Hydrothermal Emeralds, Sapphires, and Other Lab-Grown Gemstones
Updated: 5 days ago
At Valeria's Secret we offer fine jewellery with ethically sourced natural mined and lab-grown gemstones.
Gemmology is the science of gems, and like any proper science, it's highly complex and largely inaccessible to most people — meaning they can't easily make sense of it without expert help. Lab-grown gems are a relatively new phenomenon which often makes them misunderstood by jewellery shoppers due to seriously confusing information available. Where they are perceived as 'less than,' this is mostly down to marketing campaigns or, plainly speaking, discrimination against lab-grown gems based on their origin, propaganda, or simply "gossip" about gems or street cred circulating on social media and other customer-facing channels. It's not surprising that in order to justify significantly higher prices of mined gems, someone has to work hard to discredit the competition.
Lab-grown gems are commonly referred to as "synthetic" — a term that has even made its way into official gemstone regulations. However, it is far from the most accurate way to describe them, even as it very successfully skews customer perception against them. As a linguist, psychologist, and researcher, I cannot call lab-grown gemstones "synthetic" without cringing. The Cambridge Dictionary defines synthetic as "made artificially and not produced from natural substances, often copying a natural product." This definition cannot be accurately applied to lab-grown gemstones — in reality, it's being stretched well beyond its proper meaning to do so.
Valeria's Secret Bespoke Fine Jewellery Made with Natural Mined Emeralds and Loose Gemstones
Lab-grown gems are crystals of the same chemical elements as found in nature with the same chemical composition and structure. In fact, they are crystals of the same minerals that can be found in nature. It means they are as durable and as beautiful as mined gems, and in most cases exceed their natural counterparts' characteristics such as size, purity, clarity, and colour for the price you will pay per carat. Lab-grown gems have nothing to do with coloured glass or Cubic Zirconia which are indeed synthetic, not as durable, significantly differ in appearance, and therefore, can be easily visually distinguished from real gemstones. GIA defines lab-grown gems as synthetic gem material that is "made in a laboratory, but which shares virtually all chemical, optical, and physical characteristics of its natural mineral counterpart, though in some cases, namely synthetic turquoise and synthetic opal, additional compounds can be present." It is more than clear from this definition that the difference between lab-grown and mined gems is indeed too minor to be considered significant and both can be equally referred to as natural.
Compare the Oxford dictionary definitions of natural as "existing in nature; not made or caused by humans" vs synthetic as "artificial; made by combining chemical substances rather than being produced naturally by plants or animals, but it also refers to something fake." In order to create lab-grown gems, natural substances are being combined together by humans, however, they are certainly not fake. Isn't it interesting to see how inadequate and confusing the use of 'synthetic' is for lab-grown gemstones? Importantly, the Oxford definition, is being noticeably out of date. The Oxford definition would also imply, for example, that babies conceived trough IVF are synthetic rather than natural... To give yet another example, lab-grown sapphires are as much sapphires as apples grown in your garden are apples compared to the ones found in the wild. However, it's the perceived difference between the two types of apples and two types of sapphires itself that is predominantly man-made or shall I say linguistic - the meaning one attributes to the two based on their origins. Interestingly, greenhouse fruit and vegetables often look more appetising than their wild counterparts to make the comparison between gems and fruit an even closer match.
Valeria's Secret Fine Jewellery Made with Hydrothermal Lab-Grown Emeralds
In order to create gemstones in a lab, the very chemical ingredients that compose natural mined gems are placed together while the environments under which gemstones are naturally formed are being duplicated too. Once the required combination of chemical and environmental factors is achieved, gemstone crystals start to grow naturally over time (the time may vary). As a result, the crystals have physical, chemical, and optical properties that are very similar or identical to those found in nature. Lab-grown gems are often indistinguishable from mined ones by non-gem experts and in some cases even gem experts aided by special tools and equipment may struggle to be sure of gems origin.
What Makes Lab-Grown Gemstones so Affordable?
In a nutshell, today there no shortage of lab-grown gems supply. The technology became more advanced in recent years, allowing to produce higher quality gems at a reduced cost. It's true that not all gems can be grown in labs, which is mostly due to complexity of their crystalline structure or the associated high costs of their production. However, commercially most important gems such as diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and sapphires can be and often are lab-grown.
