Small Talk SHAHLA KARIMI

The New York Citybased jewellery designer, founder of the eponymous brand, shares her talking points

A common misconception about cultivated diamonds is that they are fake or similar to cubic zirconia. However, this is not the case. Cultivated diamonds are atomically the same as natural—this means that their chemical make-up is identical. The only difference between the two is their origin.

The price difference between natural and cultivated

diamonds is the primary reason that people choose cultivated. Lab-grown diamonds are atomically the same as their natural counterparts, and cost 50 to 75 per cent less than natural diamonds between one and three carats. For example, a natural one-carat brilliant round diamond in F to G colour, VS clarity, typically retails for US$8,000 to US$10,000, while a cultivated

stone with the same specs retails for US$3,000 to US$5,000. If you want to get the most out of your budget, choose a cultivated stone. One of the best qualities of

cultivated diamonds is that they are arguably a more sustainable stone option. Most of the labs we have chosen to work with are certified carbon neutral, and grow their stones sustainably above ground—some vendors even power their processes with solar power, like Diamond Foundry in California. CVD process lab-grown diamonds tint either brown or pink instead of yellow, which makes deeper coloured stones a really beautiful option for a rose or yellow gold setting. Lab-grown diamonds offer the same range of shapes as natural diamonds—sometimes more. When we began designing pieces with more unique-shaped stones, it was much easier to source them cultivated rather than natural.