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\n Lab-grown diamonds become more popular as the price of gold skyrockets
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For Dallas jewelry store Wildlike, that has meant looking for savings elsewhere \u2014 and now, the business is turning to lab-grown diamonds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really excited about this launch because prices as a result are a lot lower,\u201d Wildlike owner Alysa Teichman said.<\/p>\n
Teichman, who is celebrating five years of owning Wildlike, recently added lab-grown diamonds to the store’s offerings. She said the decision gives customers another option at a time when many household expenses \u2014 including jewelry \u2014 have become more expensive.<\/p>\n
\u201cLife is really expensive,\u201d Teichman said. \u201cSo we kind of feel like for this category, diamonds don\u2019t necessarily have to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the name, a lab-grown diamond isn’t an imitation diamond like cubic zirconia.<\/p>\n
Lab-grown diamonds are diamonds.<\/p>\n
According to the Gemological Institute of America, laboratory-grown diamonds have essentially the same chemical, physical and optical properties as natural diamonds. The primary difference is their origin: Natural diamonds form deep within the Earth over millions or billions of years, while lab-grown diamonds are created using technology that replicates the conditions under which diamonds form.<\/p>\n
That difference can be difficult \u2014 or impossible \u2014 for a consumer to spot just by looking at the stones.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo the naked eye, you cannot tell a difference,\u201d Teichman said.<\/p>\n
GIA similarly notes that laboratory-grown and natural diamonds can be indistinguishable by eye, although trained gemologists and specialized equipment can identify differences in their growth characteristics.<\/p>\n
But for shoppers, however, there can be a much more noticeable difference at the register. The price gap between natural and lab-grown diamonds has become substantial.<\/p>\n
J.P. Morgan data cited by the Financial Times showed that in May 2026, the average retail price of a one-carat round lab-grown diamond was about $768. A comparable natural diamond averaged about $4,553. That means the lab-grown stone cost roughly 83% less.<\/p>\n
The exact price of any diamond varies based on factors including its cut, color, clarity, carat weight and retailer, so consumers shouldn’t expect every lab-grown diamond to be 83% cheaper than its natural counterpart.<\/p>\n
At Wildlike, Teichman said switching some jewelry to lab-grown diamonds allowed the store to substantially reduce prices on certain pieces.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some cases, our prices went down by over 30% when we repriced them with lab-grown diamonds,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
For shoppers, paying less for the stone can also create more flexibility within a jewelry budget. Someone might choose a larger diamond, for example, or put more of their budget toward the gold setting or design.<\/p>\n
That has become especially important as the price of gold moves in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the jewelry that we carry is solid 14-karat gold,\u201d Teichman said. But that means the business can’t avoid the impact of higher gold prices.<\/p>\n
In late August 2024, spot gold traded at roughly $2,500 per ounce. Two years later, gold has been trading well above $4,000 an ounce. It reached more than $4,600 per ounce in late August 2026, including a peak of about $4,696 on Aug. 25, according to Reuters.<\/p>\n
Prices have been volatile, though. By Aug. 31, spot gold had fallen to about $4,429 per ounce amid changing expectations about Federal Reserve interest rates. Even after that decline, Reuters reported gold was on track for a 9.6% gain in August alone.<\/p>\n
For jewelers, higher gold prices can leave a handful of choices: raise retail prices, absorb some of the additional cost or find savings in other parts of the jewelry.<\/p>\n
Wildlike \u2014 which specializes in piercings \u2014 is trying the latter.<\/p>\n
Price isn’t the only consideration when choosing between a natural and lab-grown diamond.<\/p>\n
Lab-grown diamonds generally have a much different resale market than natural diamonds, particularly as the cost of producing new lab-grown stones has fallen. Consumers buying jewelry as an investment or with future resale in mind should consider that distinction.<\/p>\n
For many shoppers, though, jewelry isn’t purchased with the intention of eventually selling it.<\/p>\n
That means the decision may ultimately come down to what an individual customer values most: the natural origin and potential resale characteristics of a mined diamond, or the ability to get more diamond for the money with a lab-grown stone.<\/p>\n
For Teichman, offering both is about giving customers more choices.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccessibility really is important to us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
And with the price of one of jewelry’s biggest components \u2014 gold \u2014 increasingly difficult for retailers to control, the declining cost of lab-grown diamonds gives jewelers another place to find savings. For customers, that could mean a lower price tag, a larger stone or simply more room in the budget to find a piece that feels like them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gold prices have climbed dramatically. One Dallas jeweler says lab-grown diamonds are helping offset some of those rising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-429297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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