It all started back in 19th century when French chemist Edmond Frémy pioneered the flame fusion (Verneuil) process, leading to the first commercial production of synthetic rubies that appeared on the market by 1885. So even your mother's heirloom rubies or sapphires may turn out to be lab-grown... The first successful lab-grown diamonds were created much later, in 1954. But they were not high enough quality to be commonly used in jewellery until recently. For comparison, at around the same time, in 1893 Mikimoto started culturing pearls. Because catching wild pearls was truly costly, labour-consuming, and devastating for the environment, the new method very soon almost entirely replaced the original practice. Cultures pearls also commonly appeared more visually appealing compared to wild (natural) ones. Today cultured pearls account for roughly 99% of the global pearl jewellery market, leaving true wild (natural) pearls to represent less than 1% of the entire industry. Maybe that's what the future is going to look like for the rest of the fine jewellery industry as well?
Returning back to lab-grown gemstones, cutters typically cut away approximately 80% of the rough lab-grown crystals, which is far more generous than when cutting mined gems, obtained with more 'sweat and blood'. This generous, seemingly wasteful cutting (leftovers are still used for industrial and other purposes) produces faceted gems that are often cleaner and brighter than even the finest mined stones. However, the price difference between the finest lab-grown and mined emerald, sapphire, ruby, or diamond gems of the same size and quality can be as much as £10,000 per carat or even more!
An interesting fact that not everyone knows about is that nowadays literally everyone can afford to wear beautiful, large, and exceptional quality genuine emeralds, rubies, sapphires, and other gems, which are lab-grown. I want to highlight emeralds in particular here because mined bright and clear emeralds with minor inclusions and the right hue are an extremely rare find, making them beyond reach for most people. I can even safely assume that a lot of customers have never seen such mined premium quality emeralds in person and never tried them on. In fact, this is precisely the reason why lab-grown emeralds may indeed look more noticeably 'lab-grown'. They do look very similar to the finest mined emeralds from Colombia, Brazil, or Zambia, which are so exceptional and rare that average customers hardly ever encounter them in their lifetime. Consequently, most people tend to naturally presume that emeralds have to be dark, included, chipped, etc. in order to be 'real'. The structural perfection, clarity, and vivid colour of lab-grown emeralds may feel like 'too much' to some customers. And it's true that emeralds tend to be more included compared to other gems, with loupe clean emeralds being virtually non-existent. However, it's good to remember that after all, emeralds share the same Beryl family with bright and clear aquamarine and morganite. And therefore, in it's less disturbed by natural upheavals form, lab-grown emerald often exhibits also perfectly natural for this gem vibrant colour, lustre, and clarity. An emerald's "jardin" (from the French word for "garden") describes the mossy, plant-like network of internal inclusions, fractures, and trapped minerals found inside a natural emerald. Not all mined emeralds have it, as there are premium eye clean gems. However, mined emeralds "jardin" remains the most prominent feature of only mined emeralds. Lab-grown emeralds being true and genuine emeralds frequently exhibit visible inclusions as well, but their "jardin" looks structurally different because of different environmental factors they grew in and therefore, as for now they cannot exactly replicate the "jardin" of mined emeralds.
Large mined sapphires and rubies with good clarity and colour are also way too expensive for most. However, their lab-grown counterparts will surprise you with how indistinguishable they are from mined stones, but budget-friendly. Lab-grown sapphires and rubies are far more common than most people think because of how indistinguishable they are from their mined counterparts. Without exaggeration, most people already have lab-grown corundum in their fine jewellery or watches, without even realising it. Because it can be genuinely difficult even for gem experts to tell lab-grown corundum from mined, one would be surprised at how often even the most reputable retailers sell them without specifying the origin, or unknowingly confuse the two. Truth be told, even recognised gem certification cannot always offer expected certainty about gem origins these days. Gem certification in itself is a lucrative business. Certificates will significantly inflate the price of a piece or gem, quite obviously, without enhancing their physical appearance or in any way changing the gem itself. After all, if no one can tell the two apart with certainty even under a loupe, why bother trying? I imagine someone rushing to say, 'Because of the price difference, of course!'. However, this argument only truly holds for exceptionally expensive, investment gems or jewellery pieces.
Gem prices can be extremely confusing, and frankly speaking, not well-regulated. There are regulations in place for diamonds, but again, not everyone sticks to them as the market is obviously full of diamonds and other gems that sell for significantly more or less compared to the established benchmarks. Contrary to a logical expectation that a grading system in place would ensure the prices stay locked within established brackets to protect customers, the system itself is often used to justify higher prices... In reality, when an average customer shops for jewellery, they don't have knowledge or resources to establish true value of a piece and have to make a purchasing decision based on how much they like the piece, how reasonable the price appears and if it's within their budget. Surely, there's more to the jewellery price than the cost of its' components... Craftsmanship, unique design, and brand can often multiply the value. However, pure marketing seems to play a far more significant role in the price formation than most consumers realise. Some retailers increase the price tag intentionally in an attempt to make their jewellery pieces look more exquisite and valuable, others may adopt a more customer-friendly pricing strategy to attract wider population. This diversity creates a situation where literally identical pieces of jewellery often come with dramatically different price tags.
