A dirty diamond is one of two things: a rough diamond, or a diamond that hasn’t been cleaned in a while. Rough diamonds are uncut and unpolished – hence, they are dirty. But that type of dirty diamond will soon be cut and polished and sitting in a beautiful jewel box in a display case. Then someone will purchase it, and before long, it will become a dirty diamond once again.
Diamonds become dirty. When you wash your hands with a diamond ring on, soap scum clings to it. When you put on hand lotion, it gets grease on it. Shower with your diamond earrings or necklace, and again, you get soap scum. In one short day, your brand new diamond could be dirty!
Purchase an ultrasonic jewelry cleaner the same day that you purchase your diamond jewelry, and use it every single day, without fail. The clarity of the diamond changes when the diamond is dirty – it loses its sparkle. By taking one minute each day to clean your diamond jewelry, you can avoid this, and your diamonds will never be dirty!
The first synthetic diamonds were produced by General Electric in 1954. A synthetic diamond is basically a rock that has the durability, refractive index and hardness of a natural diamond – but it is made by man. A synthetic diamond should not be confused with stimulant diamonds, such as glass, cubic zirconia, or moissanite.
Although the technology for synthetic diamonds came into play in 1954, no synthetic diamonds were ever seen on the market until the 1990’s. This was due to the fact that it took many years for General Electric to produce a synthetic diamond that could compare with the quality of a natural diamond – and when they figured out how to do it, they found that it cost more to produce a synthetic diamond than it did to mine and cut natural diamonds.
Finally, a small company by the name of Gemesis Corporation figured out a way to produce synthetic diamonds that were of the same quality as natural diamonds, at a cheaper price. Today, Gemesis produces synthetic white diamonds, and colored diamonds as well. These diamonds sell for about 1/3 of the cost of a natural diamond, but there is a shortage of them, and they are hard to find. In fact, it seems that synthetic diamonds are rarer than natural diamonds!