They say diamonds are a girl’s best friend ~ and just like your actual best friend with a penchant for eating at expensive restaurants, diamonds can cost you a ton of money. Until recently, there was no better way to get the bling. Enter lab grown diamonds.
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These gems are identical to diamonds created over hundreds of years underground. The difference is lab-grown diamonds can be created in a matter of weeks. They’re about 30 percent less expensive than the mined kind and created just down the interstate in Greenville, S.C.
We talked to Gerald McGuire, president and CEO of Scio Diamond in Greenville, S.C., to find out the deets on these diamonds. Here’s what we learned.
- They aren’t Cubic Zirconia or any other diamond substitute. Gerald says Scio’s diamonds are chemically, optically and physically identical to mined diamonds. “What we manufacture here is a real diamond,” he said.
- They often have no impurities. Scio’s chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method of growing diamonds creates Type IIa diamonds, which have no (or almost no) impurities. Type IIa diamonds are so rare, they account for less than two percent of mined diamonds found in nature.
- They are socially conscious. In some parts of the world, mined diamonds are sold and used to fund armed conflict and civil wars (learn more about conflict diamonds here). Lab-grown diamonds eliminate the potentially dangerous middle man by being sold to local jewelry vendors or directly to the public.
- They’re ecologically friendly. Since Scio Diamond gems don’t come from a mine, there’s no need for digging deep into the earth and leaving behind terrestrial scars.
- They’re made in the U.S.A. That means if you buy one, your money stays local.
- They can be used for more than just jewelry. Gerald told us some manufacturing companies use Scio diamonds to mill or grind extremely hard alloys. They’re also used as prisms in lasers and optical windows in laboratory equipment.
- They are cut and graded just like mined diamonds. That means the “four Cs” you learned about while shopping for engagement rings will still come in handy if you buy a lab-grown diamond.
So how are they made?
Scio’s diamonds are grown in an intensely controlled laboratory environment. The process is pretty technical (read more about it here) but essentially it involves putting tiny diamond “seeds” into a pressurized chamber, injecting the chamber with carbon-rich gases and letting high-energy carbon rain out of a “cloud” onto the seeds, which makes them grow. Sort of like a very expensive flower garden.
Scio Diamond makes gems in colorless, pink and yellow for jewelry, as well as brown and yellow for industrial use.
Gerald said Scio sells diamonds in the rough to diamond brokers and cutters who in turn sell them to local jewelers. You can learn more about buying a Scio diamond here.
Next time you’re in the market for something sparkly, it might be worth it to consider a diamond grown in a lab like Scio’s. Your pocketbook (and the earth) will thank you.
