Lab Created Diamonds, Moissanite, Natural Diamonds; What’s right for you

One of the biggest trends in jewelry these days is lab created diamonds. With origins in the 1950s, this product was only used for industrial purposes up until the last decade. Then, as now, you needed a natural diamond seed to grow something larger. Now, you can get high quality specimens in larger sizes for jewelry. With that in mind, how do lab created diamonds compare with their similar natural counterparts? Do lab diamonds deliver in terms of environmental or social responsibility? Are they a great investment? Let’s take a look.

Origins of Lab Diamonds

It is well known by geologists that natural diamonds are the result of carbon getting compressed at high temperatures and pressure in Earth’s crust. For scientists to make an artificial version, they need to replicate the natural formation process closely enough that the resulting product has the same basic properties as diamonds. That means that it must be essentially pure carbon crystal with a hardness of 10. This has been achieved in two different w