Lab-Grown Diamond Directions

Despite dropping prices, lab-grown diamonds are still in big demand with many consumers. Jewelry retailers say their shoppers don’t care—they just want a bigger diamond look for their money.

“For a lab-grown diamond buyer, it’s all about price,” Jeremy Auslander of Roxbury Jewelers in Beverly Hills recently told INSTORE magazine. “The customer looks at a 1-carat natural diamond for $5,000 and a 3-carat lab grown for $2,000 and says, ‘Why would I pay more than double for something one-third the size?’”

By some estimates, half of all diamonds sold in the U.S. now are lab grown—a skyrocketing sum compared to six years ago, according to Edahn Golan of Edahn Golan Diamond Research & Data.

Ostbye

No matter their popularity, De Beers is getting out of the lab-grown diamond jewelry business. It announced in June 2024 that it would only manufacture lab-grown diamonds for industrial purposes, abandoning its line of $500 per carat lab-grown diamond designs. Other makers will certainly continue to set them in various fine-jewelry styles, but the drop in pricing is prompting many to revisit mined diamonds or simply be grateful they never went down the lab-grown diamond path. Just as there is a market for lab-grown, there is a “purist” set of consumers who only want natural mined diamonds.

“SHEFI Diamonds primarily focuses on natural diamond jewelry,” explains Surbhi Jain, marketing director. “The evolving market for lab-grown diamonds continues to redefine consumer expectations. With the drop-in lab-grown diamond prices, overall production costs have decreased, allowing us to maintain a competitive edge while emphasizing natural diamonds.”

Jewelry manufacturer Heavy Stone Rings uses both natural and lab-growns in its body of work but sets them into different metals.

                       GSI

“Lab-grown diamonds can be found in our modern metal pieces and natural in precious metals,” explains Shawn Clark, co-owner and business development manager. [Modern metals include tungsten and carbon fiber, among others.] “One of my favorite rings is our Gent’s Engagement band. It’s a showstopper featuring a 2-carat lab-grown diamond.”

Ostbye has a collection of bridal and fashion rings, pendants, and earrings featuring lab-grown diamonds, but they are not a focus for the brand.

“We make it available for those that would like to carry it in their stores,” says Theresa Namie, merchandise manager. “We make fewer styles in lab-grown and focus more on mined diamond designs. Price fluctuation is the biggest issue in lab-grown products.”

Detecting lab-grown diamonds versus mined ones is another hill to climb for the industry. There are tools that retailers can use in store to help, but gem labs can provide more peace of mind.

Ostbye

“The role of a lab partner in screening, testing, and detecting undisclosed laboratory-grown diamonds is more critical than ever in maintaining the trust and integrity of the diamond industry,” observes Debbie Azar, president and co-founder, Gem Science International (GSI).

The volume of goods that GSI sees also enables it to see another aspect of their influence on the industry—“how laboratory-grown diamonds are pushing the boundaries of design and creativity, with innovations in colors and cut designs that are not possible with natural diamonds due to size or cost,” notes Azar.

 

Recent Posts