Clean Origin vs. Brilliant Earth

The interest in lab-grown diamonds has exploded over the last ten years. As buyers become more interested in social impacts, ethically sourced diamonds have been a hot topic in the jewelry industry.

Clean Origin presents itself as an exclusive lab grown diamond retailer – they do not sell natural diamonds in any capacity which means that all of their center-stone diamonds and melee diamonds used in settings are lab-grown. Currently, they carry a collection of 38,223 loose lab grown diamonds of various grades and carat weights.

Brilliant Earth offers both natural and lab-grown diamonds – currently carrying 348,373 lab grown diamonds of varying grades and 75,952 natural diamonds.

The reason that the size of a retailer’s inventory is important is because the more diamonds a retailer has, the more likely they are to have a stone that precisely matches what you’re looking for – the shape, carat weight and quality.

Certifications and Ethical Sourcing

It is essential to purchase an engagement ring with a certified center diamond. Diamond certifications and grading reports provide an unbiased analysis of the 4Cs of diamond quality: cut, clarity, carat weight, and color. While these factors aren’t the only aspect to consider with diamonds, a diamond certificate can authenticate your diamond’s grades, ensuring you’re getting exactly what you are paying for.

The best certifications come from reputable grading laboratories such as the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), American Gem Society (AGS), and the International Gemological Institute (IGI).

Clean Origin provides diamonds certified by GIA, IGI, and GCAL certifications. You can use their filters to purchase SCS diamonds, which are sustainably certified through the SCS, which you can find more about here. They also emphasize their contribution to the environment by providing recycled metals including platinum and gold.

Clean Origin claims to provide ethically sourced diamonds, but it’s a little unclear to what extent beyond providing lab grown diamond – they don’t seem to offer further explanations or additional details beyond recycled metals and SCS diamonds unfortuantely.

Brilliant Earth’s Beyond Conflict-Free campaign aims to provide customers with ethical natural diamond options beyond the industry standard of the Kimberley Process. While the Kimberley Process ensures that diamonds do not come from certain countries where blood diamonds are from, Brilliant Earth’s blockchain and recycled diamonds ensure that your diamond is clean throughout the entire diamond manufacturing process.

Blockchain diamonds are unique to Brilliant Earth. The blockchain technology combined with diamonds ensures a digital record of the diamond’s journey from source to inventory. Recycled diamonds are diamonds that have been re-cut and re-purposed from previously owned jewelry.

While these are extensive options beyond simply providing lab grown diamonds, the majority of natural diamonds in Brilliant Earth’s do not fall under blockchain or recycled diamonds. Only about 1900 of their 75,000 natural diamonds are blockchain enabled. They only have 175 recycled diamonds. The number becomes significantly less as you narrow down your grade preferences.

Despite this, it may bring some comfort to know that other diamonds in Brilliant Earth’s natural diamond catalog reveal their sourcing from Botswana or Canada. Many retailers don’t reveal the direct source of their natural diamonds.

Brilliant Earth offers diamonds certified by GIA, IGI, HRD and GCAL.  Like Clean Origin, Brilliant Earth also uses recycled metals to minimize the environmental footprint.

Pricing and Value

Both Clean Origin and Brilliant Earth offer a range of diamonds, and their pricing reflects the quality, certification, and sourcing of these gems. Because Clean Origin doesn’t provide natural diamonds, we’ll be comparing similarly graded lab grown diamonds from both retailers.

Clean Origin’s inventory doesn’t allow for lower carat weights within our grade ranges, which isn’t uncommon for lab grown diamond retailers. Lab diamonds allow you to get more bang for your buck, which results in customers choosing higher carat weights at a much lower cost than with mined diamonds.

I’ve chosen a 3.09 carat ideal cut GIA certified lab-grown diamond with F color grades, and VS1 clarity from Clean Origin. This diamond costs $4,671. 

Below, we have an ideal cut diamond of the same carat weight and grades from Brilliant Earth. This diamond costs $10,490, which is obviously significantly more than the Clean Origin diamond.

The two diamonds have the same grades, and have minor details that differentiate them. However, there’s no adequate reasoning on why Brilliant Earth’s diamond is so much more expensive. Clean Origin seems to have the best prices when it comes to lab grown diamonds

Website and User Experience

As an online diamond retailer, it’s important that a website is designed for all types of users with different technological backgrounds. Someone well acquainted with online diamond shopping and someone who isn’t should share a smooth experience from designing their ring to checkout.

Clean Origin’s website is very straightforward. They don’t have many options, so when you click to create a ring, you’re brought directly to their lab grown diamond inventory. All of the filter options are on the same page, with no additional or advanced filters needed.

If you’re seeking a fancy lab grown diamond as your center stone, Clean Origin also offers those, but they don’t put it under the same section as their design options. If you didn’t know they had them, you might never see the opportunity to own a fancy color diamond for much cheaper than a rare natural fancy color diamond.

Finding information can also be difficult on Clean Origin’s site. For example, when trying to see what their policies are, they have them scattered in different areas. I had to explore various pages to find the answers to questions not on the FAQ, such as their engraving policy. They only mention it at the bottom of one of their product pages that they do not offer engraving services, not in the FAQ or during the customization process.

Brilliant Earth’s provides a lot more insight to their diamond selection than Clean Origin’s. They give thorough explanations on their collections and how they contribute to diamond ethics.

However, the user experience could be more difficult for those unfamiliar with online diamond shopping. There are many options in the Brilliant Earth filters and they’re on different pages. You have to click through different columns in order to narrow the grades down.

The amount of options could be overwhelming for a lot of people. Fortunately, the footer options explain a lot of their offerings. But if you’re not keen on researching, you might prefer Clean Origin’s straightforward interface.

Customization and Design Options

Both Clean Origin and Brilliant Earth offer a huge number of ways you can customize your ring, to tailor it to the exact specifications you are looking for.

Clean Origin’s entire library of loose diamonds, ring settings, and diamond jewelry is completely crafted in lab grown diamonds. While Brilliant Earth offers lab diamonds for your engagement ring center stone, the accent diamonds in their ring settings are created with natural diamonds. For someone only wanting lab grown diamonds, they may gravitate toward Clean Origin’s design process.

Their engagement ring settings are sorted into collections such as “Art Deco Engagement Rings,” “Non-Binary Engagement Rings,” “Sapphire Engagement Rings,” and “Unique Rings.” This type of categorization can make it easy for you to narrow down your choices and find a design that aligns with your vision.

For those in a rush, Clean Origin offers preset engagement rings that can ship within 24 hours, offering convenience for anyone who needs it. 

Clean Origin offers around 440 ring settings to choose from. Their selection consists of many straight-band ring settings and modern offerings with accent diamonds.

Brilliant Earth offers many choices to create your diamond engagement ring. Shoppers have the option to choose from natural diamonds, fancy colored natural diamonds, lab grown diamonds, and fancy lab ground diamonds. Within the natural diamonds, you can choose blockchain diamonds, recycled diamonds, or natural diamonds under the Kimberley Process. You also have the option to choose diamond alternatives, such as moissanite or other colored gemstones.

Brilliant Earth has over 400 ring settings for you to choose from. Their offerings consist of both trendy engagement ring settings and classic options. For example, many engagement ring seekers are looking for garden-inspired engagement ring settings with wavy bands and ornate flower designs. Brilliant Earth has many options in this category, while Clean Origin’s settings are more modern.

In the end, the best retailer for you depends on your specific preferences and priorities. Both companies offer high-quality products and customization options, so you can’t go wrong with either choice.