Lab Grown vs Natural Diamonds

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Prepare to be dazzled as we uncover the shimmering truths behind the sparkle on your finger! It's Tommy Heitz here, taking you on a journey from the earth's fiery belly to the cutting-edge labs where diamonds are born. We're entering a debate that's as old as the stones themselves: natural versus lab-grown diamonds. Fasten your seatbelts and tune in for an episode filled with billion-year-old secrets, modern marvels, and everything in between.

Get ready to explore the miraculous formation of natural diamonds and their epic voyage to become the coveted treasures we cherish. Each diamond is a unique phenomenon, yet behind the allure lies a trail of environmental and ethical quandaries. But the story doesn't end there; we're also lighting up the lab-grown scene, where science works its magic to craft these gems sustainably and ethically, without the heavyweight price tag. Whether you're a millennial searching for an eco-conscious choice or simply a lover of all things that glitter, this is an episode that cuts right to the heart of the diamond debate. No guests are joining us this time around; just pure, unfiltered brilliance straight from the source—so tune in and let's get sparkling!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Do you ever lift your head up from your phone, look
around and think to yourself myGod, everything is weird.
Well, we do A lot.
This is the Observation Station, a unique, entertaining and
hilarious podcast.

(00:21):
If we observe it, we talk aboutit.
Anything and everything,anything and everything.
Let's get weird and let's havesome fun.
This is the Observation Stationand now your host, tommy
Heights.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Observation Station
.
I'm your host, tommy Heights,bringing you another sparkling
episode.
Today we're diving into theglittering world of diamonds.
But wait, these aren't just anydiamonds.
We're talking about the age olddebate of natural versus lab
grown diamonds.
So let's shine a light on thisgem of a topic and see what's

(01:07):
really at the heart of thesedazzling stones.
So first up, natural diamonds, amiracle of nature, the beauties
.
They're just more than justlike a pretty gemstone.
They're formed within the earth, deep, deep, deep inside the
earth, for billions of years,under extreme heat and pressure.

(01:28):
It's like nature's very ownhigh pressure cooking show, but
way, way slower and more intense.
That's how billions of years,you know, happens.
So what's fascinating is thejourney these diamonds make from
the depths of the earth to ourjewelry.
It involves volcanic eruptions,geographical shifts and, yes, a

(01:49):
whole lot of waiting, but theresults.
Each diamond is unique.
It's like a snowflake there'snever two that are created.
The same, with its own set ofcharacteristics, is what
jewelers call the four C's whichis cut, color, clarity and
carrot.
But here's where it getsintriguing.
The process of mining thesenatural wonders is well not

(02:13):
without its challenges.
So it's resource intensive andis raised environmental and
ethical concerns.
Over the years you might havebeen seeing the movie Blood
Diamond that had Leo DiCaprio onthere in the early 2000s, which
had made it where a lot ofpeople said, oh, I don't want to
be part of this industry whichis causing so much harm in

(02:35):
Africa.
You know, having it wherepeople are dying just to get
this for my jewelry, I feel badthat I'm wearing this kind of
ring.
That has the ethicalimplications behind it.
So you're fast forwarding intoa new age of diamonds.
Now a lot of people in my agegroup I'm going to be turning 30

(02:57):
here next month, in Februarythe millennials are looking
towards something that is green,ethical, sustainable I mean
everything that you want to have.
That's a plus, which is theopposite in the natural diamonds
which comes from lab grown Now,lab grown.
When we shift gears, science hasgiven us a way to create these

(03:19):
sparklers above the ground.
The process replicates whathappens beneath the Earth's
surface, but it's done in a labOver a few weeks or months, not
billions of years.
There's two main methods Highpressure, high temperature, hpht
and chemical vapor depositionCVD.

(03:43):
So both techniques mimic thenatural conditions that form
diamonds, producing stones thatare chemically and physically
identical to natural diamonds.
So even expert gemologists thatneed specialized equipment to
say, oh well, these are labgrown and these are natural,
which is sometimes the issue.
If you have a diamond tester,sometimes the cheap ones you

(04:06):
come up to it have it where thediamonds get tested they show up
being, but it could be whereit's a lab grown stone, so you
won't even know the difference,where it has to have a different
piece of technology to show thedifference between a natural
and a lab grown diamond.
So the big selling point labgrown diamonds are often
marketed as more sustainable andan ethical choice.

(04:27):
They require less mining, whichmeans reduced environmental
footprint.
Lab grown diamonds aregenerally more affordable than
the natural counterparts by along shot.
So there's a lot of differentthings that people may say why
they want to buy one more thanthe other.
The biggest thing for lab grownis, first off, the price way,

(04:47):
way, way less expensive.
When you're in this industry,like I am in the lab grown
diamond space, many people maywant to have it.
To say a word like synthetics,which years before 2020, when
the Federal Trade Commission hadsaid look, now we need to

(05:08):
legitimize the lab growndiamonds as real diamonds, as
long as they are clearly statedlab grown or man made to
differentiate.
You don't want to have it wheresomebody, if they were dead set
on saying, I only want the realearth thing because there's
nothing like what earth creates,to each their own.

