[Lab Grown] Diamonds Are Forever

Diamonds made in a lab using cutting-edge technology that replicates the natural diamond-growing process are sustainable and more ethical. Oh, and much cheaper!

- Smita Tripathi

AKSHITA SINGH, A DELHI-BASED interior designer, loves diamonds. "They are a girl's best friend," she laughs. Her latest purchase is a diamond pendant with matching earrings and she has her eyes set on a bracelet. But her purchases haven't depleted her bank balance significantly. Instead of natural mined diamonds, she has bought jewellery with lab-grown diamonds that are nearly 40-50 per cent cheaper.

Also known as synthetic, cultured or man-made diamonds, these stones are optically, chemically and physically identical to natural, mined diamonds, but with one key difference: they are manufactured in a lab in a few days as opposed to deep below the earth's crust over a few million years. "I think of them as prosecco and not champagne," says the 32-year-old Singh.

"It's like an IVF baby. Once the baby is born, you don't question whether it was natural or IVF. There is no difference," says Vandana M. Jagwani, founder of Vandals, a Mumbai-based brand dealing in lab-grown diamond jewellery. Jagwani, who has been in the jewellery trade for the past eight years, set up Vandals a couple of years ago because she wanted to give value to her customers. "The difference is only up to the creation of the diamond in the rough stage. After that the cutting, polishing, etc., is all the same and done by the same karigars [artisans]," ," she says.

Growing a diamond in a lab involves starting with a 'seed'-a small piece of another diamond. While this will be from a natural diamond the first time, it can be a piece of a lab-grown diamond the next time.