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Comparing the pros and cons really helps bring clarity for big decisions. I’ve laid out the pros and cons of man made diamonds below so you can decide if it’s the right choice for your engagement or wedding ring.

So, what are the man made diamond pros and cons? The Pros: Man made diamonds are at least 40% cheaper. They’re harder, more environmentally friendly, chemically the same, look absolutely identical, and can’t be blood diamonds,  The Cons: No historical significance (they didn’t take 3 million years to form), and there’s a need to resist societal pressures.

To understand each of the pros and cons listed above more deeply, keep reading. We’ll provide additional insight below.

The Pros:

Man Made Diamonds are Cheaper

Man Made Diamonds are significantly cheaper than earth mined diamonds. In fact, lab grown diamonds are generally at least 40% less expensive. That might enable you to get a bigger diamond, or a better quality of cut, color, and clarity than you could otherwise afford. It could also mean that you’ll be able to repurpose your savings to upgrade your honeymoon, pay down debt, or get into your first home.

They Decrease Your Risk of Loss

It’s best to think of your ring as a sunk cost (not an investment). This is true for two reasons:

  1. You’re likely to lose a great deal of money selling your diamond ring
  2. Happy healthy marriages typically wouldn’t want to resell a ring. Focusing on resale value is almost an admission that things probably won’t work out.

Despite what diamond peddlers continually imply, diamonds are terrible investments! The: moment you drive a new car off the lot, it’s value plummets. You couldn’t sell a new car for the same price you purchased it for 24 hours later. The same is true of diamonds. Their resale value nosedives by 30% to 70% the moment you take possession.

The jeweler can get really inexpensive inventory from his wholesaler with payment terms, so why would he want to pay cash up front for yours? Pawn Shops often pay pennies on the dollar.

If your ability to resell is uncertain, and you’re likely to lose significant money in the process, then the less you spend on your ring, the smaller your risk of loss.

Diamond peddlers tout that diamonds are a storehouse of value. In reality, they’re a terrible place to park money. You’d be far better off going with a man made diamond or a simulated diamond and then investing the difference that you saved in a retirement plan or mutual fund.

They’re  Even Harder than Mined Diamonds

Diamonds are the hardest natural mineral known to man. Man Made diamonds are chemically identical to to mined diamonds, but modern lab-grown diamonds are even harder than their earth grown counterparts.

Hardness maters, because it influences scratch resistance and general durability.

They are Certain to be 100% Conflict Free

When militant groups take over diamond mines and use profits from those mines to arm themselves and fund war and carnage, the diamonds they sell are known as “Blood Diamonds” or “Conflict Diamonds.”

These militant groups often use slave labor to do the back breaking work of unearthing their gems. Their brutal tactics with their slaves and the communities that surround these mines are well documented and completely stomach turning.

Many people that could easily afford earth mined diamonds have chosen to go with lab-grown diamonds or diamond simulants instead, because they can’t stand the thought of unknowingly buying a blood diamond and unintentionally supporting the economic engine of these brutal warlords

Despite international sanctions and other measures to try to keep blood diamonds out of the international diamonds supply, studies indicate that the propagators of blood diamonds have found avenues and loopholes that skirt the barriers that have been imposed. Unfortunately, there’s absolutely no way of knowing whether a particular diamond offered by your jeweler is a Conflict Diamond.

Because man-made diamonds are lab grown, you can be sure that they aren’t blood diamonds, and that the symbol of your love, doesn’t have origins rooted in hate.

Environmentally Responsible

Diamond mining displaces massive amounts of earth. It’s estimated that well over 1000 tons of earth is moved for every carat that comes to the market. The deep pits created for the mining of diamonds scare the landscape, destroy animal habitat, cause new issues with soil erosion, and sometime require deforestation.

