Are James Allen Diamonds Real?
James Allen offers diamonds at great prices – significantly lower than many other jewelers – which may prompt some people to ask whether diamonds from James Allen are actually ‘real’.
Thankfully, the answer to this is a resounding ‘yes’. James Allen diamonds are real. Read their guide to ethically sourced diamonds here.
All James Allen diamonds are real diamonds; either mined ‘natural’ diamonds, or lab-created ‘grown’ diamonds.
If you want to have a look at their vast range click through to the James Allen diamond page on their website here.
We’ve also written a detailed review about James Allen you can read more here.
How James Allen verify that their diamonds are real
All diamonds available on James Allen are certified by one of three independent grading labs: GIA (Gemological Institute of America), AGS (American Gem Society) or IGI (International Gemological Institute).
These labs carefully examine every diamond James Allen sells to assess their quality – primarily the four Cs of carat, color, clarity and cut. These four factors, among others, determine how much a diamond is worth.
Each diamond is accompanied by a diamond certificate, which verifies each diamond’s specifications, including its color grade, carat weight, clarity grade and cut grade. You should never buy a diamond without a diamond certificate.
The GIA is our preferred grading lab as they have the strictest standards and are the most reputable in the industry. They have the best reputation for high standards and consistency with their assessments.
Read related article: James Allen warranty
When you’re examining a diamond on James Allen, it will tell you which grading organization assessed the diamond you’re considering. This is shown in the image section when you first look at a diamond:
It’s also listed in the detailed diamond information section:
Clicking the certificate below the image of the diamond allows you to see it in greater detail, and the reports can also be checked on the respective websites of the grading authorities.
In this way, each James Allen Diamond can be verified as authentic.
See more James Allen diamonds with GIA, IGI or AGS certification here.
Each individual diamond has a unique report number, which can also be matched to the actual diamond itself by the laser inscription on the ‘girdle’ of the diamond – the band that runs around the center of the stone:
This requires a microscope or jeweler’s loupe to see, but it’s reassuring to know that it is there so that you can always be certain that the diamond in your ring is the one that you originally bought from James Allen.
Read related article: James Allen refund policy
James Allen’s earth-created and lab-created diamonds
James Allen offers both natural and lab diamonds, and both are ‘real’ diamonds, despite their differences in origin.
Earth-created diamonds are traditional diamonds – these were formed deep within the earth between 1 billion to 3 billion years ago.
Lab-grown diamonds are created in the lab (as the name would suggest), they start with a ‘seed’ of a ‘real’ diamond – a small sliver of chemical – then it’s exposed to high temperatures and extreme pressures to make it grow like a diamond under the ground.
Both natural and lab-grown diamonds are chemically identical and even the most trained gemologists struggle to tell the difference between them, even when using a magnifying loupe. If you choose excellent or ideal cut quality (which we recommend), both types of diamond will sparkle just as well as the other. You can read more about the process of making lab-grown diamonds in the James Allen FAQs section here, just scroll down to lab-‘created diamonds’ section.
At the time of writing, James Allen offers a total of 557,540 natural diamonds and 61,044 lab-grown stones available on their website. Every diamond is accompanied by a certificate to confirm that it is a real diamond and inform you of its unique specifications.
Read related article: James Allen financing
It can be eye-opening to see the similarities between an earth-grown and lab-grown diamond’s appearance and what can be quite significant differences in price. Definitely worth clicking through to investigate!
- View James Allen earth-created diamonds here
- View James Allen lab-created diamonds here
Conflict-free diamonds
All of the diamonds sold on James Allen are certified ‘conflict free’ diamonds. Which means the sale of the diamonds has not financed civil wars. All of the diamonds comply with the Patriot Act, the Kimberley Process, and United Nations resolutions and are guaranteed to come from conflict free sources.
James Allen go one step further – they have binding contracts with all of their suppliers that ensures that applicable laws are upheld and will only ever source diamonds from members of the professional diamond trade.
You can read about this is in more detail on the James Allen conflict free diamonds page.
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