Tag grown diamonds

Ahead of the holiday season, Pandora builds on its existing lab-grown diamond jewelry, debuting a trio of new collections that combine high-quality craftsmanship with environmentally-conscious design.

In an effort to “democratize” diamonds through ethical means, the latest jewelry pieces feature lab-grown stones with the same color, cut, clarity and carat as their mined counterparts, making them more affordable whilst also having a lower carbon footprint. Crafted using 100% renewable energy with 100% recycled silver and gold, Pandora presents three distinctive designs that shape the individual collections, named Nova, Era and Talisman.

Pandora Nova aims to showcase the unending sparkle of lab-grown diamonds. With each piece taking on a four-prong setting, the round and princess-cut stones are able to capture and refract surrounding light from each angle. This design is replicated in chains, studs and a 14 carat gold ring. Whilst Nova takes on a contemporary look, the Pandora Era collection subscribes to a classic feel featuring a minimalistic bezel setting. An understated array of single drop pendants as well as three-set stones arrive in a mix of 14 carat white gold and yellow gold.

Making a statement amongst the line-up is the Pandora Talisman collection. Comprised of five pendant designs – including a heart, star, moon and horseshoe – the respective pieces bring a luxurious take on Pandora charms with a touch of individuality running through each piece. The pendants come with matching chains or can be bought individually, allowing wearers to mix and match on bracelets or necklaces.

The new collection makes its debut in the brand’s latest campaign titled “Diamonds for All.” Exploring the way lab-grown diamonds break traditions through all-round wearability, the campaign sees Pamela Anderson, Justina Miles and other public figures share how these jewelry pieces bring elegance as well as

For people who want to get married, the diamond engagement ring is a tale as old as time—and advertisers and media companies alike make the rather expensive tradition seem inescapable. The slogans from South African diamond behemoth De Beers speak for themselves:

“A diamond is forever.”

“Is two months’ salary too much to spend for something that lasts forever?”

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“Show her you’ll love her for the next thousand years.”

On top of it, the marketplace for diamonds can be really confusing. There are grades of clarity and color that lead to an overall quality rating. And, of course, diamonds are very expensive. The International Gem Society reports that the average amount spent on a diamond ring in 2021 was $5,000. (At the iconic jewelry store Tiffany’s, a budget of $5,000 barely gets you into the diamonds, let alone the showy single diamonds people prefer on engagement rings.)

All of these reasons have driven consumer interest in lab-grown diamonds, and in lab-grown diamond engagement rings in particular. So, we spoke to an expert from the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) to learn everything you need to know about lab-grown diamonds—the production methods, the colors, the intangibles, and more. They say lab-grown diamond rings can cost up to 20 percent less than natural diamonds, which would knock that $5,000 ring down to $4,000. It’s not a Black Friday doorbuster percentage of discount, but that’s a lot of money to save.

Lab-Grown Diamonds vs. Natural Diamonds

Sally Magaña is a research scientist and the manager of diamond identification for the Carlsbad, California-based GIA, which now has locations around the world; the GIA creates and upholds standards and education for jewelers around the world. Today, one of its key concerns is telling apart lab-grown diamonds from natural diamonds,

With the global jewelry market in retreat, Pandora just delivered a solid second-quarter performance, with organic revenues up 5% to $850 million and like-for-like (LFL) revenues advancing 2%. This brought first-half revenues up 3.5% over the previous year to $1.7 billion.

Having expected challenges in fiscal 2023, Pandora initially guided on a -2% to +3% change in revenues this year, but given its strong performance so far, it raised guidance to between +2% to +5% by year-end.

“We outperformed the market,” CEO Alexander Lacik shared with me after the earnings call. “There’s a lot of uncertainty out there, with the Ukraine war, rising interest rates and consumer sentiment dropping like a stone. It’s a fact that people have less disposable income to go around, so against those macros, we showed sequential improvement.”

And Lacik is counting on that sequential improvement to pick up pace through the rest of the year after it drops three new collections of lab-grown diamond jewelry into the U.S., Canada, Australia and U.K. markets, with Mexico and Brazil to follow in time for holiday.

The new range includes rings, earrings, bracelets and necklaces and for the first time, it is presenting lab-grown diamonds in its flagship charms, what the company calls the “universe that is at the heart of Pandora.”

“We have over 600 million customers coming to our stores and website every year and we know the vast majority of them are very interested in buying a diamond but can’t afford mined diamonds. That’s where Pandora

The market for lab-grown diamonds is exploding this wedding season, putting larger gems onto more hands than ever.

