It’s a collection that still speaks to the Kendra Scott customer—approachable, warm, and sparkle-loving—but with a sleeker edge. For those used to her signature drusy stones and vibrant hues, the diamond edit offers something subtler: a timeless, everyday kind of luxury that doesn’t need to shout.
Styles offered: Necklaces, earrings, bracelets, rings, and watches
Price range: Pieces start at $25, with fine jewelry options reaching up to $8,995
Special services: Customizable jewelry through the Color Bar experience; lab-grown diamonds graded at or above H color and VS clarity, with stones 0.5 carat or higher certified by the International Gemological Institute.
Jennifer Fisher has always approached jewelry as deeply personal—and deeply powerful. The designer, known for redefining modern essentials with her signature hoops and dog tags, entered the lab-grown diamond space not to jump on a trend, but to offer something meaningful. “I have a mine-cut stone that is of significant size,” she told Vogue, “and I don’t know who, if anyone, was harmed mining it. That doesn’t feel great.”
Her lab-grown collection, launched in early 2023, is a sharp departure from the micro pavé-drenched engagement offerings flooding the market. Think pinky rings with major emerald cuts, simplified martini-set studs, and substantial tennis necklaces made to sit perfectly whether your hair is up or down. “I stopped wearing my engagement ring on my wedding finger three years ago,” Fisher explains. “Now I wear it on my pinky—and people literally stop me on the street.”
Designed in 18k gold, her pieces favor substantial, single-stone silhouettes over sparkle overload. “The market is already saturated with pavé,” she says. “People want one visually extraordinary stone—not a bunch of tiny ones shoved into a setting.”
Though she doesn’t plan to expand into traditional engagement rings, Fisher has found that women—particularly those buying for themselves—are gravitating toward her lab-grown pieces as milestone markers: for anniversaries, divorces, or just the joy of wearing a serious rock on any finger they please. “They’re not buying them to be subtle,” she says. “They’re buying them because they want a stone that feels bold, modern, and truly theirs.”
Styles offered: Rings, tennis necklaces, diamond studs
Price range: Pieces start around $3,000
Special services: Simple, signature settings; lab diamonds set in 18k gold; direct-to-consumer model with personal consultation
To help guide your shopping journey, we tapped four jewelry experts to answer the most frequently asked questions about lab-grown diamonds. From the science behind the sparkle to their ethical implications, consider this your lab-grown cheat sheet.
A Brief History of Lab-Grown Diamonds
Lab-grown diamonds aren’t new, per se. The technology has been around for decades—General Electric produced the first batch in 1954—but early versions were largely industrial-grade, used for cutting tools, not rings. Only in the last decade has quality and accessibility caught up with demand. “The technology around lab-grown diamonds had been going on for a long time,” says Jean Dousset, “but had not reached the quality that it did a few years back.”
By the time the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) began grading lab-grown diamonds using the same scale as natural diamonds, Dousset knew the tide was turning: “That was a big breakthrough. The foremost authority in diamond grading acknowledging that these are two diamonds that are the same—with a different origin—meant the product was viable.”
What is a lab-grown diamond? Are lab-grown diamonds real diamonds?
“Lab-grown diamonds are molecularly exactly the same as mined diamonds. In 2018, the FTC updated their definition of what a diamond is, reflecting that lab-grown diamonds are indeed ‘real’ diamonds,” says Strachan. “The only difference between a lab-grown diamond and a mined diamond is the setting in which it’s created—under heat and pressure in a controlled lab setting versus under heat and pressure in the earth.”
How are lab-grown diamonds made?
Lab-grown diamonds undergo the same formation process, just at warp speed in a lab. There are two primary methods:
High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT): Mimics Earth’s natural diamond formation process using a small diamond seed, subjected to over 1.5 million pounds per square inch of pressure and temperatures above 2,000°F.
Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD): Places a diamond seed into a vacuum chamber filled with carbon-rich gas. The gas is heated until the carbon atoms crystallize on the seed, layer by layer.
“The ability to create diamonds in the lab means growers can control for the desired color, cut, clarity, and size,” says Strachan.
However, it’s worth noting that the process requires significant energy input. According to the Natural Diamond Council, CVD methods can consume 250–750 kWh of electricity per carat—comparable to running an average U.S. household for a month. The energy footprint varies widely depending on the lab’s source (renewable vs. fossil fuel).
How can you tell the difference between lab-grown diamonds and natural diamonds?
With the naked eye, “it’s nearly impossible to tell the difference between mined and lab-grown diamonds,” says Strachan. “Only a gemologist with the most trained eye is able to tell the difference, and even this is currently under scrutiny,” she adds. “I hear from many Dorsey customers that they layer a Dorsey lab-grown necklace next to a mined diamond necklace, and no one can tell the difference.”
What is the highest grade of lab-grown diamonds?
Lab-grown diamonds can reach the highest grades of Flawless (FL) or Internally Flawless (IF) clarity, D color, and Super Ideal Cut. However, achieving these top grades remains rare.
“Although lab diamond technology has advanced tremendously, the highest color and clarity grades, such as D/FL and D/IF, are still difficult to achieve,” says Annie Chen, Brilliant Earth’s senior vice president of merchandising.
Do the 4 Cs apply to lab-grown diamonds?
The 4 C’s—color, clarity, cut, and carat weight—apply to lab-grown diamonds like to mined diamonds. Lab-grown diamonds are evaluated by independent grading labs such as GIA, IGI, and GCal using identical standards. “Lab-grown diamonds are made of the same material as natural diamonds and have the same optical and chemical properties,” says Chen. “The higher the color and clarity, the rarer the diamond.”
Do lab-grown diamonds hold their value?
There’s no simple answer here. “Value,” as Fisher puts it, “isn’t always about resale.” The jewelry market still treats mined diamonds as rarer, and thus more valuable, but as Dousset points out, “Just because something costs less doesn’t mean it’s cheap. It’s about access—being able to buy the ring you actually want.”
Are lab-grown diamonds more ethical?
“Symbolically, the fact that we’re not digging into the ground to unearth diamonds resonates,” says Dousset. While lab diamonds still require significant energy, some labs—like Vrai’s—operate entirely on renewable power and produce zero emissions.
The better question may be: what’s the overall impact of a company’s operations? “It comes down to traceability,” says Chen. “That’s where the ethics lie.”