January 2026 | Lab Grown Magazine

January 2026 | The Lab Grown Diamond Resource Book 14 Mailed to 24,000 Jewelers Monthly - To advertise call (888) 832-1109 | January 2026 15 DISCLAIMER: Lab Grown Magazine assumes no responsibility for content, articles, or advertisement in publication. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form without prior written permission of the publisher is prohibited. The publisher reserves the right to edit all articles for clarity space and editorial sensitivities. Publisher Zev Oster Manager David Oster Features Writer Dan Scott Graphics / Production Kim Kennelly LabGrownAds@gmail.com Advertising & Sales LabGrownMagazine@gmail.com Circulation 24,000 Magazines Printed &Mailed Monthly Distributed at Show Bins PO Box 683 Pomona, NY 10970 T: 888-832-1109 F: 212-257-7056 www.LabGrownMagazine.com Find us on A division of Letter from the Publisher At a lab outside Houston, a diamond is being born under fluorescent light. It’s 3 a.m. and the machine hums sound like a sleep-deprived spaceship. Carbon atoms are behaving themselves, stacking neatly into what will become... In most cases, a 1-2 carat en- gagement ring or colored LGDs appear in the afford- able luxury facets of fashion jewelry. Welcome to 2026 — the year we will dig less Earth holes and accelerate in mining our own hubris. For well over a over a century, the diamond indus- try believed beauty must be rare and rarity must be expensive. Then people flocked to CVD and HTHP plasma machines growing beauty in days. Yesterday, a consumer walked into a jeweler, spent (on average) three paychecks and walked out on an industry instilled moral high ground. In 2026, a con- sumer walks in, asks for a diamond grown on 100 % renewable smugness and posts it on Threads with the hashtag #CarbonNeutralLove. By mid-2026, mined diamonds, by comparison, may look like someone using a Blackberry phone. LGDs are successfully marketed as “conflict-free,” which is a polite way of saying “you can propose without thinking about civil war.” No mining, no child labor, no guilty conscience. Of course, some will always opt for mined diamonds. Just like some will never want to stray from gas fu- eled cars and drink cow’s milk vs. plant based “milk.” There is certainly a market for both. The most expensive part of a diamond isn’t based on the stone; it’s the story you tell about it. And in 2026, more than ever, people are talking in Type IIa LGD carats, not centuries. YOUR From jewelry, through ZKDiamonds and Ethos Creations. V&AGroup delivers factory-direct brilliance cut loose diamonds to lab-created precision- Display Programs | LooseDiamondPrograms |RetailerAdvertisingSupport USA |Canada |India |UAE FROMOUR FACTORYTOYOURFLOOR L ve, FORTHE WWW.VANDAGROUP.COM | 866-283-4367 | 6120 TARNEF DR, HOUSTON, TEXAS 77074 USA COMPLETE DIAMOND DESTINATION Created Ze v