Those searching for diamonds rare consider ecological impact or the heavy burden that their actions put on local populations. In some cases, rivers and streams are dammed or rerouted to expose creek and riverbeds that may contain the diamonds they seek. Rerouting water has a serious impact on fish and wildlife, but it also devistates farms and communities that rely on the water for irrigation. Some land that has been farmed for generations, has to be abandoned when water routing is changed by man.

There’s also a serious health toll on communities, when old diamond mines collect rainwater and become prime breeding ground for mosquitoes. Those mosquitoes sometimes spread malaria and other dangerous illnesses that affect men, women, and children in the area.

Of course, there’s no such impact from lab-grown diamonds.

No one can tell anyway

Today’s lab-grown diamonds are chemically, physically, and optically identical to diamonds mined from the earth. Technology has advanced to a point, that even an experienced jeweler or gemologist couldn’t tell the difference between an earth mined diamond and a man made diamond without the use of specialized testing equipment in a lab setting.

If those trained eyes can’t tell a man made diamond from a natural diamond, then neither can your friends, co-workers, and family. Why would anyone want to pay 40% more for an item that’s absolutely equal in visual appearance, durability, and composition? We discuss a few potential reasons below.

The Cons:

No sense of history (the fact that it took 3 million years to form)

There’s a sense of wonder when we look at the sparkling stone that decorates a ring and realize that it took the earth roughly 3 million years for that gem to form. For some, that geological history is an important element.

It’s worth at least considering that man made diamonds could be, at least, equally amazing when you consider than men have learned to do in 6 to 10 weeks what it takes nature 3 million years to form.

Not aligned with Marketing Brainwashing

Marketing is designed to influence our opinions about products, to manufacture demand, and make wants feel like needs. Over time, the diamond industry has been successful at linking love and diamonds. We’ve been conditioned to believe that diamonds are how we express our love. The bigger the diamond, the deeper or love must be. It’s also a status symbol. We display our success by the size of the rock that we buy or wear.

Marketing messages over time get so deeply ingrained in our minds and general society, that they’re sometimes difficult to oppose. What would your friends and family think if they knew you purchased a man made diamond or a diamond simulant instead of a mined diamond?

Would they think you aren’t successful enough to purchase the real thing? Would they think you’re a cheap skate, or that your love is somehow lacking? It’s sometimes scary to face unknowns like those. That fear of being judged is a real factor for some people that pushes them toward buying a mined diamond.

Hard to Feel Quite as Superior to Others

While this one is a little tongue in cheek, it’s also a real thing. Some people buy mined diamonds to avoid feeling inferior to others, and sometimes, so they can feel superior to others (who perhaps went for a less expensive alternative).

Confidence issues and materialism are at the heart of this issue.

Related Questions:

Are Man Made Diamonds Real?

There’s that’s fake about man made diamonds. They’re made out of the came stuff, look absolutely identical, and have the same basic properties. They’re like identical twins that she the same look, but also share the DNA. Both lab created and lab created diamonds are equally deserving of being called diamonds.

Can Diamonds be Made From Human Ashes?

Yes, Memorial Diamonds are still relatively new, but in essence, Carbon based lifeforms can be cremated in a special way that preserves as much carbon as possible. The carbon is then placed under incredible heat and pressure to create a diamond that literally came from your deceased family member or pet.

From what I’ve seen so far, the process typically costs $10,000 or so in total.

What Does Man Made Diamond Simulant Mean?

Diamond simulates are non-diamonds that look similar enough diamonds, that they’re sometimes used as alternatives. Man made diamond simulants are produced in a laboratory. Moissanite would be one excellent example, since all Moissanite is synthetically produced, and all Moissanite stones are also produced in a laboratory setting. In contrast, White Sapphire is a non-man made diamond simulant because it’s a naturally occurring gem that looks similar enough to a diamond to often be used as a diamond alternative.

Related Posts:

Man Made Diamond Hardness: Will it Scratch, Chip, or Break?

Why Buy a Lab Created Diamond Engagement Ring?

Are Lab Created Diamonds Better for the Environment?