Will People Know My Diamond Is Lab-Grown?
Not unless you tell them! Lab-grown diamonds are chemically, physically, and optically identical to mined diamonds. They are real diamonds, just made in a lab instead of pulled from the earth. Even jewellers need specialised advanced tools to tell the difference. So unless you point it out, no one will know. You get all the sparkle, clarity, and elegance of a mined diamond—without the huge price tag
Do Lab-Grown Diamonds Look the Same as Natural?
Yes.
Lab-grown diamonds have the same crystal structure, brilliance, and fire as natural diamonds. They are graded by the same standards (cut, colour, clarity, and carat) and can be certified by IGI or GIA. When customers in New Zealand ask us whether the look is any different, we tell them the truth: no one can tell the difference by eye.
The following sections addresses some of the most common myths we hear from customers across NZ. While the answer to each is simple and clear, these points are worth clearing up one by one.
Do Lab-Grown Diamonds Look Fake?
No.
Lab-grown diamonds are real diamonds. They don’t resemble cubic zirconia or glass. They have the same hardness, clarity, and sparkle as mined diamonds. Anyone who sees one will assume it’s a natural diamond. There is simply no way to tell the difference by naked eye or even a magnifying loupe.
Do Lab-Grown Diamonds Look Blue?
No.
Lab-grown diamonds do not look blue. High-quality lab diamonds are colourless, just like top-grade natural diamonds. If any blue tint is present, it will be in a really low quality stone from some poorly operated machine. We don’t sell those and never will – all our colourless/white diamonds are IGI certified D-F colour.
The only blue diamonds LD Jewellery sells are purposefully grown Fancy Blue diamonds which are highly desired for their deep hue.
Do Lab-Grown Diamonds Look Yellow?
No.
Just like the blue question above – unless you choose a fancy yellow diamond on purpose, lab-grown diamonds don’t look yellow. Just like natural diamonds, they come in a range of colour grades, and LD Jewellery’s lab diamonds are in the D-F range (colourless).
Do Lab-Grown Diamonds Look Cheap?
No.
In fact, lab-grown diamonds often appear better than mined diamonds of the same price. That’s because you can afford a higher quality stone (better cut, colour, clarity) for the same budget. There is nothing cheap about the way a lab-grown diamond looks.
Do Lab-Grown Diamonds Look Worse?
No.
Lab-grown diamonds look just as good—if not better—than mined ones. Their sparkle, fire, and brilliance are the same. In fact, many customers find lab-grown diamonds more appealing because they can afford larger or higher-grade stones without compromise.
One of the biggest factors of a diamond looking “better” or “worse” is the clarity. Natural diamonds often come in poorer clarity grades like SI1, SI2, and I1, I2, I3 because they are still valuable. All the lab grown diamonds sold here at LD Jewellery are VVS1-VS2 or better. We don’t dip below VS.
Conclusion: Do Lab Diamonds look any different, can anyone tell?
No.
There is no visual difference between a lab grown diamond and a natural one. Not in earrings, not in necklaces, not as a loose stone, there is no way.
Lab diamonds don’t look blue, yellow, fake, cheap, or worse.
They are every bit diamond through and through. Go out and enjoy wearing lab grown diamond jewellery to your heart’s content without worrying that it looks fake or cheap or whatever.
It takes expensive machines with xray equipment to tell the difference.