Our diamond experts feel that both methods can produce high quality diamonds, therefore we don’t choose one over the other when procuring our lab grown diamonds. This is also because all of the CVD diamonds we offer have also undergone an HPHT process to make sure they have great colour and clarity.

When you’re shopping for a lab grown diamond with us, it’s important to note that while all of our lab grown diamonds are certified by GIA (Gemological Institute of America) , IGI (International Gemological Institute) or GCAL (Gem Certification & Assurance Lab), the method of growth isn’t always stated. All of our diamonds are inspected for quality control and have an excellent cut, clarity and colour. We don’t recommend lab diamonds that have only been made through the CVD method, so it’s important to check that your jeweller can guarantee your lab diamond has undergone HPHT even if it was intitally created through CVD.

The process to create an HPHT diamond (High Pressure High Temperature) was initially developed in the 1950s for industrial purposes. As mentioned above, the HPHT process can also be used to treat mined diamonds to enhance their overall colour and clarity. The process was designed to mimic the pressure and temperatures found within the earth where natural diamond crystals are formed over millions of years. The HPHT process manages to recreate this environment, but allows a diamond to form in a matter of weeks compared to the roughly 150 million years it took to form the world’s natural diamonds!

A CVD diamond (Chemical Vapour Deposition) is a recently invented technique in which diamonds are grown from a hydrocarbon gas mixture, similar to how diamonds form in interstellar gas clouds. The CVD process was created in the 1980s and is generally understood to be the less costly method of creating diamonds out of the two as it requires much less energy.

A thin slice of diamond seed is placed in a sealed chamber and heated to around 800 degrees celsius, and then the chamber is filled with other carbon rich gases such as methane. The gases are ionised into plasma using microwaves, lasers, and other techniques. The ionisation breaks down the gases and allows the carbon to merge with the diamond seed, growing the diamond up layer by layer.