Fancy Color Lab Diamonds: Types, Growth Process, Affordability

Like white diamonds, yellow lab-created diamonds are chemically, physically, and optically identical to the naturally mined yellow diamond. Yellow lab-created diamonds are available in the yellow range, from fancy to vivid yellow.

Nitrogen is the primary source of color for naturally mined and artificial diamonds. Introducing impurities at a controlled rate during the culturing process gives the yellow lab-created diamond color. The more nitrogen is added to the process, the yellower the diamond, though adding excess nitrogen makes the diamond brownish.

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Growth

A 1.0- to 2.0-carat diamond production cycle in the growth machine takes five to six days to complete. The growth of yellow lab-grown diamonds is faster because the nitrogen impurities speed up the development.

Price

Yellow lab-made diamonds are not abundant in nature. Since they cost about 80+% less than the scarcely available natural yellow diamond, the yellow lab-grown diamond is always a good option.

Since yellow man-created diamonds are easier to make, they are less expensive than their natural counterparts.

Shapes

Most yellow-shaped diamonds grow in a truncated octahedral shape. Shapes like Asscher and Emerald are typically acquired to maximize the yield.

Pink lab-made diamonds are chemically, physically, and optically identical to naturally mined pink diamonds like white, yellow, and blue. Pink lab-created diamonds cost about 95% less than naturally mined pink diamonds. Pink lab-made diamonds range from fancy pink to deep pink diamonds.

While the white, blue, and yellow engineered diamonds get their color during growth, the pink lab-created diamonds get their color after growth treatment. The processes are referred to as irradiation and annealing.

By irradiation, pink diamonds can also be made from slightly yellow lab-made diamonds, which means showering the diamonds with neutrons and electrons.

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Price comparison

Because of their rarity, naturally mined pink diamonds cost between $56,000 and $150,000 per carat, but synthetic diamonds cost between $1,500 and $4,000 per carat.

Shapes

The shape of a pink diamond is the same as that of a yellow one.

Clarity

It depends on the saturation of manufactured diamonds—the lesser the saturation, the lower the clarity.

Other diamond colors, such as green, red, and purple, are also available, and their growth process is the same as that of the pink man-created diamond.

Blue lab-grown diamonds are chemically, physically, and optically identical to the naturally mined blue diamond. Blue man-grown diamonds cost about 90% less than naturally mined pink diamonds. A blue diamond made in the lab ranges from fancy blue to intense blue.

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Boron is the source of color for natural and lab-made blue diamonds—a controlled introduction of boron results in a varied blue diamond.

Growth

A 1.0-carat blue diamond takes approximately 7–10 days to produce. Boron helps speed up the growth of the diamond.

Price

A lab-made blue diamond costs only 10% of a natural blue diamond. Moreover, it falls within $1,000-$3,000 per carat.

Shapes

Blue lab diamonds grow in Hexa-cubic shapes, while the best-produced ones are usually round and have corner shapes like Cushions and Asscher cut.

A carbon diamond with zero impurities is referred to as a colorless diamond. However, natural and lab-created diamonds have impurities, mainly in nitrogen, because nearly every natural or lab-created diamond starts as yellow.

The nitrogen lattice in natural diamonds is separated after millions of years of exposure to heat and pressure. The diamond shines white because of the separation.

Lab-grown diamonds do not have millions of years to split, though growing the diamond with little or low nitrogen produces the same outcome.

Growth

An incredibly controlled environment with high temperatures and pressure is needed to grow a white diamond.

Extracting nitrogen and boron from the cell makes the growth slower, so 1.0 carat of a diamond grows in up to two weeks.

Price

White diamond growth is temperamental and time-consuming, so their supply is minimal. The price of lab-grown white diamonds per carat will fall within $1,000-$3,000, depending on the carat, cut, size, and clarity.

Shapes

White lab diamonds usually have a square-like shape. However, shapes like Round, Asscher, Emerald, and Princess can be produced to provide the highest yields.

Clarity

Lab-made diamonds have a clarity ranging from IF to SI2.