Natural Diamonds

Choose an Excellent cut, then the lowest color and clarity that still look white and clean to you, often G to I and VS2 or SI1. Natural prices jump at round weights, so a 0.90 to 0.99 carat stone, which looks almost the same once set, costs noticeably less than a full carat.

A natural diamond is priced on its four grades and on rarity, and rarity climbs fast with size. Prices step up at round weights such as 1, 1.5 and 2 carats, so a stone just under one of them costs noticeably less for a difference no one sees across a table. Color and clarity work the same way: a D and a G, or a VVS1 and a VS2, can look alike to the naked eye and sit far apart in price. Our guides to color grades that look white and eye-clean clarity show where the line falls.

Spend first on cut. An Excellent round brilliant returns the most light, and a poorly cut stone looks smaller and duller whatever its color. For an oval, pear or other fancy shape, where the lab gives no cut grade, judge the proportions and the video. Then come down in color until the stone stops looking white to you, and in clarity until you can see an inclusion without a loupe. Faint or medium blue fluorescence lowers the price and, in most stones, changes nothing you can see; our fluorescence notes explain when it can.

Every natural diamond here is graded by GIA or IGI, and most by GIA. The report records the carat weight, measurements and grades, and states any treatment the lab detects, such as a laser drill hole or a color change by heat and pressure. Each stone's page shows its lab and grades, with a link to the report where the supplier provides one. How grading reports work explains what each lab checks.

Both are diamond, with the same hardness, fire and chemistry. A natural diamond formed deep in the earth, most of them more than a billion years ago, and costs more for the same size and grades; a lab-grown one formed in weeks. Choose natural if that origin matters to you, and lab-grown if the size for your budget matters more. Lab-grown vs natural diamonds weighs the two in full.

We are a New York-based online jeweler. Our office is at 45 Rockefeller Plaza but is not open to visitors, so we sell only online, and our concierge works by chat, email and phone. Your diamond is sent insured and needs a signature on delivery, and for orders to the US we pay the import duty ourselves.

Yes. Every natural diamond we sell is graded by GIA or IGI, most of them by GIA. The stone's page names the lab and shows its grades, with a link to the report where the supplier provides one. The report is the stone's description in the lab's words, so read it before you buy, and ask our concierge about anything in it.

It depends on the cut, color, clarity and shape far more than on the weight alone, so two 1 carat stones can be priced very differently. Set the carat filter to 1 to 1.49 and sort by price to see each one in your currency, and look at 0.90 to 0.99 carats too: they look almost the same and cost less.

No. Both are real diamond, the same carbon crystal with the same hardness and sparkle. "Natural" means it formed in the earth rather than in a lab, and its report says which. Labs tell the two apart with specialist instruments, not by eye. Our Journal explains how to tell a diamond from a simulant such as moissanite.

A natural diamond keeps more of its price than a lab-grown one, but secondhand buyers and dealers usually offer well below what you paid, so buy it to wear rather than to sell. Choose the one you would be happy to wear, and put your budget where you can see it, in cut and size, rather than in grades only a lab can tell apart.

Some are. A laser can reach a dark inclusion to make it show less, and heat and pressure can change a diamond's color. A lab that detects a treatment says so on its report, and each stone's page shows its report. If you want a diamond with no detected treatment, read the report or ask our concierge before you buy.

If it matters to you that the diamond formed in the earth, yes: it wears exactly like a lab-grown one. If you would rather have a larger stone or better grades for the same budget, a lab-grown diamond gives you that. Our concierge can show you both side by side, in your setting and your budget.