The allure of a lab-grown diamond, as the sparkle of mined stones fades

Photo: iStock

27 Mar 2025

Arguably, millennials care about the Earth more than the generations before them, and they are perfectly fine with a stone in their engagement ring that was not mined underground. In fact, they ask for it.

There are two kinds of people in the world today: those who would say yes to a laboratory-grown diamond, and those who are offended at the very thought of it. When the time came for me to answer the big question in December 2024, I said yes to a stone that reflects what I believe in. Will my decision put De Beers out of business? If enough people like me make the same decision, then maybe.

When my fiancé and I announced our engagement, we received the usual assortment of well wishes and felicitations, one of which stood out. “Congratulations to you both,” said an acquaintance to my fiancé, “and give Dominique my condolences.”

The last part of that message was a tongue-in-cheek reference to my engagement ring, which features a sparkling lab-grown diamond. The joke suggests that by accepting it, I somehow settled for less. But here’s the truth: the diamond was my idea. In fact, I insisted on it.

For almost a century, De Beers has done an incredibly thorough job of convincing people that the only acceptable proof of love and commitment is an expensive mined diamond. The more expensive, the bigger the commitment, right? Such is the power of the famous “Diamonds are forever” campaign that we’ve become conditioned to accept the sight of a large diamond on someone’s finger as proof of “wow, he must love you a lot”.

But the turning of the tide is coming as more members of my generation, millennials, reject this idea. A diamond is a diamond when affordability is your priority.

What’s the difference, really?

When people think of lab-grown diamonds, they often put them in the same category as cubic zirconias and moissanites – diamond alternatives that are almost as good as the real thing, but not quite.

Although cubic zirconias and moissanites may look like diamonds, they are completely different minerals, whereas lab-grown diamonds share exactly the same chemical composition as mined diamonds.

The only major difference between a mined diamond and a lab-grown diamond is the way in which it is made. Both are the product of just the right combination of carbon, heat and pressure. For a mined diamond, this process takes place underground over billions of years. For a lab-grown diamond, the same thing happens above ground in as little as six weeks.

Mined and lab-grown diamonds are as close to identical as two things can be chemically, physically and optically. Both are graded and certified by trusted organisations such as the International Gemological Institute, which means there’s no way of telling them apart just by looking at them.

lab-grown diamonds Photo: iStock

Even an expert jeweller with a loupe would not be able to say for certain whether a diamond was mined or lab-grown. The only sure-fire way to know is by testing for nitrogen. About 98% of mined diamonds contain traces of it, but lab-grown diamonds don’t.

There’s also a more subtle giveaway: perfection. Because mined diamonds form naturally, they often have tiny inclusions and slight variations in colour. Lab-grown diamonds, on the other hand, are created in a controlled environment, which means they tend to have fewer inclusions and higher clarity grades.

It speaks volumes that De Beers has given up on its own lab-grown diamond venture and instead launched retail counter scanners that can identify lab-grown diamonds. If you can’t beat them and you don’t want to join them, then point at them instead, it seems.

Settle for more

At a hearty two carats, my diamond cost a quarter of what its mined peer of the same size, colour and clarity would cost. The difference in their cost gets me and my fiancé most of the way towards a wedding budget for 80 guests.

Why the big price difference, if we have already established that the two stones are practically identical? Beyond extracting a stone deep from the bowels of the Earth being an expensive process, much of the pricing of mined diamonds is built around so-called rarity.

I say “so-called rarity” because the number of mined diamonds available is less about how many are actually extracted and more about what De Beers is willing to release on the market.

Read more: On the rocks: A lab-grown headache at Anglo American

Historically, the company has released just enough of these precious stones to meet the annual demand, thereby creating the appearance that diamonds were rarer than they actually were – and enabling it to inflate prices.

I have grudging respect for De Beers’s ability to set an inflated price and continually convince consumers to pay it. There’s a reason that “Diamonds are forever” is considered one of the most effective marketing campaigns in history.

But I don’t want to think of a marketing campaign every time I put my hands on my keyboard and see my ring catch the light. I want to feel like I got something at fair value (or as close to it as possible) and spend the difference on an experience I’ll remember, like a dream wedding or honeymoon.

All-round appeal

A study by MVI Marketing in 2018 found that millennials (those aged between 28 and 43) were warming up to lab-grown diamonds, especially for engagement rings. Nearly 70% of American millennials surveyed said they would consider a lab-grown diamond for the centre stone in their ring.

Just a year earlier it sat at 57%. Fast-forward to today, and the trend hasn’t exactly been reversed.

Previous generations like the baby boomers and Gen X wanted mined diamonds, but those generations are no longer in the engagement ring phase. Millennials are getting married now, and they want experiences more than goods. They value sustainability over tradition and financial pragmatism over brand prestige.

It feels like it should be easier to defend the high sustainability of lab-grown diamonds, but because of a lot of murkiness surrounding their actual carbon footprint, these things become quite tricky.

Some of what makes it harder is considering what would happen to the economy of Botswana if lab-grown diamonds won the race and De Beers started closing mines. Ultimately, both diamond laboratories and diamond mines can be run on renewable resources, but only one of the two makes a giant hole in the ground.

As we were taught so well by De Beers itself, it’s perception that matters.

I’ll close with this: a lot of people have made remarks to me about the lack of resale value of my lab-grown diamond. And although they are absolutely correct – lab-grown diamonds lose as much as 60% of their value in the secondhand market – I have to question the logic of this argument. After all, what’s the point of “Diamonds are forever” if forever has resale value? DM

Find Dominique Olivier’s writing here.

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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Business Maverick

What’s the difference, really?

Settle for more

All-round appeal