A lab-grown diamond starts as a thin slice of diamond, called a seed. It is grown by one of two methods. In chemical vapor deposition (CVD), a carbon-rich gas is broken down so carbon atoms settle onto the seed, layer by layer. In high pressure, high temperature growth (HPHT), carbon is dissolved in molten metal under the pressure and heat at which diamond forms in the earth, and crystallizes onto the seed. Either way, the result is diamond: carbon atoms locked in the same cubic lattice as a mined stone.

A lab-grown diamond has the same chemical, physical and optical properties as a mined diamond: the same hardness, the same refractive index, the same fire. It is graded on the same scales for cut, color, clarity and carat. The difference is where it came from, which is why it is always described as lab-grown.

Because none of our diamonds are mined, none of them come with the questions that surround mined stones about where they came from and who was affected along the way.

Where a piece includes an IGI grading report, its product page says so; the report records the stone’s characteristics independently of us.