Some people are judging your diamond ring
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Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Congratulations on your engagement — but is that a "real" diamond?
Why it matters: Flashy, lab-grown gems are dividing jewelry lovers.
The big picture: Rings have grown bigger as lab-grown diamonds catch on, mainly because they cost a fraction of natural stones.
What they're saying: Many young couples choose lab-grown diamond rings to save money for a home or other priorities, jewelers and experts say.
Reality check: Lab-grown diamonds are just as real as mined ones.
But not everyone is sold on the trend. Naysayers have compared sporting lab-grown jewels to carrying a knockoff designer bag.
- "Buy what you can afford and be happy with it. Don't be fake," one TikTok user wrote on custom jeweler Erica Sett's page, which captures the debate.
The latest: Some critics press ring owners to share if their stones are lab-grown.
- "It's the people who have a 4-carat lab [diamond] and lie or aren't upfront about it that make it annoying for the natural girlies," another TikTok user commented on the page.
By the numbers: Posts tagged #LabGrownDiamond and #LabGrownDiamonds each more than doubled in the first 10 months of 2024 compared with the same period in 2023, according to TikTok.
"It used to be such a flex to have a 3-carat diamond or a certain color or clarity" grade, says Sett, who's based in New York City and works with natural and lab-grown stones.
- "People feel like their natural diamonds become less special to them when everyone else has what they have, and only they know it's natural," she tells Axios.
Follow the money: In 2020, the average lab-grown diamond was 1.2 carats and cost $3,887, Axios' Felix Salmon reports from industry data.
- By 2024, the average size had swelled 60% to 1.9 carats, while the average price had dropped by 30% to $2,657.
What we're watching: "Giant diamond" fatigue could push shoppers toward smaller or colorful stones, Sett says.
Meanwhile, natural diamond jewelers are courting millennials and Gen Z.
- A new marketing campaign from two major companies promotes their diamonds as "worth the wait."
The bottom line: Sharp opinions aside, your rock is between you and your partner.
