Yasmin: Ahh the lovely voice of Marilyn Monroe, whose dress by the way, has just been worn by Kim Kardashian at the Met Gala. Well, here she is, singing about diamonds and I remember Madonna, did a whole remake of her music video from the scene from the movie, the song Material Girl. Are certain diamonds better friends than other? We are inspired to dive into this topic. Because there’s been an article at CNA.asia “Are labgrown diamonds the real thing or are they fake and valueless?” We ask the experts, to weigh in, you can read about that in CNA Lifestyle.asia. Here, on CNA938, we bring back a great guest, who knows all about this, Amanda Koo, the founder of eClarity, a jeweller in Singapore. She is our expert today! Hi Amanda, welcome back to the show!
Amanda: Hello Yasmin!
Yasmin: Nice talking with you again! So, quality and value of labgrown diamonds matches the real thing?
Amanda: Before we go into the definition of value and how it correlates to expression of love, the price of labgrown diamond is about one-third to half of that of natural diamond. In terms of quality, labgrown diamonds and natural diamonds have the same chemical and physical properties, and optical property.
Yasmin: I see, and hence their popularity driven of course by the younger generation, who are very concerned about the environment.
Amanda: Exactly! So, the people all from the younger generation, say the young couple who are coming in for their engagement ring, and they are in their 20s, so we have girls and guys coming in and say they have no problems with the budget, they have high budget but they eco-concerned, so they choose labgrown diamonds instead of natural diamonds for their engagement ring. Now beyond that, there is also another favourite topic, favourite concern from this younger generation, which is the fact that labgrown diamonds have more transparent supply chain, and so they can then ensure that these are not conflict diamonds, which is a concern that we had during our times, if you remember the movie “Blood Diamonds” and how the children were exploited to mine diamonds, so the process has become something that the younger generation who choose labgrown diamonds don’t have to worry about.
Yasmin: Ok, but why do people’s journey remain snooty when it comes to labgrown diamonds? We sniff at them.
Amanda: I think the first most popular misconception is people come in and they use the word “fake” to describe labgrown diamonds. So, I always use the term “synthetic diamonds” “simulant diamonds”, I teach my couples and my customers the differences. Now when we talk about synthetic diamonds, labgrown diamonds they are real diamonds, they are grown in a lab with high temperature high pressure which is similar to those that are grown under the world. And the properties are the same, so those are synthetic diamonds.
When we talk about fake diamonds, we are talking about simulant diamonds, which are like CZ (Cubic Zirconia), the GGG, the moissanite, the glass or plastics. So, these are fake diamonds. So this is one misconception that we can clarify, people tend to think that since you’re growing the labgrown diamonds, can you then control the quality? Can we all get flawless, D color, triple excellence diamonds very easily? The answer is No. The growth environment while is in a lab, but it is not within human control because we have all the microscopic minerals in the world, and when we grow the diamonds these minerals will be entrapped inside the diamonds and these becomes our inclusions, which affect the clarity grading.
Yasmin: So, this tells you if the crowds are getting younger and younger, and a lot more educated, about the environment, not just about well read in general, just for themselves, then labgrown diamonds will have a great future here in Singapore?
Amanda: It’s an unknown, but looking at the trend for this year, it has been growing ever since, and I started noticing very closely that 2019, that it has been growing all the time.
Yasmin: Are there any disadvantages of labgrown diamonds Amanda?
Amanda: One thing I could think of is, currently GIA report, the biggest grading lab, they are not issuing physical report for labgrown diamonds, only digital report, so people are not very used to that, that’s first. Second, you know all the misconception that we have, that could be a disadvantage for labgrown diamonds as well, thirdly of course the value is still unknown, so these are the few things that are the disadvantages for labgrown diamonds.
Yasmin: Fantastic! Well Thank you for giving us some education on this at least, we have a deeper study at CNA Lifestyle.asia read the article there guys. Thanks Amanda!
Amanda: Thank you Yasmin
Yasmin: Founder of eClarity, they are a jeweller in Singapore.