That depends on your personal definition of friendship. We like reliable friendships that are a good investment over time. When currencies were devalued and stock markets plummeted, a top-quality NATURAL diamond or other NATURAL precious gem remained global currency. That still holds true today.
In November 2020 mining ceased at the Argyle mine in East Kimberley, Western Australia, after 37 years of operations and producing more than 865 million carats of rough diamonds. Most of the world’s colored diamonds (yellow, chocolate, champagne, blue, pink, etc.) came from this mine. There is no plan for the mine to ever reopen. After the mine closed in 2020, there was a sharp uptick in the Diamond Standard Index Price until around Q1FY2022 (Bloomberg).
During this period, lab-grown diamonds were becoming more mainstream , and the price of natural diamonds began to decrease alongside an increase in the demand of lab-grown diamonds. Lab grown diamond prices have been declining for years and currently cost about 85% less than natural diamonds. Depending on which reference you look at, over the past year, lab grown diamonds have fallen in value by approximately -20% while natural diamonds have fallen -5 to -10%. At Barbee's Baubles, we do not use lab-grown diamonds in any of our jewelry.
White, or traditional diamonds, are gorgeous, but Barbee’s Baubles specializes in color. Natural colored “fancy” diamonds are exceptionally rare in nature. Color-coding and classifying the rainbow of fancy diamonds is very technical and has its own scale with GIA, but typically a stone's value increases with the vividness or intensity of the color. Many diamonds that are colored (i.e., not white) have been enhanced, and this is pretty standard. Artificial irradiation, with or without annealing, has been used to improve the color of natural diamonds for several decades (GIA).
We have a lot of colorful diamonds in our high jewelry collection, and they are a cornerstone of many of our baubles. Some of our colored diamonds are enhanced while others are not. For instance, the champagne diamond in "The Diamond Dolphin Ring" is 100% natural and not-enhanced. However, the blue diamond in “My Heart Will Go On Blue Diamond Ring” is a natural white diamond that has been irradiated under intense heat to bring out the blue color. Out of 100 white diamonds that undergoe irradiation, less than 5% will turn blue. The rest will blacken.
It takes 150 minutes to grow a diamond in a lab. It can take nature up to 3 billion years to form a diamond. Which do you think is a better investment? We say, if you want something huge and sparkly to wear routinely, go for lab-grown diamonds. But when it comes to family heirlooms and truly special pieces, there is no question natural diamonds (i.e., those that are NOT lab-grown) are the undisputable way to go. Our search continues for those rare natural colored unenhanced diamonds like the Hope Diamond and the Pink Panther . . . but until we hit jackpot, we routinely use irradiated colored natural diamonds. According to GIA,
The planet’s most valued gems are fancy color diamonds.
So are diamonds really a girl’s best friend? Well, only if they are natural, preferably colored and non-treated, and set in gold. Then yes, that would be my personal BFF.
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