Fancy Colour Lab Grown Diamonds
The price point of natural coloured diamonds is not reasonable for most people. But, we have good news! More and more fancy colour lab grown diamonds are becoming available.
In recent years we’ve seen the explosion in popularity of lab diamonds. Factors such as an increasingly knowledgeable public, wider market availability, and competitive pricing attribute to the rising popularity. If you are interested in learning more, you can check out our page where we discuss lab created diamonds in more detail.
What are Fancy Colour Lab Grown Diamonds?
People typically use the term fancy diamond to describe a coloured diamond. Sometimes it can also refer to a diamond that has obvious inclusions such as salt and pepper diamonds. The term fancy diamond can refer to both natural coloured diamonds and lab grown coloured diamonds.
Lab grown diamonds are chemically identical to natural, earth-mined diamonds. They are graded using the same scale as earth-mined diamonds. Even professionals can’t tell the difference between natural and lab created diamonds unless they have access to expensive equipment.
What Creates the Colour in Diamonds?
If a diamond contains only pure carbon then it will be colourless, or a D colour on the diamond grading scale. In nature, trace elements or defects in the crystal can create the colour. For lab diamonds those trace elements or defects are purposely introduced.
Blue Lab Grown Diamonds
Boron, when incorporated into the diamond structure of either a natural or lab diamond, imparts a blue colour. The concentration of boron dictates the intensity of the blue, with lower levels creating light blue hues and higher concentrations deep, saturated blues.
Yellow Lab Grown Diamonds
The presence of nitrogen in a natural diamond crystal lattice results in a yellow hue. Or sometimes it can also be more of an orange. If nitrogen is introduced during the growth process of a lab grown stone, scientists can produce diamonds ranging from pale yellow to strong orange.
Pink Lab Grown Diamonds
Irradiation and subsequent annealing can create green and pink colours in lab-grown diamonds. The controlled exposure to radiation alters the crystal lattice, resulting in these distinctive hues. Natural diamonds can also undergo radiation in the Earth’s mantle, leading to similar colouration.
Colour Enhanced Diamonds
Rather than a natural cause, enhancement is responsible for the colour found in most fancy diamonds on the market today. This enhancement process is the same for both natural and lab grown diamonds. Using an electronic beam or high heat enhances the diamond and creates the colour.
Consistency in colour is still a problem when using enhancements. It can be difficult to predict what colours these enhancements will produce.
Controlling the complex environment necessary to produce fancy colour lab grown diamonds can be challenging. Often an unintended colour will be produced in the diamond. On the other hand, this leads to many unique colours!
How Rare are Coloured Diamonds?
A fancy colour diamond is more rare whether it is lab created or earth mined. Natural fancy coloured diamonds are the rarest, and because of their rarity, are the most expensive. Technology to purposefully create colour in natural diamonds through enhancement has been around for many years. As a result, there is a wide availability of inventory of fancy colour earth mined diamonds.
Unfortunately, there isn’t the same kind of inventory available in fancy coloured lab diamonds. The manufacturers have prioritized filling the demand for colourless lab diamonds and are only just starting to create coloured lab diamonds.
What Colours are Available?
Techncially, the same variety of colours that are available for natural enhanced fancy coloured diamonds should be available for lab grown. Those colours include canary yellow, burnt orange, rusty red, dark green, apple green, mint green, aqua blue, teal blue, pink and greyish purple.
As we will see below, the availablity of all of these colours for lab created diamonds is still not at the level of their natural counterparts.
Rarest Colours
The rarest colours of lab grown diamonds are vivid red, intense green and black. In the cases of vivid red and intense green, these colours are also exceptionally rare in nature. Black diamonds, however, are widely available via enhancement of natural material. There are no black lab grown diamonds on the market because of the widespread availability of natural black diamonds and their low price point.
Red Lab Grown Diamonds
The enhanced options available for red diamonds tend to be a rusty-red colour, more similar to the colour of a garnet. It is exceptionally rare to get a vivid red diamond whether it’s natural, enhanced or a lab grown diamond.
The introduction of structural defects or deformities during the growth process can produce diamonds with rare purple and red colors. These hues are among the most coveted in the world.
Green Lab Grown Diamonds:
The enhanced options for green diamonds tend to be either a forest, apple or mint green rather than an intense green. A true green is uncommon in any kind of diamond.
Are Fancy Colour Lab Grown Diamonds Available in Toronto?
Fancy lab grown diamonds are slowly entering the market. Although supply is still limited, we are starting to see some options for our Toronto clients. We’ve seen yellow, pink, champagne and light blue.
The yellow diamonds we’ve seen have ranged from pale yellow to canary yellow. In blue we’ve seen light blue to very pale blue. Finally, in pink we’ve seen variations from champagne to light pink.
If you’re interested in a coloured lab diamond, we suggest staying open to size and shape. Because supply is still limited, there are only so many shapes and sizes available in each colour.
What about Fancy Melee Options?
Melee diamonds are what jeweller’s call small diamonds. There is no hard and fast rule as to when a diamond is small enough to be referred to as melee. Usually melee is considered 3mm and below.
As with their larger counterparts, small coloured lab diamonds are still quite rare. Enchanced natural coloured options are widely available. It will take time but, eventually, there will no doubt be equal availability of fancy colour melee lab grown diamonds.
Design Options
At Posy Fine Jewellery, we are fans of tone on tone. A champagne or pink diamond in rose gold is so swoony. Or the crispness of a pale blue diamond in white gold. Yellow diamonds in yellow gold is also so satisfying.
As fancy colour lab grown diamonds become more available, more design options will open up. As we noted in our introduction, large natural coloured diamonds are just out of reach for most people. In the past this has meant that people who like the look and style of coloured diamonds have had to settle for something else. Thankfully, that’s beginning to change.
Fancy Colour Lab Grown Diamond Engagement Rings
As of right now, it will be hard to find a fancy colour lab grown diamond engagement ring in a retail store. You will have more luck if you opt for a custom engagement ring. We will bring in different diamond options for you to see in person so you can select that one that speaks to you. After the stone selection you will be able to customize every detail of the ring to your personal preferences.
A custom engagement ring involves more labour and therefore is more expensive than an off the shelf option. However, this is the ring that you will be wearing for the rest of your life. It’s important that you get what your heart desires and that it is built to last. You will find that your investment pays for itself over time through the joy that it brings you and the craftsmanship that went into its durability.
If you have any questions that we have not answered here, please do get in touch!
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