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Models pose with Lightbox Jewelry Lab-Grown Diamonds in December 2019 at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. Lab-grown diamonds now account for roughly 46 percent of the U.S.

diamond jewelry market. There was a day when a man's love for his bride was measured by the clarity and size of a diamond ring. That notion is as outdated as believing that "artificial" or lab-grown diamonds are second-class stones.



Chances are that if you purchased a diamond this year, it may have been manufactured in a laboratory. Lab-grown diamonds account for roughly 46 percent of the U.S.

diamond jewelry market. What is interesting is that while the quantity of diamonds sold is almost neck and neck with the natural market, as a percentage of revenue, lab-growns only account for 23 percent of sales. There are two trends at work here.

Natural diamonds are getting more expensive and as they do, lab-grown diamonds, which are much cheaper to manufacture have become increasingly popular. Lab-grown diamonds are just as real as the diamonds dug up by miners in Africa or elsewhere. The difference is that the laboratory can make them perfect while mother nature will usually produce stones with several beautiful and even romantic flaws.

There are two methods of growing diamonds. In the chemical vapor deposition process, a small diamond is placed in a chamber and exposed to carbon-rich gas and high temperatures. The gas ionizes and carbon particles stick to the diamond, eventually crystallizing into a dia.

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