When I founded Mar\u00e9, I wanted to be able to tell every customer exactly where their stone came from. With mined diamonds, even good ones, the honest answer is often a long chain of traders. With lab-grown diamonds, the answer is a single grower, a single date and a certificate number. That was the beginning of the decision.<\/p>\n
A lab-grown diamond is a real diamond. It is pure carbon arranged in the same cubic crystal structure as a mined stone, with the same hardness of 10, the same refractive index and the same fire. It is not a simulant like cubic zirconia or moissanite. Without specialist equipment, no jeweller can tell the difference.<\/p>\n
Stones are grown in one of two ways. In CVD (chemical vapour deposition), a thin diamond seed is placed in a chamber of carbon-rich gas, and carbon atoms settle onto it layer by layer. In HPHT (high pressure, high temperature), the conditions deep in the earth are recreated in a press. Either way, a rough crystal grows in a few weeks rather than a few billion years, and is then cut and polished exactly like a mined stone.<\/p>\n
\nBecause the stone costs less, we can spend more on the cut. And the cut is what you actually see.<\/p>\n