GON
$175 Site Donor 2026
Just a FYI, numerous reports identify China as counterfeiting Pakistan pink Khewra salt, and much if the Khewra labeled salt being sold today in the US is counterfeit and not if Pakistani origin.
Lab grown vs natural diamonds
- Thread starter GON
- Start date
Yes and those impurities bother me. You typically color crystals with transition metal ions and I’d really rather leave those out of my food.
A good example of how “natural” may not be healthy.
Buy what you like, eat what you like, believe what you will, and be happy.
There you go.
Kestas
Staff member
I've analyzed botique salt for the elements using Energy dispersive spectroscopy. Apart from anticaking agents, they are still 99+% sodium and cloride. Whatever other trace elements are there are extremely small and could overwhelmingly be supplied by regular foods or vitamins.
To me it would depend on the particular salt, but even so I’m a bit wary of consuming colored substances like that. I suppose it comes from working in laboratories where some of the more brightly colored compounds are the more highly toxic ones.
Thanks for the information though.
Sorry, Wrong-O. Lab-grown diamonds are real diamonds (pure carbon) with diamond's hardness (10 Mohs) and value, just made in a lab, while cubic zirconia (CZ) is a completely different, cheaper synthetic material (zirconium dioxide)
Real diamonds are a big scam. Buy a nice diamond from a retailer in the diamond district in NYC. In two months go back walk around ask every dealer there how much will you give me for this diamond. They will offer you 1/5 of what you paid if you are lucky
GON
$175 Site Donor 2026
Would like to read the missing text from your post.
GON
$175 Site Donor 2026
The last sentence from your post was missing, 1/5th. That is what I wanted to learn. That number is even worse than I guessed. When I first read your post, the last sentence wasn't displaying.
I would ask if that is different for fake diamonds or any jewelry or product in general in NYC.
Visually they are 100% identical, even jewelers need special lab equipment to tell them apart. We upgraded my wife’s stone to a lab diamond at Ashcroft & Oak last year. Got a way bigger, flawless stone for a fraction of the price of a natural one. Zero regrets, she loves it and nobody can tell the difference. Save your money and go with lab.
Obviously many here will disagree and many did. My wife has no vanity. But when someone asks about her diamond, you can tell its highly values. I would guess the vast majority of women feel that way.
My sister was in jewlery sales and gem certified through Helzberg diamonds. She said if you want sparkly look at "Moissanite is a stunning, highly durable, and budget-friendly alternative to diamond. Composed of silicon carbide, it out-sparkles diamonds due to a higher refractive index and ranks 9.25 on the Mohs hardness scale. Because natural moissanite is exceedingly rare, nearly all stones used in jewelry today are lab-created." I guess most can't tell the difference.
When I was shopping for and engagement ring, diamonds came up with my discussion with a variety of jewelers.
Look, everyone is different and has a different budget etc. To me, this whole diamond industry is scam, and a well documented one.
That being said, a lab diamond is A REAL diamond no matter what anyone says. They have the SAME characteristics as natural grown diamonds, only difference is one is grown in a lab, the other in the "womb" of the earth.
I always have been of the school of natural and authenticity. Could I have bought a larger carat diamond if I went lab? Of course, but I don't want a test tube diamond. Natural diamonds can be "ethically" sourced as well.
Don't let any one pressure you to go one way or another, go with your head and your heart. You decide what your wife deserves and if she loves you, truly, she will be happy with whatever. Also, you do get a GIA certificate when you buy a natural diamond, a authentication if you will, that breaks down the 5Cs of the (carat, cut, clarity, color and clarification) diamond. Usually it's not the carat that hurt the wallet, it's the clarity, cut and color, those are massive factors. I've seen 1.25 carat diamonds costing much more than 1.50 carat diamonds due to the aforementioned. Also ask about the "blue hue" the diamond gives off, the less the better. Many do not consider this aspect.
But, if you and I wear to look at a lab diamond vs a natural diamond, there is no way on God's earth that we would be able to tell which one is which with our eyes alone.
Look, everyone is different and has a different budget etc. To me, this whole diamond industry is scam, and a well documented one.
That being said, a lab diamond is A REAL diamond no matter what anyone says. They have the SAME characteristics as natural grown diamonds, only difference is one is grown in a lab, the other in the "womb" of the earth.
I always have been of the school of natural and authenticity. Could I have bought a larger carat diamond if I went lab? Of course, but I don't want a test tube diamond. Natural diamonds can be "ethically" sourced as well.
Don't let any one pressure you to go one way or another, go with your head and your heart. You decide what your wife deserves and if she loves you, truly, she will be happy with whatever. Also, you do get a GIA certificate when you buy a natural diamond, a authentication if you will, that breaks down the 5Cs of the (carat, cut, clarity, color and clarification) diamond. Usually it's not the carat that hurt the wallet, it's the clarity, cut and color, those are massive factors. I've seen 1.25 carat diamonds costing much more than 1.50 carat diamonds due to the aforementioned. Also ask about the "blue hue" the diamond gives off, the less the better. Many do not consider this aspect.
But, if you and I wear to look at a lab diamond vs a natural diamond, there is no way on God's earth that we would be able to tell which one is which with our eyes alone.
False. To an extent.
It's not vanity all the time. Life has "levels" to it. There are people out there that have wealth, and lots of it, and can afford to buy real diamonds of rare cuts and so forth. Everyone is different, hence why there is a market for real diamonds.
Always go for what YOU can afford. If you are buying for others, you're doing something wrong. Also, some, like me, don't care what others know, as long as I know the value, history and prestige behind what I own/have and the things I had to do to get them, that's all that really matters.