Big Box Brands Banking on Synthetics, er, Lab-Grown
Over the past several days, we have been seeing more conversation about what to call manmade, created diamonds so they can be discussed clearly with consumers.
Our feature story last week was an effort to make this conversation less confusing. (See Laboratory-Grown Diamonds vs. Synthetic Diamonds – What’s the Difference?)
It would be nice if the industry could settle and be less confused.
However, just yesterday, I was presented with a white paper from a big box firm explaining to their audience that “A lab-created diamond is not ‘synthetic’. It is a real diamond, identical to a mined diamond just grown above ground. In their jewellery guidelines, the Federal Trade Commission says terms such as ‘synthetic’, ‘artificial’ etc. are misleading.”
Before I delve into why that first sentence is wrong, I’d like to reach back to a July 2018 article in DiamondWorld.net, titled FTC Declares Man-Made Diamonds as Diamonds. In this article, there is a statement that is often used to justify what is written above… that “a lab-created diamond is not a synthetic.”
The DiamondWorld article reads, “the terminology ‘synthetic’ is no longer relevant considering the FTC suggests that the term is often interpreted as being ‘artificial’ when in fact man-made diamonds are not artificial.”
Trying to take the confusion out of the conversation, DiamondWorld just made it confusing. What it should have said is “the terminology ‘synthetic’ is no longer relevant considering the FTC suggests that the term is often interpreted as being ‘artificial’ when in fact synthetic diamonds are not artificial.”
That innocent substitution of “man-made” for “synthetic” makes it seem like we are stating there’s a difference between synthetic and man-made. Which of course, we are not.
Which then gets us back to the current white paper stating “A Lab created diamond is not a synthetic.”
I know that the easy way to get rid of the confusion is to eliminate the term “synthetic”, and I am certain that Tom Chatham would agree wholeheartedly.
But back to the original point; Lab-grown diamond, Laboratory Grown diamond, Factory Grown diamond, Created diamond, and Synthetic diamond are all exactly the same.
Let’s not confuse ourselves.
