FAQ’s
What Makes A Natural Diamond?
Diamonds, the toughest natural substance on Earth, originate from carbon through a naturally occurring underground process taking between one to three billion years. Formed at depths miles beneath the Earth's mantle, they are created under extreme conditions of high pressure and temperature. Following their creation, diamonds travel to the surface through molten rock and are mined and extracted. While natural diamonds are cherished for their beauty, the mining process can carry significant environmental and social impact, with often hard-to-monitor working conditions, leading to loss of habitat for wildlife, deforestation, soil erosion, and water pollution.
What Makes A Lab-Grown Diamond?
There are many names for conventional lab-grown diamonds: ‘created’, ‘man-made’, ‘above-ground’ or ‘synthetic’. They are created by replicating similar high-pressure, high-temperature conditions as mined diamonds. A selected diamond ‘seed’ experiences these conditions in a lab, crystallising into a rough diamond after several weeks. The rough diamond is then cut and polished, resulting in a diamond with the same chemical and optical properties as mined ones.
While they offer a more ethical and sustainable alternative to land-mined diamonds by avoiding heavy utilisation of natural resources, the production of lab-grown diamonds requires a significant amount of coal or industrial-grade liquid natural gas as a core raw material, as well as intensive energy use to reach the high temperatures required to convert the carbon into a diamond, therefore carrying heavy chemical and greenhouse gas emissions. Skydiamond is different.
How Is A Skydiamond Superior To Both?
While a Skydiamond is technically also lab-grown, it leads a new wave in diamond creation due to a first-of-its-kind, patent-pending production process, and end-to-end traceability. Skydiamonds are completely clean, created with raw materials exclusively from the sky; C02, Wind, sun and rain. The renewable energy is powered by our sister company Ecotricity and this informs their carbon-negative status, setting them apart from other lab-grown diamonds in terms of composition, characteristics, and emissions footprint, creating incredibly beautiful stones ordained by nature.
What Is Traceability In This Context?
Skydiamond traceability ensures a 100% transparent journey for all stones over 0.5 carats through the meticulous process of AnchorCert certification (see further below). As well as the Skydiamond logo, each diamond is assigned and engraved with ‘SKYDIAMOND’ and a unique code, with an accompanying report and product breakdown. This code becomes an indelible and infinite link between a stone and its origins – We never want to be mistaken for a land-mined diamond.
What Is AnchorCert, And What Guarantee Does It Give?
AnchorCert is a best-in-class, UK-based gemmological laboratory conducting rigorous assessments and certifications for gemstones; the British counterpart to the Gemmological Institute of America (GIA). Their 360 degree process guarantees the gem has undergone thorough examination and testing by AnchorCert experts, and assures the diamond's authenticity, quality, and adherence to specified standards, instilling confidence in its value and characteristics.
Where On The Universal Diamond Grading System Does Skydiamond Sit?
We adhere to the industry’s leading recognised system of diamond quality: the official, industry-standard colour grading scale as defined by the Gemmological Institute of America (GIA). 80% of Skydiamonds are either D Flawless or HVS2. Please see below for more information.