No More Mining: Lab-Grown Diamonds Are the Real Deal

Luxury jeweler Cartier is making the move from mined diamonds to lab-made diamonds – and they are certainly not the only ones.

“They are 90 percent cheaper than mined diamonds, but they’re absolutely identical. It was very clear to me that this was going to completely transform the industry, and the beauty of the technology is that it will keep getting better, and the diamonds will keep improving in size and quality,” explains Ornella Siso, whose family has been in the diamond business for generations.

The quality of lab-grown diamonds continues to improve, with experts in the industry now saying the two are virtually identical in makeup, cut, and polish. Once thought of as a cheap imitation of the real thing, lab-grown diamonds are becoming more and more à la mode as they are drastically more ethical than their mined counterparts. Other brands such as Pandora and LVMH are also moving toward or investing in this new generation of diamonds.