Gemstones are used in a variety of jewellery items. They can be found embedded in rings, necklaces, pendants and almost everything you find in the market. The colourful stones that you look around aren’t always natural or genuine. This is not to say that man-made or ‘synthetic’, as they are commonly called, are not good. But, the point is, you must not be duped. It is okay to wear or sell synthetic lab-created stones, as long as the seller is not fooling around telling that they have been mined. This is where our today’s article comes in handy. One must know the basics to differentiate between original, i.e natural, mined stones and lab-created gems. Keep reading on to know what the difference is all about.
To best understand what these three different kinds of stones are, let’s try to define what the word used to define their means!
Natural Gems: In layman's terms, a natural gem is a stone that has not received any external intervention from humans except for being mined and then cut and polished. That is all. Mined, Cut and Polished. The MCP formulae. That’s it. If any other process has been applied to the stone then it isn’t a natural gem. Period
Genuine Gem: These are the kind of stones that, along with receiving the MCP discussed in the preceding paragraph, also undergo an extra process of enhancement or treatment. This treatment is usually done to increase the beauty of the stone, by adding that extra touch. One must understand that all stones that are mined might have some minor indentation, crack or discolouration on account of the conditions they are found in. the mining process might bring in some damage to the stone too. This is where the treatment comes from. It is, in simple terms, used to decrease the flaws found in natural stones. Sometimes heat is applied in addition to polish, to treat the stone into becoming a better-looking beauty.
Lab Created Gems: As the name indicates, these kinds of stones are created in labs under controlled conditions. So, instead of undergoing hundreds of years of evolution due to environmental change and stuff, these stones are directly placed under such conditions where the chemical composition of a particular stone is ditto copied as to its natural counterpart. A lab-grown sapphire is also sapphire, it is just that it isn’t mined but rather made, literally, in a lab.
Now, the ultimate question is, which of these is a better option? Well, to be honest, it mainly depends on the amount of money a person wants to spend on ornaments as well as their personal preferences. There is no one formula to explain it all. Some people prefer lab-grown stones over natural gems for their clarity, but others want to keep it the classical natural way. However, we at Ravia only deal with natural gems. Our philosophy is to keep it in nature, not go over and beyond it.