Exploring diamonds & gemstones through our expert insights and perspectives.
16 insights found
D to F colour chosen on price, with VVS2 clarity, is the best value for most lab-grown engagement rings. Prices by colour and clarity at 1, 2 and 3 carats from 5,265 live stones, checked 17 September 2026.
Choose IGI for most lab-grown diamonds. Since October 2025 GIA rates lab-grown stones only Premium or Standard, while IGI still prints the individual colour and clarity grades. What each report shows, checked September 2026.
For gold, carat measures purity, not weight: it tells you how many parts out of 24 are pure gold. 24ct is pure gold, 18ct is 75% gold, 9ct is 37.5% gold. Karat is the American spelling of the same measure. Diamond carat is a different unit entirely, a weight of 0.2 grams.
A lab-grown diamond lasts forever in every sense that matters. It is pure crystallised carbon, rated 10 on the Mohs hardness scale, and nothing in a human lifetime of wear degrades it. What has a lifespan is the ring around it: prong tips, rhodium plating and the band all need maintenance the stone never will.
After five years of daily wear, the moissanite itself is unchanged: silicon carbide does not cloud, yellow or soften with age. What does change is everything around it, the metal, the prongs, the rhodium, and the film of skin oil that dulls sparkle until it is cleaned. This is a material and maintenance guide, not a review of one ring.
Cut is not the shape of a diamond, it is the proportions: how the angles, depth, and symmetry let light enter the stone, bounce around, and return to your eye as sparkle. A poorly cut diamond looks dull and dead even at a high clarity or colour grade. Cut is the single most important of the 4Cs for how the stone actually looks.
Natural diamond, lab-grown diamond, and moissanite are the three stones you will actually choose between for an engagement ring. Natural and lab-grown are chemically the same material (carbon). Moissanite is a different gemstone (silicon carbide) that costs roughly 10 to 20 percent of either diamond. Here is the AUD breakdown and how each one wears.
VS2 is the smarter buy for almost every round, oval, cushion or pear under 2 carats. VS1 is worth the upgrade for step cuts (emerald, asscher) and for any stone above 2 carats. Both are eye-clean in normal viewing. Here is the full breakdown.
No. Lab-grown diamonds do not lose their sparkle, their shine, or their brilliance over time. They are the same material as a mined diamond and just as hard. When a lab diamond looks dull, the cause is a film of skin oil, soap, and lotion sitting on the stone, which cleans off in fifteen minutes.
Carat is a unit of weight (1 carat = 0.2 grams), not size. A 1 carat round diamond measures about 6.5mm across; the same weight in an oval stretches to about 8mm. Shape, cut depth, and density all change how big a stone looks for a given carat. Here is what carat weight actually buys.
The bow tie is a dark shadow shaped like a bow tie across the middle of elongated diamond shapes (oval, pear, marquise). It happens because of how light leaks through poorly aligned pavilion facets. Every oval has at least a subtle one. Whether it ruins the stone depends on how severe it is.
The fastest at-home gold tests are the hallmark check and the magnet test, which together rule out most fakes. An acid testing kit or electronic tester gives you a precise karat reading. Vinegar, bleach, and skin-discolouration tests don't reliably tell you anything.
The most reliable at-home diamond test is a dual thermal-and-electrical tester pen. The popular fog, water, and newspaper tests give you a partial answer, and none of the home methods can tell a lab-grown diamond from a natural one.
No. Lab-grown diamonds don't get cloudy with age; the crystal is inert carbon and cannot haze from the inside. The myth comes from cubic zirconia, which really does cloud up. Any haze you can see is soap, hand cream and skin oils sitting on the surface, and it cleans off in fifteen minutes.
No, not if it's a D VVS1 stone, cut well, and set in solid gold. The moissanite that looks fake online is almost always a low-grade stone in a plated setting. Here's how to tell, what to avoid, and what to say if someone asks.
GIA stopped grading lab-grown diamonds on the 4Cs scale in October 2025. They now use a simpler Premium or Standard rating, with stones below the threshold returned ungraded. Here's what changed, why, and whether it affects what you should buy.
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