Given the price of genuine natural diamonds it’s perhaps not surprising that many alternatives have been produced over the years. These tend to fall into two categories: synthetic diamonds (man-made lab created stones) and diamond simulants.

Synthetic

Synthetic diamonds are in chemical terms the same as real diamonds. However their artificial origin means that they haven’t been exposed to all the factors involved in natural diamond creation. As such they tend to lack some of the faults, impurities and blemishes of natural stones. This can be seen as a good thing, however it’s possible to be “too perfect” and synthetic diamonds sometimes lack the “character” of natural stones. They also lack the emotional element of knowing that you’re wearing a stone created by nature over thousands of years.

Simulants

Diamond simulants are stones that have a different chemical composition to diamond but share some of its visible properties. Often they’re designed to look like diamonds from a distance. Simulants can either be natural stones or lab created and they vary from cheap rhinestones (”paste diamonds”) to more desirable stones such as cubic zirconia (cz), moissanite and swarovski crystals.

Over recent years there has been a trend amongst some producers of diamond substitutes to rebrand them as desirable stones to buy in their own right as opposed to diamond look alikes.