New Carat makes engagement rings, wedding bands, earrings, pendants and tennis bracelets set with IGI and GIA certified lab grown diamonds, in solid 10K, 14K and 18K gold and 950 platinum. Every piece ships with an independent grading report and an insurance appraisal, and we ship across the United States and Canada with prices shown in USD or CAD.

We sell direct, which is the reason the pricing works. There is no wholesale tier, no distributor margin and no showroom network built into what you pay. That difference goes into the stone and the metal rather than the supply chain.

What a Lab Grown Diamond Actually Is

A lab grown diamond is diamond. It is crystallised carbon with the same cubic lattice, the same 10 on the Mohs hardness scale, the same refractive index and the same dispersion as a diamond formed in the earth. It is not a simulant. Cubic zirconia and moissanite are different materials that imitate the look of diamond. A lab grown diamond is the material.

The difference is origin and timescale. A mined diamond crystallised over geological time under the pressure of the earth's mantle. A lab grown diamond is produced in a growth chamber over a period of weeks under engineered conditions that replicate the same chemistry.

Two methods produce gem quality stones.

HPHT, or High Pressure High Temperature, reproduces mantle conditions directly. A small diamond seed, a carbon source and a metal catalyst are held under extreme pressure and heat until carbon atoms bond onto the seed in the diamond structure.

CVD, or Chemical Vapor Deposition, works at lower pressure. A diamond seed plate sits in a vacuum chamber filled with a carbon rich gas. Energy breaks the gas apart and carbon deposits onto the seed layer by layer.

Both produce real diamonds. Both are cut and polished by the same cutters using the same equipment as mined rough. Neither method is inherently better, and a well cut CVD stone outperforms a poorly cut HPHT stone every time. Cut quality matters more than growth method.

How to Read the 4Cs Without Overpaying

The 4Cs are cut, colour, clarity and carat. They are not equally important, and the industry rarely says so plainly.

Cut is the only one that is about workmanship rather than raw material, and it is the one that determines how the diamond looks. Cut governs how light enters the stone, reflects internally and returns to your eye. That return is what people describe as brilliance, fire and scintillation. A D colour, flawless diamond with a mediocre cut looks dull. Prioritise cut grade first and do not compromise on it.

Colour is graded D through Z, where D is completely colourless. In a white metal setting, most people cannot distinguish D from G without a side by side comparison under controlled lighting. In yellow or rose gold, warmer stones in the G to I range often look better than colourless ones, because the metal reflects into the stone anyway.

Clarity describes inclusions, the internal growth characteristics every diamond has. The threshold that matters is eye clean: no inclusion visible to the unaided eye at normal viewing distance. VS1 and VS2 are reliably eye clean in most shapes. Paying for VVS or flawless buys you something only a loupe can see, except in step cut shapes.

Carat is weight, not size. Two one carat diamonds can look noticeably different depending on how the weight is distributed. A deep cut stone hides weight below the girdle where you cannot see it. Elongated shapes spread weight across the face up surface, which is why an oval or marquise often reads larger than a round of identical carat weight.

There is also a pricing step at the round numbers. A 0.90 carat diamond and a 1.00 carat diamond differ by a sliver of millimetres, but they sit on different sides of a price break. Buying just under the threshold is one of the few reliable ways to get more stone for the same budget.

Choosing a Diamond Shape

We cut and set seven shapes, each with a different visual character.

Round is the most optically efficient shape. Its faceting is engineered specifically to maximise light return, which is why it delivers more sparkle per carat than anything else. It is also the most in demand shape, which means you pay for that performance.

Oval gives you an elongated outline that lengthens the finger and reads larger face up than a round of the same weight. It is a brilliant cut shape, so it keeps the fire of a round while covering more surface.

Emerald is a step cut. Instead of triangular facets that scatter light, it has long parallel facets that produce broad flashes and a clear view into the stone. That open table rewards better clarity, so choose a higher clarity grade in emerald than you would in a brilliant cut.

Radiant combines an emerald outline with brilliant faceting underneath. You get the rectangular silhouette with the sparkle of a round, and it hides inclusions better than a true emerald cut.

Pear is asymmetric by design, a brilliant round on one end tapering to a single point. Setting quality matters more here than in any other shape, because the point needs protection.

Marquise is the most elongating shape we cut, with two points and a long body. It maximises apparent size per carat.

Elongated Cushion softens a square outline into rounded corners and stretches the proportions. It is the shape people choose when a classic cushion feels too compact.

Settings, Metals and How They Change the Result

The setting changes how a diamond looks as much as the diamond does.

