Engagement Ring Stones - Lab or Mined

[Blinkinbloodyhayfever]

Hi all. This is a wwyd please!
I'm getting my old and worn engagement ring restyled using the original oval ruby in a trilogy with two new diamonds, with existing small diamonds incorporated on the sides. Obviously I'm looking at a significant reduction in price if I use lab as the two diamonds in the trilogy. Would you mix lab and real if you were rebuilding your engagement ring?

Absolutely. If I were to use new new real diamonds then I’d have to be sure they were ethical, or if there were any suitably cut antique diamonds but I’d more than likely go for lab grown ones.

Good point about the ethics @Pollywoddles, thank you.

Absolutely, keeping antique mined diamonds makes sense but know we know the ethics around mining lab all the way here. Plus I don’t think you can tell the difference with the naked eye, jewellers need to look for tiny laser inscription or send it off for tests.

Thanks @OhBeAFineGuyKissMe 😊

I personally wouldn't use lab grown, I think they look cheap. I'd probably source an antique replacement diamond.

Another vote for not using lab grown- why not buy a piece of vintage jewellery and use the diamonds? Compared to the cost of remodelling the ring, a couple of small diamonds won’t add that much.

I have a lab grown engagement ring and I love it.
I actually went to a different jeweller to discuss a wedding ring and the jeweller had no idea they were lab grown diamonds until I told him.

😅😅😅
cool story, bro
except it’s not true. at all.

you literally need a specialist to tell and even then they don’t get it right every time on smaller diamonds.
lab diamonds are being “washed” and sold as natural diamonds all over the world and sold by reputable retailers eg high street jewelers
Anyone who thinks “you can tell” should watch “nothing lasts forever” on Netflix. It looks at the debeers monopoly and how the whole diamonds are “real” is marketing - its v interesting

@Blinkinbloodyhayfever just get lab honestly no one can tell the difference.
If you want a more informed decision there is an episode of “explained” on Netflix that talks about the differences season 2 I think.

disclaimer: I don’t work for Netflix just watch it loads apparently 🥴

Yet again, another MNer who has to pull apart someone else's opinion to try and advance their own. What makes you have to try and prove someone else wrong? I could've been far harsher and said what our jeweller recently told us, that they are the poor man's option, but I chose to just share my own view so as not to be hurtful to op in case that is all she can afford.

Hmmmm - ans why would your jeweller have said that - to get you to spend more for N identical but leas ethical product maybe?

Oh fgs, as mentioned before, it is perfectly possible to buy antique diamonds and re-purpose those. Also, it is perfectly possible to buy ethically mined new diamonds, you just have to look into it in detail and the miner's credentials.

I'm currently shopping for an engagement ring around Hatton Garden and all the jewellers there are offering lab diamonds. They are identical to mined diamonds and the diamond industry has dramatically changed in the last few years.

@Commonsenseisnotsocommon a jeweller has a vested interest in disparaging lab grown diamonds. They make far more money selling you a mined one.

When you sell second hand jewellery to those cash for gold type places, they often give you hardly anything for the diamonds and only really value the metal. Diamonds are not as rare or precious as jewellers would like you to believe.

As I understand it lab stones are identical structurally to mined ones, so will be just as durable and probably a lot more sparkly because you will not have inclusions that you would get on a 'real' diamond (unless very expensive).
My only concern would be whether my real diamonds would look less sparkly by comparison.
So for me it would be lab all the way - why buy something less ethical, less 'perfect' and which costs more money?

To me a diamond is a diamond, I'd go lab grown for ethical reasons.

I did what you’re doing re working my original engagement ring as the diamonds kept falling out. I had a new lab diamond and used the old mined diamonds each side. You can’t tell the difference and they can match the lab diamonds to your original ones. Lab diamonds are the same as mined without the ethical problems. Our jeweller said you can’t ever be sure mined diamonds aren’t blood diamonds because they change hands so many times through various different countries. I would always go lab now irrespective of price. Only an expert can tell the difference.

With respect, a lot of lab grown diamonds cannot be identified by expert gemologists!

The industry is constantly working on new lab and hand held equipment to try and distinguish between well produced lab diamonds and natural counterparts.

OP get yourself a lab grown, cheaper and more feel good

Lab grown don’t look cheap 😆, they aren’t cubic zirconia. To the eye they look the same as mined, they are structurally identical to mined and only very specialised equipment can tell them apart. I have a 1.5ct D grade VS1 lab diamond ring and is beautiful, a lot better than my mined ring that was more expensive. My lab ring was made by a local company too.

Rubbish. You’d have to be an expert and even then you can miss them. They’re virtually identical

It’s impossible to tell the difference between lab grown and mined diamonds now without specific testing. However, lab grown diamonds are not without their own issues (impact on environment).

As with anything there will be variation. Pandora do a lab diamond ring for example, it was more expensive but a lesser cut, clarity and size to the ring that was made for me by a local jeweller (who has traded for 50 years and sell a whole range of mined diamond jewellery too). I have an oval cut and it’s amazing.

Unless you walk around with a loup you cant tell.