If you always wanted a blue diamond for your engagement ring but thought they would be way too expensive, it’s time to take another look. There is now another alternative for fancy colored diamonds and that is “Created Diamonds”.
Created Diamonds are 100% real diamonds created in the laboratory. Unlike “mined” diamonds, where fancy colored diamonds are quite rare, in the laboratory it is actually easier to make fancy colored diamonds than white diamonds!
The upside is that you can now have a blue diamond for around the same price as a white diamond.
Right now, there are only a few diamond laboratories that make “gem quality” diamonds and only a few places where you can buy them.
Depending on the amount of boron, the diamond will have different intensities of blue. Fancy colored blue diamonds are graded on a scale ranging from: Light Blue to Fancy Vivid Blue.
Mined blue diamonds are extremely rare and can sell for anywhere between $200,000 to $500,000 a carat. Lab grown blue diamonds, in comparison, will sell for much less than 1/10 the price of a mined diamond.
Lab created diamonds are 100% Real Diamonds, grown under highly controlled laboratory conditions of extreme pressure and heat that duplicate how a diamond grows within the earth’s crust. So lab created diamonds are identical to “mined” diamonds, except that in nature it took a few million years, it now only takes a few weeks! Lab created diamonds are also certified by respected gemological laboratories such as GIA.
On the other hand, Diamond simulants, such as moissanite and cubic zirconia, are imitation diamond look-alikes and are not made out of true carbon crystals. Simulants have different physical and chemical properties than real diamonds and should sell at a much lower price.
One must be careful, as sites pushing simulants may not mention the words cubic zirconia or moissanite but instead try to confuse the issue by using terms such as “lab created” as if they were real diamonds. One distinction is that simulants are not GIA certified.
Currently, worldwide, the only laboratories making lab created diamonds are: Apollo Diamonds, New Age Diamonds and Gemesis Diamonds. And there are only a few companies in the world that sell lab created diamonds.
The most rare of all gemstones is the red diamond. In fact, no more than 20 to 30 mined red diamonds are known to exist, and most of these are under 1/2 carat and are selling on the range of $1 million per carat. However today, thanks to the laboratory, you can now own a laboratory grown red diamond for not much more than the price of a white diamond. At left is a 1.28 ct Fancy Deep Red Loose Cultured Princess Cut Diamond that sells for under $11,000.
In nature, a blue colored diamond appears blue due to trace amounts of boron within the crystal structure. Lab grown Blue Diamonds also get their color from boron. As a diamond grows, small amounts of boron are added, which become trapped in the diamond’s crystal structure.
Another benefit of lab grown blue diamonds is that they are environmentally friendly and conflict free.
The most famous of all blue colored diamonds is the Hope Diamond. Considered by many as the “most famous diamond in the world”, it has a color described as a “fancy dark greyish-blue” and has an unusual brilliant red phosphorescence. It’s clarity is VS1.
The Hope Diamond was originally 112.25 carats but has since been re-cut to 45.52 carats as determined by the GIA.