GIA’s New Reports for Lab-Grown Diamonds Are Out

Carlsbad, Calif.—The Gemological Institute of America just rolled out its new reports for lab-grown diamonds, which use the same color and clarity grading terminology the lab has long applied to natural diamonds.

Branded as LGDR by GIA, the lab has created a total of four reports for lab-grown diamonds, two for colorless or near-colorless stones and two for colored diamonds.

The reports are digital-only, and each one has a QR code that links to a lab-grown diamond education page on the GIA website.

There is the:
— Laboratory-Grown Diamond Report, which has the 4Cs color and clarity specifications, and plotted clarity and proportions diagrams; it is for D-to-Z lab-grown diamonds 0.15 carats and above;

—Laboratory-Grown Diamond Report-Dossier, a less expensive version of the full report that does not include the plotted clarity diagram; it is for D to Z lab-grown diamonds between 0.15 and 1.99 carats;

—Laboratory-Grown Colored Diamond Report, which has GIA color and clarity specifications, and plotted clarity and proportions diagrams; it is for colored lab-grown diamonds 0.15 carats and above; and

—Laboratory-Grown Colored Diamond Report-Color Identification, a less expensive version of the above that includes color specifications only.

All four reports state which process was used to grow the diamond—chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or high pressure, high temperature (HPHT)—and whether the stone might have been treated post-growth to improve the color.

GIA started grading lab-grown diamonds in 2007 but, up until this year, had treated the stones differently than natural diamonds.

On its Synthetic Diamond Grading Reports, the lab did not give specific color or clarity grades for lab-grown diamonds, describing them instead as colorless (D-E-F range diamonds) or near colorless (G-H-I range) and applying only four clarity grades—VVS, VS, SI or I—instead of the 11 used for natural diamonds.

It did this, it said, because lab-grown diamonds are created, and usually treated, to have the highest color and clarity possible and thereby don’t exhibit the same range as natural diamonds.

GIA tweaked the reports last year, saying it would drop the word “synthetic” in keeping with the latest FTC guidance, before changing its stance again this year.

The lab announced in August it would begin using specific color and clarity grades for lab-grown diamonds, though it noted in the news release on the reports that using the same terminology for both “does not correlate to nature’s continuum of rarity.”

All lab-grown diamonds GIA grades are laser-inscribed with a report number and the words “Laboratory-Grown.” Diamonds already inscribed with the terms “laboratory-grown,” “laboratory-created,” “man-made,” “synthetic” or “[manufacturer name]-created” get only a report number.

GIA’s lab-grown diamond grading reports cost the same as their natural report equivalents, though they have a distinctive look by design.

The lab has its report prices listed on its website.