Lightbox Synthetic Diamonds

Lightbox is a new line of lab-grown diamond jewelry produced by De Beers. The company plans to sell lab-grown diamonds online at prices that are 75 percent less than what other producers charge for their jewelry.

De Beers executives were clear about their strategy during a lunch at JCK Las Vegas in June 2018. The goal was to put as much daylight as possible between the public’s perception of synthetic diamonds and natural ones.

Price

Lightbox synthetic diamonds are an affordable alternative to natural diamonds, especially for the budget-conscious. For a price starting at $800 per carat, you can get lab grown pink, blue and white diamonds that look just like the real thing, and you can also buy jewelry featuring these gemstones.

In May 2018, De Beers, the world’s largest diamond producer, launched a new brand called Lightbox. It offered a variety of fashion jewelry pieces, priced from $200 for a quarter carat to $800 for a single carat.

The company made waves because it was introducing an entirely new type of jewelry–one that doesn’t require the millions of years it takes for natural diamonds to form in the earth’s core. Instead, it uses a process that allows it to grow laboratory-grown diamonds in a matter of weeks.

Its new collection, Lightbox Jewelry, has a broad range of styles, including rings, earrings and pendants. You can find everything from simple solitaires to dazzling engagement rings.

What’s more, Lightbox is also offering loose lab-grown diamond stones that you can take to a jeweler and have crafted into your own piece. These high-quality CVD-grown gems can be laser inscribed with a quality mark that is invisible to the naked eye.

They’re growing a range of colored stones too, including blue and pink, in addition to their classic white diamonds. These fancy colored gems are a great way to add some color and personality to your jewelry collection.

But while the lab-grown diamonds themselves are a step up from synthetic simulants, they’re not as good as the real thing. For one thing, they don’t increase in value as some diamonds do. And secondly, they don’t have the same natural beauty and fire that make a diamond so attractive.

To try and combat this, Lightbox amped up its CVD-grown technology by adding a further refinement process to enhance the color of its stones. The result is its ‘Finest’ series, which features diamonds that are VVS clarity, colorless D-F and excellent cut.

Lightbox’s ‘Finest’ diamonds are the highest quality of lab-grown gems, with the same exceptional CVD synthesis and a further leading refinement that boosts their saturation and consistency. These are laser inscribed with a unique quality mark that’s invisible to the naked eye but can be seen through a 10x loupe.

Color

De Beers, the world’s largest diamond mining company, has launched a retail brand of colored synthetic diamonds for a younger audience, called Lightbox Jewelry. This is a major step forward in the company’s efforts to grow synthetic diamonds, which it has been marketing as environmentally friendly and suited for “life’s lighter moments.”

Lightbox synthetic diamonds are priced at $800 per carat and come in colorless, pink, or blue varieties in quarter, half, and full carat sizes. GIA researcher Sally Eaton-Magana examined two samples of lightbox lab diamonds for the Winter 2018 issue of Gems & Gemology, which she describes as “near-colorless” and priced at the same level as most other lab-grown stones (see photo).

The diamonds are grown in a chemical vapor deposition process that creates carbon crystallization in an extreme pressure and high temperature environment. These conditions are much different from those found in nature, which takes billions of years for diamond formation to occur naturally.

During the growth process, lightbox diamonds may contain gases and treatments to add color to the diamonds’ appearance. For instance, boron can be added to the diamonds in order to give them a bluish tint that is not typically seen in white diamonds.

According to GIA, a growing number of grown diamonds are now “near-colorless” or “colorless.” In its Laboratory-Grown Diamond Report, GIA uses words rather than letter grades as it is concerned that such descriptive terminology will help consumers identify and distinguish laboratory-grown diamonds from mined diamonds.

However, some GIA-certified lab diamonds are still treated post-growth by HPHT processing to make them appear near-colorless. In some cases, the diamonds’ PL spectra showed no evidence of HPHT treatment.

While many consumers have negative thoughts about lab-grown diamonds, the GIA’s study suggests that it has only reached the consumer base for the “masses” and not the “classes.” This is because the majority of consumers are identifying lab-grown diamonds as artificial or fake. They’re also being confused with other lab diamonds that have been treated post-growth by HPHT to improve their color.

