[Jewelry] I finally got a lab-grown diamond!
*If you are someone who insists on natural, authentic stones, please turn around and leave now...!!!!
[Jewelry] I apologize for the sudden, wealthy-sounding title, but I love shiny things so much that I must have been a crow in a past life.
I check things like the International Jewellery Tokyo held every year (note: the general public is currently not allowed in), and my hobby has even led me to work for a jewelry company and pass the Jewelry Coordinator Level 3 exam. Yes.
That said, I don't collect loose stones; I collect finished products. I honestly love diamond jewelry the most.
Diamonds have high Mohs hardness, making them suitable for daily wear, and they have a beautiful fire (the rainbow-colored dispersion of light) that precious and semi-precious stones lack. And colorless, transparent stones are just so easy to match with clothes!
It's been a few years since lab-grown diamonds hit the general market. At first, they could only make small ones, and the price difference from natural diamonds was only about half, but as of 2026, they can make larger ones, and they have become quite affordable.
A dream era has arrived for a self-proclaimed crow.
I don't care about asset value or the romance of natural stones; I just want them to be sparkly...
If I can enjoy that diamond sparkle in a large size at a realistic price, then lab-grown is the best! That's why.
So, when I looked for places to buy lab-grown diamonds in Tokyo, I thought, 'Wait, what? They're still surprisingly expensive, aren't they?'
I spent every night with my eyes glued to the screen researching various things, hit a wall with the money transfer process, and gave up once. But when the new year started, I thought, 'I really want one!!' and put my brain to full use to try again!!!
Finally!!! I bought it!!!!
Take a look!
It comes with an IGI certificate.
A 2.05ct, E color, VVS2 pear shape.
I had them look for one with the following conditions!
◯ I wanted one that looked large for its carat weight, so I asked for one with a large surface area (a stone with a thinner depth).
◯ I wanted a shape that was sleek but not too sharp, so I asked for an aspect ratio of about 1.6.
I bought it without even seeing a photo of the actual item,
but as long as it's DE color or better and VVS1 or better, it's beautiful enough, so I placed the order based on those conditions.
For the design, I chose something like a Graff design that people in the know would recognize (lol).
Actually, I found this vendor and made inquiries back in August 2025, but I hit the money transfer wall and left it alone. Then, it got hit by rising gold prices and the weakening yen...
The price was about 40,000 yen higher than what I had originally grasped... Yeah, it's my fault for leaving it alone, but I was busy going to Austria, Korea, and Taiwan twice during that time...
So, even though it was more expensive than last August, I was able to buy a lab-grown diamond ring that I am very satisfied with, much more so than searching from scratch in Japan!
The melee diamonds are quite large, so even though it's 2 carats, it looks like 5-6 carats, right! Hehe.
If you bought a diamond of this quality in natural form, it would cost over 3 million yen even for a non-brand one! If it were Graff, I think it would be over 10 million yen...
And this cost less than 250,000 yen (whispering).
The metal is genuine 18K white gold! I could have made it cheaper with platinum, but it would have been heavier, so I went with 18K this time.
Diamonds you can buy for 250,000 yen at bridal shops only get you something the size of a grain of rice, like 0.1-0.2ct, because they use high-quality stones...
As a self-proclaimed crow, I'm just happy that it's sparkly and I could buy it cheaply!
If there is demand, I might sell a note summarizing the vendors and money transfer services I used...
Even among the quotes I got, it was a pretty good deal, and I highly recommend it, but it was quite a struggle to purchase, so I definitely don't want to teach it for free lol.
*The jewelry vendor I used is in China!
For those who want me to act as an agent, I'm thinking I could do it for a fee of about 30,000 yen per item. (I've set the unit price high because it's a hassle!)
Even with the fee, it should still be cheaper in total than buying from a regular physical store or something produced by an Instagrammer!
By the way, it's truly beautiful, and I want to wear it every day, but it's so gorgeous that I don't have anywhere to wear it, which is a problem... (lol)