But some say that shine can wear off when the synthetic stones quickly lose their value.

Pandora, the largest jeweler in the world, is now very much in the diamond business.

Last year, the company that’s well-known for its accessible charm bracelets began selling lab-grown diamonds set in rings and other jewelry.

The diamonds are offered at prices Pandora says make sense for their slice of the jewelry market.

“What we are seeing a lot is people that always dreamed but never had a chance to buy a diamond. Now they can,” said Luciano Rodembusch, Pandora’s North American President.

At Pandora, a one carat diamond ring goes for less than $2,000, while a 2-carat piece sells for roughly $5,000, a fraction of what similar, mined stones would cost.

Pandora says its lab-created diamonds are manufactured in U.S. facility using 100% renewable energy.

“Ours are going to be one-fifth to one-seventh of the price,” Rodembusch said.

According to The Knot, the popularity of lab-grown diamonds has doubled since 2020.

In 2022, more than a third of engagement ring center stones were manufactured, not mined.

Regardless of the source, the diamonds are visually and chemically the same.

But, some argue that there is a key value difference.

Olivia Landau, co-founder and CEO of custom jewelry company The Clear Cut, sells only natural diamonds, which she says hold or even increase in monetary value.

“Lab grown diamonds hold zero value. They’re mass produced. You can create an endless supply of them,” Landau said. “They’re kind of the fast-fashion of diamonds, whereas natural diamonds do hold inherent value.”

The Clear Cut does use lab-grown diamonds but it actually gives them away for free,

In a move sure to further disrupt the jewelry industry already disrupted by consumers’ rapid turn to lab-grown diamonds, De Beers has introduced engagement rings under its lab-grown jewelry brand Lightbox, a category it once reserved exclusively for its Forevermark natural, mined diamonds. Now it offers a selection of 16 lab-grown diamond engagement rings priced from $500 to $5,000.

While the company positions the move as a limited market test, it is groundbreaking for De Beers, whose fortunes have been inextricably linked to natural diamond futures.

De Beers is the world’s leading natural diamond company, with its reach into diamond exploration, mining, grading, marketing and retail. It singlehandedly made the diamond engagement ring the symbol of everlasting love in its famed 1947 “A diamond is forever” ad campaign.

Into The Lab-Grown Diamond Fray

When De Beers first dipped its toes into the lab-grown jewelry market with Lightbox in 2018, it was positioned as fun, pretty, affordable fashion jewelry that “may not be forever, but is perfect for right now,” said Bruce Cleaver, then-CEO De Beers Group and now its co-chairman.

At the time, LGD were reserved for earrings and necklaces set with an emphasis on colored stones, but also available in clear-white diamonds.

Initial prices were set at $800 per carat, exclusive of the setting, and the company has held the line on per-carat price since then. However, it has since added a finest grade above its standard offering, priced at $1,500 per carat for LGD stones of finer cut and clarity with the clearest color rating.

It stepped deeper into the bridal waters

It appears that De Beers has spotted the writing on the wall in an increasingly crowded lab-grown diamond market.

The diamond behemoth has begun testing engagement rings under its lab-grown subsidiary, Lightbox, after years of avoiding the category. It is understood that the company had long tried to maintain natural diamonds’ position as engagement ring stones, while attempting to silo lab-grown diamonds as fashion jewelry.

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De Beers established Lightbox in 2018 in order to help steer the lab-grown diamond narrative. It set a strict per-carat pricing model for the stones (pro-rated at $800 per carat, regardless of the stone’s size or color) in an attempt to lead the industry’s treatment of lab diamonds.

As newly instated Lightbox chief executive officer Antoine Borde told WWD earlier this month, the company is focused on designs intended for self-purchasing and personal expression.

“We are pursuing the positioning of the brand around fashion, freedom, fun — it’s a good dynamic that we are seeing this happen,” Borde said.

Since its launch Lightbox had sold loose lab-grown stones that could be set as engagement rings, but the company had never sold ready-made engagement rings as part of its own distribution.

Now as more and more players enter the lab-grown arena, it appears that De Beers and Lightbox had little choice but to test the engagement category.

The company’s website has launched a limited series of 16 solitaire rings — all priced at $5,000 or less, with the average hovering around $2,500. They are offered with stones from one to two carats and come in settings that range from very simple gold bands to more elaborate halo styles, set alongside smaller pavé lab-grown stones.