For example, at Valeria's Secret we offer lab-grown gems and jewellery for a fraction of the price compared to most other retailers, look here (Brilliant Earth).
It makes a lot of sense to opt for lab-grown corundum indeed, because who doesn't want to save and wear beautiful fine jewellery they've always dreamed about? While most people tend to presume that more expensive mined gems must hold their value, however, it's not quite the case. Most mined gemstones available on the market are not suitable for investment and their value drops significantly right after purchase much like it happens with other commodities. Whereas large, rare, and premium quality investment rubes or sapphires are certainly beyond reach for most.
How indistinguishable from mined and beautiful lab-grown gems are, largely depends on the method they were grown. Below is an overview of common ways used for growing corundum, beryl, and other gems in labs nowadays.
The Most Common Ways of Growing Crystals of Genuine and Natural Gemstones in Labs
The hydrothermal growth process is slow and expensive but it creates premium quality gems with flawless clarity, rich colour and organic look that perfectly matches premium natural stones. Hydrothermal gems are almost indistinguishable from natural gems even under the microscope. Because this process requires heat and pressure, it very closely imitates the conditions deep in the earth's crust where the formation of natural gems occurs. During hydrothermal growth process, nutrients are dissolved in a water solution, and then gem crystals form as the solution cools down. It’s the only method for successfully growing quartz and the best way of growing emeralds, corundum, and other coloured gems.
Growing gems by the flux growth method also requires patience and significant investment. Crystal growth can take up to a year, and the equipment is even more expensive than with hydrothermal growth. But the results are well worth the time and effort. The process produces extremely hight quality gems that can easily trick even experts with their fine features so characteristic of mined gems such as wispy, feather-like inclusions that look like natural "fingerprints". Emerald, ruby, sapphire, alexandrite, and spinel can be created through a flux-growth process. Flux is a solid material that, when melted, dissolves other materials in the same way that water dissolves sugar. As the dissolved chemical solution gradually cools down, gem crystals naturally form.
The Ti-pulling or Czochralski pulling method produces completely clean, uniform colour gems of large sizes, with no curved growth lines which typically give away lab-grown origin. This method is moderately expensive and time-consuming, producing high quality gems that are reasonably priced. This method grows lab-created single-crystal gems by dipping a seed crystal into a melted chemical mixture and slowly pulling it upward while rotating.
Flame fusion or Verneuil process is the first method that was used for growing commercially successful lab-grown gems. It's the most inexpensive method and most lab-grown coloured gems available on the market are still made using this method. This process involves dropping powdered chemicals through a high-temperature flame, where they melt and fall onto a rotating pedestal to produce gem crystals.
Lab-Grown Gems Brands specialise in growing premium quality gemstones. Chatham, Biron, Gilson, Kimberly, Lennix, Linde, Regency, Charles & Colvard, and Zerfass, are all names for lab-grown emeralds and other gems by the name of groups that make them.
The lab-grown gems we use in our jewellery at Valeria's Secret are produced either via the hydrothermal or the ti-pulling growth methods (formed under conditions most similar to those occurring in the wild), which guarantee both the gems of exceptional quality and ethical production. Our jewellery and gems are also accompanied by certificates of authenticity.
Hydrothermal Lab-Grown Emerald
How Ethical are Lab-Grown Gemstones?
It is worth mentioning that apart from better price, lab-grown gems are also a more ethical alternative to mined gems because they do not require digging mines and scarring the surface of our planet for the sake of getting the gems out. There's no underpaid miners risking their lives involved, no exploitation, no money laundering schemes, or 'bloody' political scandals. While ethical practices are spreading to mining as well, in reality, at present, there are no guaranteed ways to trace mined gems down to their mines and truth be told, most mining even today requires hard and not well-paid human labour. Rough gems are never even closely as costly as the finished fine jewellery pieces with them. Therefore, the ethical side of lab-grown gems truly makes them beautiful inside and out. They are indeed are a miracle in its own right, just like mined gems are. However, lab-grown gems also celebrate the innovation and human progress, not just the beauty of the natural world.
You can rest assured when purchasing lab-grown gems that you're not compromising on luxury while significantly saving. It's good to remember that when choosing lab-grown gems, you are also actively supporting science, transparent, and ethical business practices.
So, at Valeria's Secret we love our lab-grown gems as much as we do our mined gems if not more.
Valeria's Secret - fundamentally different 💕 with love xxx
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