Natural, Synthetic or Simulant?

• by Kevin Kliaman
• 24th March 2022
• 35 Comments

I’ve been buying and selling diamonds since 1985. Observing the market as it evolves with new technology has always been intriguing to me.
Most in my line of work look back on the period when Cubic Zirconia was introduced with a tinge of humor as the qualities of early CZ’s merely resembled  a true diamond and, the cost for a 1 carat CZ was only a few dollars while visually detecting one of these stones took a fraction of a second to a trained eye. The next commercial iteration of simulant was Moissanite; a super bright and hard lab grown stone which was able to pass diamond testers due to its unique chemical composition.

Fast forward to 2018, simulant diamonds have been on the market for a few years now and, the processes used to grow them have radically evolved. The quality of finished items have dramatically improved with hardnesses and brilliance approaching that of a high quality natural diamond at a very competitive price.

To a casual observer, 100% lab grown diamonds now possess almost all of the same qualities as a true natural diamond. Trained gemologists however, have little difficulty detecting the difference between all types of diamonds by using specialized tools which test the electrical conductivity of, and, refraction of light through the stone at various temperatures and wavelngths.

My opinion of Lab Grown diamonds has changed dramatically since their introduction to the market. I owe my change of heart to you, my clients. The long term success that National Jewel Creations has become is thanks to listening to and understanding consumer demands.

In a nutshell, if you want to save money or just get a bigger diamond on your budget, who am I to argue? We now buy the biggest and best lab grown diamonds for you, as we do for naturally mined diamonds. We’ve even sold lab grown diamonds to some of the biggest diamond dealers in the industry.

We know lab grown diamonds are here to stay and now offer these as a budget friendly option to clients who request them in order to increase the size of stones on your ring within your budget.

In summary:  there’s essentially 3 classes of stones sold as diamonds for jewellery:

• Natural Diamond – Mined from the earths crust and formed by geological processes over centuries, composed entirely of a carbon crystal matrix.
• Lab Grown Diamonds – Grown in a lab by either a high-pressure high-temperature (HPHT) process or a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process which creates a diamond from pure carbon.
• Simulant Diamonds – A type of lab grown synthetic stone composed of other elements like zirconium dioxide for Cubic Zircona and silicon carbide for Moissanite.