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Lab-grown diamonds and natural diamonds can both be incredibly beautiful, but they have many key different advantages and disadvantages that may affect your long-term satisfaction with your purchase.

Let’s look at a few of these pros and cons of lab-grown diamonds to help you make the most informed decision about your purchase.

What Are Lab-Grown Diamonds?

Lab-grown diamonds, also known as man-made diamonds, are a kind of stone that is grown in a controlled laboratory environment. They’re made using technological processes that mimic the conditions under which true diamonds are formed.

Typically, they’re made of carbon atoms that are arranged into diamond crystals, and they share many similarities with true diamonds.

Pros of Lab-Grown Diamonds

There are many benefits to purchasing lab-grown diamonds for your jewelry–let’s look at two of their key advantages here.

Lab-Grown Diamonds Are Technically “Real”

Just because a diamond comes with the label “lab-grown” doesn’t mean it’s fake. On the contrary, lab-grown diamonds are essentially the same thing as real diamonds. They’re made with the same materials using similar processes.

The biggest difference is that they’re made in a controlled environment rather than in the earth.

Lab-Grown Diamonds Are Less Expensive

While real diamonds–especially those termed “colorless” or “near-colorless” can be incredibly expensive, lab-grown diamonds are often a much cheaper alternative. They aren’t inexpensive stones by any means, but they provide buyers with a cheaper, realistic alternative to natural stones.

The biggest reason for this price difference lies in the natural stones’ rarity. Real diamonds are very limited in number and are fully dependent on nature. Lab-grown stones can be made in any properly outfitted space which makes them more abundant and readily available.

Cons of Lab-Grown Diamonds

While there are a couple of excellent advantages to purchasing a lab-grown diamond, there is a key disadvantage you should consider before moving ahead with your purchase.

Lab-Grown Diamonds May Not Be a Good Investment

One of the biggest benefits of purchasing natural stones is that they retain their value over time. In fact, many stones increase in value as they age. The same can not be said of lab-grown stones.

Growing diamonds in a lab requires technology that is currently expensive to process, which gives it a significant amount of value in today’s society. However, as with many advances in technology, the longer it’s around, the less valuable it will become.

This is because technology is always advancing and processes are always being streamlined. Soon, the expensive methods used now to grow diamonds in labs may become relatively inexpensive and more accessible to the public, which will in turn reduce the value of existing lab-grown stones.

Key Takeaways

Lab-grown diamonds have a lot of appeals–especially to diamond lovers on a budget. They are technically real diamonds and have many of the same properties and advantages that real stones have. Their only big disadvantage is that they are not natural stones and are instead technologically created which may result in their loss of value over time.

If you’re interested in learning more about lab-grown diamonds, or if you want to speak to one of our top-tier experts about diamond jewelry, don’t wait–contact us today!