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When is a diamond not a diamond? When it is a simulant: a different material doing its best impression of one. Some impressions are better than others. Here is the honest field guide to every common imitation, and the one distinction, simulant versus laboratory grown, that matters more than all the rest.
Before the field guide, the definition that protects you. A diamond simulant is a different material that resembles diamond: different chemistry, different hardness, different optics. A laboratory grown diamond is not a simulant at all; it is diamond, the identical carbon crystal, graded by GIA and IGI on the very same scales as natural stones. One imitates; the other is.
The distinction matters because it is where the money hides. A simulant honestly sold as a simulant is a perfectly legitimate product at a modest price. The trouble begins with sellers who blur the line, describing simulants in language engineered to suggest laboratory grown diamond, and charging accordingly. Whenever a listing seems reluctant to say plainly what the stone is, that reluctance is the answer.
The oldest simulant is glass, the hard lead crystal of antique jewelry. Its refractive index is far too low to return light the way a diamond does, so light passes through instead of blazing back, and goldsmiths compensated by foiling or mirroring the backs of the stones: the first rhinestones. Today cut crystal imitates diamond only where cost is the entire point.
For centuries the finest simulant was colorless white sapphire: durable, genuinely brilliant, and facetable like diamond. Once manufactured sapphire arrived in the 1920s it became affordable enough for class rings and birthstone jewelry, where it still serves. It remains a handsome gem that simply is not bright enough to be mistaken for diamond at close range.
The mid century brought a parade of manufactured pretenders. Strontium titanate, invented in the early 1950s, threw off far more rainbow fire than diamond and sold under inventive trade names, but at a hardness of 5.5 it scratched and chipped too easily for rings. YAG and GGG, the garnet family simulants of the 1970s, looked more diamond like and wore better. All three were swept aside by one arrival, and today survive mainly in vintage jewelry.
Two simulants dominate the modern market, and a reference row for diamond itself puts them in perspective.
| Material | Hardness | How It Reads |
|---|---|---|
| Diamond | 10 | The benchmark: unmatched hardness, crisp white brilliance balanced with fire, holds its polish for generations |
| Moissanite | 9.25 | Silicon carbide, lab grown as a gem since 1993; very durable, but doubly refractive with doubled facets, rainbow heavy fire, and often a faint green or brown tint |
| Cubic zirconia | 8.5 | Manufactured purely to imitate diamond; bright and convincing when new, but softer, so it scratches and dulls with wear, and denser, so it is sold by size rather than weight |
| White sapphire | 9 | Durable and genuinely gemmy, but visibly less brilliant than diamond; at home in birthstone and class jewelry |
| Crystal glass | Under 6 | The rhinestone: low refraction, low durability, honest costume sparkle and nothing more |
Two details worth keeping. Cubic zirconia is denser than diamond, so a one carat CZ faces up noticeably smaller than a one carat diamond. Moissanite runs the other way: lighter than diamond, so a moissanite matching the size of a one carat diamond weighs about 0.88 carats. Whenever a seller quotes simulants in carats, translate to millimeters before comparing anything.
Simulants are honest products with a dishonest fringe. Three rules keep you on the right side of the line.
Diamond, laboratory grown diamond, moissanite, cubic zirconia: every honest stone answers to one plain name. A listing that reaches for engineered vocabulary instead of the material's name is charging for the ambiguity.
A GIA or IGI report confirms diamond identity beyond argument, and a gemologist can separate any simulant in minutes. For any stone of consequence, verification costs almost nothing against what it protects.
A simulant's entire virtue is delivering the look for very little. The moment a simulant is priced near real diamond territory, lab grown included, its reason for existing has been priced out of the product.
Every diamond we sell, natural and laboratory grown alike, carries GIA or IGI paper and is scored by ROSI™, our gemological intelligence, built by our gemologists. Identity is never a question here; only quality and price remain, and a ROSI™ Score Report answers both, on any diamond, ours or anyone else's.
There is nothing wrong with a simulant sold as a simulant. There is everything wrong with one sold as a diamond.
If the budget calls for a placeholder, a travel ring, or honest costume sparkle, cubic zirconia does the job admirably for very little, and no one should apologize for it. But an heirloom is a different assignment. Diamond, natural or laboratory grown, is the only material on this page that will look in fifty years the way it looks today, and the only one whose identity comes certified. Buy the material that matches the mission, under its plain name, at its honest price.
Found a diamond you are considering, here or anywhere else? Send the GIA or IGI certificate number and our gemological team returns its ROSI™ Score and a read of where it sits in the current market. Complimentary, within minutes.
Score a DiamondWhere stones of the same exact specifications are trading on the open market right now. You get a straight answer, even when the diamond is not ours.
John Anderson, our Lead Gemologist, identifies diamonds, laboratory grown diamonds, and every simulant on this page for clients every day. Send him photos, paperwork, or the listing itself and he will tell you plainly what you are looking at and what it is worth. The consultation is complimentary and there is no obligation.
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