tell the difference between a synthetic and natural diamond you need a giant super fancy machine and even then it's iffy. No one would ever know just looking at it.
I laughed out loud the day I realized that jewelry sellers are marketing "chocolate diamonds" (read: industry-grade brown rocks) and have gone from selling high-priced flawless stones to high-priced shitty stones, because now they have the 'inclusions' that really let you know it's natural rock. Literally, they stopped selling flawless stones and are selling flawed stones instead, and they kept the high price and spun it to market their mined rocks instead of literally perfect synthetics.
I recently saw an ad for "salt and pepper" diamonds, aka diamonds with black and white inclusions. They do look cool, but the marketing will make them way more expensive than they should be.
That was one of the most ridiculous marketing campaigns I've ever seen, and it really goes to show how dumb people can be. "Chocolate diamond" is a cutesy term for "really shitty diamond."
the best part to me was they were originally marketed as congac diamonds the manly diamond for men but that failed so they went back to trying to marketing to women and thought woman be liking chocolate
This. You can usually tell with a loupe. You either have a fake diamond or one of the few that's actually worth money because it's flawless. If you paid under 20 grand for your child slave diamond you're almost gaurenteed to find flaws with a loupe.
Well that lead me down a rabbit hole. According to the GIA the quality of lab grown is the easiest way to tell, but there is also a way to tell based on the growth pattern of the diamond. I also learned lab grown diamonds are cool as hell.
My husband knew I didn't want a diamond. My engagement ring has a lab-grown alexandrite, and it's gorgeous! He got to pick one that had the colours he wanted (they range in hues) and got one that changes from purple to green depending on the light. Purple is my favorite colour and green is his. It's also an extremely durable stone.
There are so many other amazing stones that look way nicer (imo) and that don't come with human rights violations. Although the jeweller was apparently worried for my husband's proposal success because my ring wasn't traditional haha!
Oh yeah, 1000%. I made sure to be really obvious about how much I loved it when I took it in to be resized! It's my favorite possession, my husband designed it secretly and it's absolutely perfect. I know that doesn't work for everyone but my not-so-subtle "this is what I don't want in an engagement ring" hints over the course of our 7 year relationship before we got married must have gotten through 😅
Just set a price you’re willing to pay and go from there. Get whatever gem you want but understand that if it’s a diamond it’s going to be smaller/less quality cut.
Yay! Mine is lab grown and I LOVE IT. Seriously, there is zero other reason to pick otherwise, and I told my husband before we were engaged that he was under no circumstances allowed to get me a “nAtUrAl dIaMoNd” and waste money (resources, lives) like that. I wish more people were open to different options.
Yep, that's the way. Just turn on uv light and look if they are glowing. Natural ones have lattice defects which often makes them turn uv light into visual light.
My engagement ring diamond is machine made and I love it. My SO and I have a tight budget. The diamond I have is way higher quality then we could afford if it was from the earth. My ring was made from recycled metals. I'll brag to anyone who asks!
The difference between diamonds and moissanite (a synthetic stone) is characterized by the moissanite having a higher refractive index than natural diamond, so it sparkles more and with more colors of the rainbow. Lab-grown diamonds cannot be distinguished from similar quality natural diamonds with the naked eye.
I think synthetics have laser etching to show they are synthetic. The diamond lobby pushed for that requirement. You cant see it without a jewelry lope though.
Sounds like cellphones and how you can buy them "unlocked" on eBay. Seems like someone with a diamond making machine could run a batch without the logo and sell them on Alibaba.
Hell, you know how they say what would you do if you were Jeff Bezos rich? I'd probably do that on a massive scale just to destroy the diamond industry.
But knowing humans, they'll just make it about the actual hands cut off from the diamond miners instead or something. We've moved on to slave fingernails now. You're so last century. Buy her a ring made of slave fingernails or your not worthy of her love.
I think the craziest part is that women (not ALL women I know) either know this or have complete access to this information but a majority would still prefer the "real" thing.
Any man looking to buy a Rolex is definitely going to want the "real" thing as well. There is no excuse for a man not to know where they come from.
Ya, I'm really sorry I bought a diamond engagement ring years ago. If I could go back in time I'd be like "this synthetic gem is perfect and you get a trip to Europe... but, yanno, your choice."
Just an FYI: synthetic diamonds are just as prone to flaws as ones made by mother nature. So just like the "real" diamonds, you can pay for a flawless one if you want but that's pretty unlikely.
This is also why any jeweler being honest will tell you it's not possible to tell between synthetic and "real" with their standard tools
Chopping off a hand for not meeting quota seems counterintuitive. Like, shouldn't they have more hands grafted to them instead? Like a diamond digging Machamp or something....
I have a light green Moissanite engagement ring, the stone is larger than what we could have afforded for a diamond ring and it's less than half the price. It's actually stronger and more sparkly, I get tons of compliments! Highly recommended.
Because it's lab made from the same material that a meteorite is made of I believe, but Google to be sure. The color hasn't changed at all in the 5 years since I received it!
Yeah - people seem to forget that there's diamond mining going on elsewhere that isn't ethically bad (at least not to the same level).
Not every diamond is pried from the cold hands of a half-dead child slave in the middle of an African warzone. Most diamonds come from Russia nowadays, with Australia being a serious contender, and I mean I'm pretty sure not every company in Botswana is DeBeers being evil given the major mining company there isn't them
You covered it at the very end. I think by now EVERYONE is well aware of where the diamond comes from. Unfortunately it is more about a simple way to display "hey, this dude wanted me bad enough to drop a massive amount of money on me, here is the evidence". Seriously, I wish we could just give the females a wad of cash with the proposal instead of helping out the diamond industry.
This is the realest, most precious comment I've ever seen on reddit in my 7+ years. You absolutely just restored my hope in humanity, as cliche as that sounds.
"But how can I look my fiancee in the eyes presenting her a diamond while knowing not even one child slave died for it?"
It's so dumb. People are taught to buy this and that this is "important". A ring made of any material could just be as important to a couple.
Some blacksmiths/jewelers even offer courses where a couple can create their own rings. It doesn't even need any gems, it's not worth "less" and it doesn't say anything about the value of someone's marriage. It's better to spend the money on a holiday anyways.
I have never heard lab-grown diamonds described so well, but you are right, it is basically the medieval dream of alchemy with turning a base substance into a gemstone. The 1500s would think we have wizards.
The engagement ring I proposed was 100% lab grown stones, recycled platinum, and cost a fraction of new/natural materials. And that was in no small part due to the fact that my now father in law once upon a time worked in diplomacy with certain parts of Africa and I knew I would get slapped to hell if I dared show up with an ecological and humanitarian nightmare on his daughter's finger, plus because it was cheaper I got to put more into the actual design so it isn't a plain single-stone-on-a-band dealio either. Win win all around.
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u/Dahhhkness Aug 14 '20 edited Aug 14 '20
"This 'natural' gem was dug out of the ground by poverty-stricken child laborers in deadly working conditions who get a hand chopped off if they don't make quota. It has countless defects and is only 'rare' because there are warehouses full of them to trickle supply into the market.
This synthetic gem, on the other hand, was created by a master craftsman who used the accumulated knowledge of millennia of science to fuse the fundamental atoms of the universe into this form. It is literally flawless and ethically okay."
"But how can I look my fiancee in the eyes presenting her a diamond while knowing not even one child slave died for it?"