Quince on the left, Blue Nile on the right
I was considering adding this to my already lengthy Quince Fine Jewelry Review post, but I thought this could be it’s own ever-growing post since I’m really in love with Quince’s lab grown diamond jewelry. I got some credit from Quince (thank you to all those who purchase through my affiliate links since it also gives me Quince credit at the end of each month), and decided to splash out on some lab grown diamond jewelry on my birthday month.
But first, my two cents (or should I say carats—har har) about lab grown diamond jewelry since I know there are varying opinions about this. As an avid jewelry and natural diamond collector (small diamonds mind you because before lab grown, diamonds were mighty expensive as you know), I welcome the lab grown variety. Sure they might make my earth-mined diamonds less in value these days because of the influx of large flawless sparkly diamonds, but diamond prices have always been artificially inflated by the diamond “cartel” (I learned about this in detail from the book Stoned by Aja Raden—a great read if you like jewelry and gemstones). We were being ripped off before, but now the lab grown variety has really democratized diamonds. And not to mention there should be less mining if we can produce what we want in labs. For all those who say lab grown are not real diamonds, that’s scientifically inaccurate since the molecular structure of lab grown is identical to earth-mined ones. However, that doesn’t mean I’ll stop buying earth-mined diamonds, I just prefer them to be antique Old Mine or Old European cut diamonds (usually tiny), which were cut back when they used to do it via candlelight—they have a lot more character than modern diamonds these days. And if you like natural diamonds over the lab grown ones then feel free to skip this post. But for anyone who likes sparkly things, that are made without ripping up the Earth, then I think Quince brings some of the best valued lab grown diamond jewelry on the internet.
My first foray into Quince’s offerings were these 14k Gold Lab Grown Diamond Oval Solitaire Studs. I got them in the 1 carat size since I wanted to compare to my 1.2 carat diamond studs from Blue Nile that I got nine years ago at $3600 😱. Honestly I love those Blue Nile earrings and wore them a ton in the 9 years that I had them, but they were definitely too expensive. And especially with earrings, where you can lose one side without knowing, it’s risky to get such expensive diamond studs. Sure you can get the screw backs, but I was never a fan of those (they would irritate my ears for some reason). I think getting $500 lab grown diamond studs that look exactly like the $3600 ones (well not exactly since the diamond shapes differ), is a much better option. Sure it still sucks to possibly lose the equivalent of $250 (I can’t tell you how many earrings I’ve lose over the years), but that’s the price you pay to wear diamonds sometimes.
I will say that since Quince is selling these below their competitors prices, they have skimped a bit on the gold. For certain lab grown diamond jewelry (like the very large diamond engagement rings) I read in the reviews that they needed to get the diamond reset to accommodate the stone. The manufacturers for Quince are probably using the thinnest bit of gold they can get away to give a good price point, especially since gold prices are so expenesive these days.. But when it comes to the studs I didn’t find this to be a problem.
Currently Quince only has classic designs, but I also appreciate that with lab grown diamond jewelry some jewelry designers can do some fun design with diamonds now without breaking the bank. I also think the influx of flawless diamonds has put more value on the interesting and colored gemstones, which are sometimes more rare than diamonds.
Anyway I appreciate the advent of lab grown diamonds and foresee myself purchasing more in the future.