Natural vs Lab-Grown Diamonds: What Is the Difference, and Which Should You Buy?

Both are diamonds. That is the short answer to the question we are asked most often at the atelier, and it is the reason the choice is harder than it looks. A lab-grown diamond has the same crystal structure, the same hardness and the same fire as a stone mined from the earth; what differs is where it came from, what it costs, and what it will be worth later. This guide sets out the differences plainly so you can decide for yourself.

What is a natural diamond?

A natural diamond is carbon crystallised under extreme heat and pressure roughly 150 kilometres below the earth's surface, over one to three billion years, and carried up by volcanic eruptions. It is mined, cut and polished. Every natural diamond is unique: its inclusions, the tiny internal features formed as it grew, are its fingerprint, and they are what a grading laboratory maps when it certifies the stone.

What is a lab-grown diamond?

A lab-grown diamond is the same carbon crystal, grown in a reactor in a matter of weeks rather than a billion years. Two methods are used: HPHT (high pressure, high temperature), which reproduces the conditions of the earth's mantle around a diamond seed, and CVD (chemical vapour deposition), which builds the crystal layer by layer from a carbon-rich gas. The result is chemically, physically and optically a diamond. It is not cubic zirconia and it is not moissanite, which are different materials that only look similar.

Are lab-grown diamonds real diamonds?

Yes. The Federal Trade Commission in the United States revised its jewellery guides in 2018 so that "diamond" no longer means only a mined stone, and the major laboratories, GIA and IGI among them, grade lab-grown diamonds on the same colour and clarity scales as natural ones. A jeweller who calls a lab-grown diamond "fake" is wrong; one who sells it without saying it is lab-grown is breaking the rules. What a lab-grown diamond is not is rare.

Can you tell them apart?

Not by eye, and not with a loupe. The traditional diamond tester, which measures thermal conductivity, reads both as diamond. Telling them apart takes laboratory equipment that reads growth patterns and trace elements, which is why every reputable lab-grown stone is laser-inscribed on its girdle with "LG" or "laboratory-grown" and its report number, and why the report itself states the origin. If you are buying either, that inscription and report are what you rely on.

Price: how much cheaper is lab-grown?

This is where the two part company. In 2020 a lab-grown diamond cost roughly 20 to 30 per cent less than a natural stone of the same grade; by 2025 the gap had widened to 70 to 90 per cent as production scaled up, and it keeps widening. A one-carat, G colour, VS clarity natural diamond and its lab-grown twin are now priced in different worlds. The corollary is that lab-grown prices have fallen year on year, and are expected to keep falling as the cost of growing them drops.

Resale value

A natural diamond holds a resale value tied to a scarce supply; it will never be worth what you paid at retail, but it retains a meaningful proportion of it. A lab-grown diamond has almost no resale market, because a new one can always be grown for less than the old one sold for. If a piece is bought as an heirloom or with any thought of value later, this is the difference that matters most. If it is bought to be worn and enjoyed, it may not matter at all.

Sustainability and ethics

Lab-grown diamonds avoid mining, but growing them takes a great deal of electricity, and how clean that electricity is depends on where the reactor stands. Natural diamonds carry the history of the trade, and the Kimberley Process and industry chain-of-custody schemes exist to keep conflict stones out of it. Neither is automatically the ethical choice; the honest answer is to ask where a stone comes from, whichever kind it is. We cover this in Ethically sourced diamonds: what the terms mean.

Which should you buy?

Choose a natural diamond when the piece is meant to last generations, when its rarity is part of what you are giving, or when resale value matters. Choose lab-grown when the priority is size and brilliance for the money, for a fashion piece you will wear hard, or when you simply prefer it. Both deserve a proper setting: the gold around the stone is what you touch every day, and a lab-grown stone in solid 18K gold will outlast a natural one in plated metal.

What Aquae Jewels sets

Our pieces are set with natural diamonds as standard, selected at G–H colour and VS clarity, re-checked in our own Dubai workshop, with provenance documentation kept for every stone and available on request. On selected designs, such as the tennis necklaces, a lab-grown option can be chosen at order and is stated as such on the product page and the certificate. In either case the gold is solid 18K (750 hallmark), and every piece ships with its certificate of authenticity and a five-year warranty.

Frequently asked questions

Do lab-grown diamonds test as real?

Yes. A standard thermal tester cannot distinguish them; only laboratory instruments can, which is why the laser inscription and report matter.

Do lab-grown diamonds get cloudy or lose their sparkle?

No. They are diamond, with the same hardness (10 on the Mohs scale) and the same optical properties; they do not fade or cloud.

Is a lab-grown diamond a good engagement ring?

If size and brilliance for the budget matter more than rarity and resale, yes. If the ring is meant to hold value or be passed down, a natural stone is the conventional choice.

Which is more ethical?

Neither by default. Ask for the origin of a natural stone and the energy source of a lab-grown one; a jeweller who can answer both is the one to buy from.