(05:28):
From there, it is very simpleto say, ok, well, this is what
that person wants, even if youshow them the less expensive
identical stone and it's notcreated by earth.
Some people just have that.
It's not a problem.
I mean, everyone wants theirown product.
But how?
How do they stack up againsteach other in terms of like, the

(05:51):
sparkle and the appearance?
They're virtuallyindistinguishable and both can
be cut and polished to highstandards, ensuring that
dazzling brilliance we all love.
Price wise lab grown diamondstypically cost less, but here's
the catch Natural diamonds oftenhold their value better over
time.
Now, that's the classic debateof rarity versus accessibility,

(06:14):
though lab diamonds to be in theretail and consumer kind of in
the forefront of it has onlybeen since maybe like 2017,
because lab diamonds have beenaround for a long time, since
around the fifties, but they'reused more for tools like drill
bits and things of that nature.
So there's a perception Somepeople cherish the natural

(06:37):
diamond for its ancientgeological story and others
appreciate the innovation andethical assurances of lab grown
diamonds and it's a personalchoice, really.
So, as an account executive inthis space, I want to just to
have it where I could explain toyou a couple of differences
that I've noticed.
When you come in to a jewelrystore, a lot of people that are

(07:00):
getting engaged or buying asignificant other piece of
jewelry have no idea what'sgoing on.
Some of the jewelers might wantto hand them the loop L-O-U-P-E
, which is a magnifying glass.
So this is what you see.
A lot of people you know, maybein the movies or something when
they hold that magnifying glassin front of their eye when
they're inspecting a diamond.
I was seeing Marcus Lamanus onStreets of Dreams.

(07:23):
He was telling one of thejewelers on 47th Street in New
York, honestly, he's like everytime I see somebody using that
magnifying glass, I thinkthey're full of shit.
And the jeweler honestly hadtold him he goes.
Some people are, though it's theway that you understand the
business as a whole Just becausesomething might say, hey, it's

(07:45):
this color will say, maybe likea brilliant round, because
rounds are extremely common.
Rounds are what most peoplewould think of in diamond sense
is a round diamond and you say,okay, the diamond has this much
carrot weight, it's this colorand this clarity.
Why is it more expensive overhere than over in this retailer?

(08:07):
That could be a sense of justmarkup.
But if it's a person that holdspretty good prices in the
diamond world and they say, okay, well, why is this stone worth
more?
A lot of other factors are notput into place.
Where the consumer just wantsto see is a layman's terms
version of what the sales personis explaining.
What color is it?

(08:29):
What clarity?
A lot of times the peoplebuying the rings.
When I try to go a little bittoo in depth explaining it to
people, some people just say Idon't really care about all that
.
To be honest, I just am lookingat the price.
That's respectable.
When somebody is looking atjust the price, they have a

(08:50):
budget.
Not everybody has a budget.
When you're looking atengagement rings, a lot of times
people can say, hey, threemonths of salary, some people
say two months.
It's whatever it is.
Figuring what the diamond ismeaning behind that as a story
or a symbol of connection is acompletely different thing A lot
of times when you explain topeople how diamonds cost this

(09:13):
much and this much, they're likeit doesn't even matter,
diamonds are worthless.
Yeah, go into a jewelry store.
Tell them can you hand me a bagfull of diamonds they're
worthless anyways and just putmy name on it, we'll see how
that works.
Everything in its own right isworth what people will pay for
it.
Now the diamond prices havegone down drastically from a few

(09:37):
years ago because the lab-growndiamond market has brought down
the natural prices, whichpeople that are in the natural
space a lot of times are sayingoh my God, these lab diamonds,
these synthetics which is reallya synthetic?
When they throw it around nowas more of a derogatory word is
saying that you're kind ofsecond rate, farthest thing from

(09:57):
the truth.
So people like to say thingsthat down other ways of creating
the diamonds because they mighthave had a jewelry store.
That's five generations.
They've been around since 1907and done natural diamonds since
forever.
So now they're seeing the newguy on the block that is less
expensive and more affordable toa wider group of people.

(10:20):
They're like oh well, this isjust costume jewelry because
they were trying to have it.
We're back in the day.
It was the allure of the diamondthat only the wealthiest can
get to these beautiful gemstones.
And now it's a more accessiblegemstone for the people that are
saying, hey look, I don't wannaspend 29,000 or 50,000, why not
spend X, y, z amount?

(10:42):
That is much, much, much less.
That is a choice that ispersonal.
Again, it comes back to thatbecause it might be where the
person was set.
I need to have a natural mindstone.
However, it is no matter.
Even if you show that they canget a nicer cut, clarity,
everything included in a labgrown diamond, they still are
set in their ways.

(11:02):
There's no reason, when someonehas a perception, especially if
you're in sales, to say, heylook, just because you want this
doesn't mean you're right whentwo or three times they've
explained that this is justsomething that they wanna do in
natural.
Okay, fine.
I mean, in the end, whether youlean towards the billion year

(11:24):
old Marvel that's the natural orthe modern lab created wonder.
It's clear both have theirsparkle.
It's about what the sparklemeans to you as the individual.
The story, the science, maybe abit of both.
And hey, who knows, maybe inthe future we'll have diamonds
that grows on Mars.
That's a story for another day.

(11:44):
So next time, on theobservation station, we're gonna
explore something that's out ofthis world.
Literally, we'll be talkingabout the latest advancements in
space tourism.
So you ever fancy a holidayamong the stars?
Well, grab your space suit andjoin me next week and find out
how this sci-fi dream isbecoming a reality.

(12:06):
Till then, keep looking up andstay curious.
Everybody Take it easy.

Speaker 1 (12:13):
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