Clarity

Lightbox synthetic diamonds are grown in the lab rather than mined from the earth. They are essentially chemically identical to natural diamonds, but they are more resistant to flaws that can impact a diamond’s clarity and sparkle. This makes them more appealing to consumers who are looking for a lab-grown diamond but don’t want to sacrifice quality.

As a result, the clarity of lightbox synthetic diamonds can be just as good or even better than natural diamonds. That’s because the crystal structure of lab-grown diamonds is cleaner than a naturally occurring one.

However, they can still have blemishes. These are called inclusions, and they can affect a diamond’s clarity grade. The more inclusions that a diamond has, the less clear it will be, and the lower its clarity grade will be.

A lot of these inclusions are very tiny and they can’t be seen with the naked eye, but they can be spotted under a microscope. Professional jewelers and gemologists can’t tell a synthetic diamond from a natural one without special equipment, but they can look for the inclusions that indicate a lab-grown diamond.

The industry’s most famous grading laboratory, GIA, currently doesn’t grade man-made diamonds on the standard four Cs scale of clarity, color, cut and carat weight. GIA chief laboratory and research officer Tom Moses told National Jeweler in a 2016 interview that he prefers to present “general color and clarity descriptions” instead.

But GIA is planning to change that in the near future. According to spokesperson Stephen Morisseau, the grading lab will announce changes that will align with FTC Guides and market trends.

While they’re not quite as attractive to the consumer as mined diamonds, lab-grown gemstones have begun to enter the mainstream. And as they’re becoming more popular, the price of these stones is falling.

Despite their lower prices, there’s a lot of uncertainty about the quality of these stones. In particular, the difference between the diamonds’ clarity and how they look to the human eye has been a sticking point.

Because of this, the market has been slow to recognize lab-grown diamonds as legitimate alternatives to natural diamonds. This is especially true among millennial consumers, who have been hesitant to buy them for fear of the conflict-troubled origins of mined diamonds. But as they become more willing to buy lab-grown stones for their style, durability and value, the industry is poised to grow.

Size

Lightbox synthetic diamonds are a new and innovative way to add a unique twist to your jewelry collection. They’re created using the same technology as natural diamonds and have the same physical, chemical, and optical properties as their natural counterparts.

These lab-grown stones are available in sizes up to 1 carat and can be used as accents or in full-sized rings and earrings. They can also be used to replace a real stone in an engagement ring.

They’re also cheaper than natural diamonds, and can be purchased in a variety of styles to suit your style and budget. However, they don’t have the same resale value or durability as natural diamonds.

During the past few years, lab-grown diamonds have grown in popularity as a cost-effective alternative to natural diamonds. The industry is now seeing a growing number of retailers offering lab-grown diamonds in a range of jewelry designs, including earrings, bracelets, and pendants.

The first major change in the industry came in May of 2018, when De Beers Group, the world’s largest diamond miner, announced the launch of its own lab-grown diamond brand called Lightbox. The company’s aim is to provide “accessible” lab-grown diamonds to the consumer, primarily for fashion and lifestyle-focused jewelry.

At the time, De Beers was only offering a select few designs, largely focused on smaller, less-than-full-carat sized diamonds sourced from Element Six, an industrial diamond manufacturer. But now, the company is expanding its offerings to include a wide variety of designs that will be available in stores starting next month.

One of the biggest changes that has occurred since Lightbox’s launch has been the drop in wholesale prices for lab-grown diamonds. Previously, wholesale prices were very high, according to industry analyst Edahn Golan.

Now, wholesale lab-grown diamond prices have fallen significantly, and some are now selling for well under $1,000 per carat. Some even sell for as low as $300 a carat.

Another big change in the industry has been the increase in quality of laboratory-grown diamonds. Until recently, most lab-grown diamonds were of the lower end of the GIA diamond quality spectrum. These stones were often not colorless and often came with a variety of inclusions that didn’t have the same clarity as natural diamonds.

Lightbox Synthetic Diamonds