Borde said in a statement: “As part of Lightbox’s promise to bring transparency to lab-grown diamonds,

There I was, almost a decade ago, a wide-eyed enthusiast stepping into the world of gemstones. Little did I know I was about to become part of a revolution. This wasn’t any ordinary revolution, mind you. It was one brought forth by sparkling, dazzling lab diamonds.

News media websites began to buzz with reports of lab-grown diamonds. This stimulated interest, and people began to pay attention, prompting them to pose queries and have debates. Over time, skepticism eventually shifted into acceptance, which started a new epoch in the jewelry trade.

Fast forward to today, I am not just a spectator but an active participant in this transformation. As a proud manufacturer of lab diamonds, I am thrilled to be part of the shift toward sustainable, ethical, and equally beautiful alternatives to mined diamonds. But, enough of my rambling. Let’s dive into the sparkling tale of how lab-grown diamonds reshape the jewelry industry.

The Inception of Lab-Grown Diamonds

I remember when I first learned about diamonds being manmade. It sounded like something straight out of a science fiction movie. Diamonds, those beautiful, sparkling stones that we’re used to seeing deep underground, being manufactured in a lab? Well, as wild as it may seem, it’s all true.

Let’s take a step back in time. In the mid-20th century that saw the idea of manufacturing diamonds was discussed. Some smart minds questioned why it was necessary to mine diamond deposits deep underground when they were capable of creating them on their own. And hence, manufactured diamonds came into existence.

Back then, it was all about experimentation, trying to mimic Mother Nature’s recipe for creating diamonds. It was a bit like baking a cake without a recipe. You know the main ingredients,

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Blood diamonds are a dark reality in the diamond industry. Blood diamonds, or conflict diamonds, are mined in war-torn countries, where the profits from their sale are often used to finance violent conflicts and perpetrate human rights abuses. Workers can be subjected to dangerous and inhumane working conditions as forced and child labor is common in these areas. In recent years, the diamond industry has taken steps to address this issue with the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, which was created to prevent the trade in these problematic gems. However, critics have argued that it is not effective and has failed to stop the flow of blood diamonds.

Consumers, however, are more informed and conscious than ever about the social and ethical impact of their purchasing decisions. This has led to a consumer revolution in many industries. In the jewelry industry, many consumers are using their dollars to support a relatively new, more ethical, alternative: lab-grown diamonds. Leading the charge in this consumer shift is Liori Diamonds, an innovative New York based jewelry company.

As opposed to being mined from the Earth, lab-grown diamonds are produced in a laboratory environment, as the name suggests, using a process that simulates the intense heat and pressure naturally occurring within the Earth’s crust. These diamonds have the same chemical composition, crystal structure, and physical properties as their earth-mined counterparts, but are often less expensive due to the lower costs of production.

(courtesy)

As the lab-grown diamond industry continues to evolve, Liori Diamonds has emerged as a preeminent jeweler in the market. With a wide selection of high-quality lab-grown diamonds and a commitment to excellent customer service, Liori Diamonds is quickly becoming the go-to destination for those seeking exciting, ethical, and affordable diamond jewelry. With an industry-leading selection of

Looks like lab-grown diamonds are shedding their stigma.

More than a third of engagement rings with a center stone sold last year were made in a lab, according to a survey from the Knot cited in The Wall Street Journal on Friday. On top of that, some jewelers—from legacy houses to upstart brands—are focusing their efforts on man-made stones.

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“Consumers are smart,” said Benny Landa, the founder of the lab-grown-diamond company Lusix. “When they see a two carat lab-grown diamond for not much more than a one carat mined diamond, it’s a no-brainer.” (Currently, a one-carat lab-grown diamond retails for about $1,430, while a traditional mined gem of the same size sells for $5,635.)

Lusix has teamed up with brands such as the LVMH-owned TAG Heuer, which used the company’s diamonds in its Carrera Plasma watch. The crown is made of one whole diamond, while the rest of the timepiece is encrusted with stones of different shapes. Doing the same with mined stones would have been wasteful, given the cutting and shaping that would have needed to go into the project, according to the company. Comparatively, the lab-grown diamonds could be created in the exact shape required.

TAG Heuer isn’t the only luxury brand getting into the man-made game. Both Gucci and Breitling have incorporated such stones into their accessories; the latter of which has even said all of its watches will use only lab-grown diamonds by next year. In 2022, the Swiss watchmaker debuted its first timepiece using man-made stones, the Super Chronomat 38 Origins.

Not all legacy jewelers are on board with the transition, though. At this year’s Watches and Wonders, the CEO of Cartier stood by traditional diamonds, at least