October 2023 | Lab Grown Magazine

October 2023 | The Lab Grown Diamond Resource Book 24 Mailed to 24,000 Jewelers Monthly - To advertise call (888) 832-1109 | October 2023 25 Dan Scott is a Brand Architect with Luxe Licensing, a marketing, licensing and production agency with a portfolio including Dior, Chanel, Harry Winston and demi-luxe starter brands. Dan also operates The Mined & Man-Made Diamond Allaince (www.MMDA. world) a non-profit that doesn’t compete with any natural or LGD like organizations, rather hopes to build a bridge between such. Dan welcomes comments. Texts/calls: + 1201 294 3697 or through https://LuxeLicensing.com and you’ll find options such as counterfeit, er- satz, mock and phony. Also, fake. A Carbon Copy Rapaport is not calling LGDs “fake.” While legal, according to the latest FTC Jewelry Guidelines , his repeated use of the adjective “synthetic” preced- ing the word “diamond” when referencing LG, creates negative concerns. Some are quick to challenge the science terminology behind the synthesis process, noting “ The series of chemical reactions that are used to change natural resources into synthetic products is called chemical synthesis. To make a “natural” product, the natural resource is not chemically changed as much,” as per the Ameri- can Chemical Society’s published explanation. Regardless, to many, Rapaport’s use of “synthet- ic” signals that all LGDs are “lesser than,” as any- thing synthetic is normally associated with hu- man made simulations; something attempting to be very similar to something else, or, in this case, a duplication - an identical copy . LGDs are an advanced technology. They are, sim- ply stated, a clone. We don’t produce LGDs, we copy natural diamonds. No man-made diamond was initially grown without the seed of a natural diamond. The Billion-Dollar Question Are LGDs truly identical to natural diamonds? Cer- tainly not in the way they are made. But if we study any grown diamond, we find one strikingly consis- tent trait: all man-made diamonds are Type IIa. We know that Type IIa are only 2% of the world’s natural colorless diamond supply. So, if the ma- jority of all mined diamonds are not type IIa, and all man-made diamonds are, then aren’t all man- made diamonds superior in quality to natural as proven by scientific grading reports? There are distinct advantages to mined and man- made diamonds and to debate such only creates more turmoil within an already disturbing dia- mond dilemma landscape. Rapaport most likely used the word “synthetic” strategically to downgrade man-made diamonds and call them out as the main threat to mined dia- monds. If synthetic means the same as man-made, then I suppose we are all synthetic creatures. Or, perhaps that description is isolated to children born from artificial insemination. As silly as the paragraph you just read may appear, transpose the same thought process to what the diamond industry is currently experiencing. What comes to mind when you think of “synthetic”? And, isn’t it interesting that the current FTC Jew- elry Guidelines allow for lab-grown diamonds to be called “synthetic,” but not “man-made” as a stand- alone phrase? ◆ Oxford Dictionary’s online definition of “synthetic,” noting the first word of the first line as “artificial,” followed by the non-approved scientific definition of the synthesis process described differently by the American Chemical Society.      Once the world’s largest gem-quality rough, The Cullina Diamond, is a Type IIa diamond and denoted as an exceptionally rare colorless type, part of only 2% of the world’s total rough colorless diamonds of that variety. 100% of colorless lab-grown diamonds are Type IIa. Photo: Architectural Digest