Solitaire puts a single stone on a clean band and gets out of the way. Hidden Halo places a ring of small diamonds beneath the centre stone, visible from the side profile but not from above, which adds apparent size without changing the face up look. Three Stone sets a centre diamond between two side stones. Bezel wraps the stone in a continuous metal rim, the most secure option and the one to choose for hands on work or an active routine. Toi et Moi pairs two stones on one band. Side Stone runs accent diamonds along the shoulders. Nature Inspired uses organic, asymmetric forms rather than geometric ones.

Everything we make is solid metal, not plated. Plated jewellery wears through at the contact points and cannot be properly resized or repaired.

10K gold has the highest alloy content of the three, which makes it the hardest and most scratch resistant, with the palest colour in yellow. 14K is the standard for everyday rings in North America and the balance most people want between colour saturation and durability. 18K has the richest colour and is softer, which makes it better suited to earrings, pendants and bracelets than to a ring worn daily on a working hand.

White gold is yellow gold alloyed with white metals and finished with rhodium plating for brightness. That plating wears and needs reapplying periodically, which is normal maintenance, not a defect. 950 platinum is naturally white and never needs replating. It is denser and heavier, and it develops a soft matte patina over time rather than losing colour.

Certification and Appraisal

Every New Carat centre stone is graded by IGI or GIA, two independent gemmological laboratories. The report records the shape, the measurements, the carat weight, the cut, colour and clarity grades, and states explicitly that the diamond is laboratory grown. Lab grown stones are also laser inscribed on the girdle with a report number, readable under magnification.

Separately, every order includes an insurance appraisal, a valuation document for your insurer. A grading report and an appraisal do different jobs. The report describes the diamond, the appraisal assigns a replacement value. You need both, and we include both.

On telling lab grown from mined, you cannot do it by eye, and neither can a jeweller with a loupe. The distinction requires specialist instruments that read growth patterns, trace element signatures and fluorescence behaviour. That equipment sits in gemmological laboratories. This is why certification matters more in lab grown than anywhere else in jewellery. The paperwork is the proof.

Where the Price Difference Comes From

Lab grown diamonds cost substantially less than mined diamonds of comparable specification, and the gap has widened considerably over the past several years as global growing capacity has expanded.

The mechanism is supply, not quality. Mined diamond supply is constrained by geology and by the cost of extracting and sorting enormous volumes of ore for a small yield of gem quality rough. Lab grown supply responds to demand. When demand rises, more reactors get built. Production costs have fallen as the technology has matured and as capacity has scaled.

The honest consequence of that, which we would rather tell you than have you discover later, is that lab grown diamonds do not hold resale value the way mined diamonds do. Any diamond, mined or lab grown, loses a large share of its retail price the moment it resells, because you bought at retail and you resell into the wholesale market. For lab grown the effect is sharper, because the replacement cost of an equivalent new stone keeps falling. Buy a lab grown diamond because you want to wear it. Do not buy one as a financial asset.

What the price difference does buy you is scope. The same budget reaches a larger centre stone, a higher cut grade, a better colour, a more involved setting, or a complete bridal set instead of a single ring.

On Sustainability, Stated Carefully

We will tell you what we can support and nothing beyond it.

Lab grown diamonds are produced in growth chambers above ground. They are not sourced through diamond mining, so they do not involve the land disturbance, ore volumes or tailings associated with extraction. That is a factual statement about the production route.

What we will not do is attach numbers to it that we cannot independently verify. Diamond growing is energy intensive, and the environmental footprint of any given stone depends heavily on the electricity mix of the facility that produced it. Figures circulating in jewellery marketing are frequently unsubstantiated. We would rather give you an accurate limited statement than an impressive unverifiable one.

Design Your Own Ring

If nothing in the collection is quite right, our custom studio lets you specify the shape, carat weight, colour and clarity of the centre stone, the setting style, the metal and the finish. You work with our team through the design, and the piece is made to that specification. Production timelines depend on the complexity of the design, and our team confirms the schedule with you before work begins.

Caring for Lab Grown Diamond Jewelry

Care is the same as for any fine jewellery, because the material is the same. Soak the piece in warm water with a few drops of mild dish soap for ten to fifteen minutes, work gently behind and underneath the stone with a soft toothbrush where skin oil and lotion collect, rinse in clean water and dry with a lint free cloth. The underside of the stone is where film builds up and where sparkle goes first.

Take rings off before applying hand cream, swimming in chlorinated water, using household cleaners and lifting weights.

Ultrasonic cleaners are safe for most prong set and bezel set diamonds in solid gold or platinum. Avoid them for pieces with structural damage, for loose stones and for any piece where a stone has shifted. If you are unsure, choose professional cleaning instead.