There is little doubt that diamonds are one of the most elegant of the precious stones, and that diamond jewelry is simply a joy to wear. Unfortunately, though many of us are unable to afford the diamond jewelry we would so dearly love, as the great beauty and value of the stone are translated into the price that you have to pay to own one. Enter diamond alternatives. Traditionally, it was seen as a great compromise, a disappointment, to be forced by financial considerations into choosing from one of the diamond alternatives available, but thankfully, in this age of technological advancement, there are real alternatives to diamonds, stones that capture the same beauty, without compromise. Most of us, when thinking of diamond alternatives, consider more traditional replacements, such as cubic zirconia, first discovered in 1937. First sold for mass consumption purposes in the 1980s by the jeweller Swarovski, it gained great popularity at first, but later came to be considered as unfashionable and undesirable, a far cry from the real thing. But if it is the real thing that you are looking for, but without the enormous price tag that goes with it, then there is a new alternative that is so close to diamond in appearance that it is even fooling the experts. Diamond alternatives dont come any better than this. Moissanite is the latest diamond alternative, and in some ways it is even superior to the real thing. Moissanite has a similar pattern of refraction to diamonds, unlike diamonds, it is hexagonal which, to the lay person, translates into facet edges that are doubled when compared to diamonds, producing a stone that is twice as glittering as its real counterpart. As those in the know would say, moissanite offers a gem with twice the fire of a diamond. Gone are the days when diamond alternatives were second best. With developments in the gem trade like moissanite, our choices are expanding and we will, no doubt, soon find that diamonds are not our first choice in the finest jewelry anymore. Diamond alternatives are more and more popular, and now are so good that they are as appealing as diamonds, but at a much reduced cost. |
